Maple Sweetened Carrot Cupcakes

Mini Maple Carrot Cupcakes

My friend's daughter just turned two, and it seemed like a fitting occasion for making Martha Stewart's Maple-Sweetened Carrot Cupcakes. The recipe, found in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, is introduced with the proposition that it be served at the birthday party of a baby or young child because a) it has no refined sugar, and b) adults will like it.

I especially liked that the recipe is designed to make both full-sized and mini-cupcakes. And that I would have an opportunity to try out my new pastry bag and tips!



The cupcakes baked up moist and tender...

...but tasted overwhelmingly of molasses. I happen to like molasses, but for a recipe primarily sweetened with maple syrup, it was a little disappointing. The cream cheese frosting (essentially just whipped cream cheese with a bit of maple syrup for sweetening) was a good counterpoint to the cupcake, and I wish I had used more than a little dot on top of the minis.

For my first attempt using decorating tips, it wasn't too bad. (Wasn't too good, either.) All of the lights in my kitchen had burned out, so I ended up whipping the cream cheese in the dark. This wouldn't have been so bad, but there were little lumps of unwhipped cheese in the frosting, and these lumps wouldn't extrude properly through the tip, ruining my darling dots.

So, covering the cupcakes with little dots didn't work out so well, and I switched to swirls, which came out better when I started from the outside and worked in. Just for fun, I threw in a couple of 2's in celebration of the birthday girl's new age.