Shamrock Carrot Cake Cupcakes

This weekend I made carrot cake cupcakes to bring to my cousin's house for the Notre Dame-Boston College came on Saturday night.

Notre Dame finally won a game, but sadly it was not on TV.  No matter, we had a great night with my cousin and her husband eating chili, cornbread and carrot cake cupcakes and talking and laughing together.  I wanted to share the recipe because it was delicious and because I had a such a fun time decorating the cupcakes!

Shamrock Carrot Cake Cupcakes, modified from Joy of Baking's Carrot Cupcake

Ingredients:
For the Batter:
2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated carrots, approximately 3-4 carrots depending on their size
1 cup grated apple, approximately 1 large apple
1/2 cup walnuts--you can also use pecans or omit for nut allergies
1 cup raisins--I used golden raisins because of the color they add to the cupcakes


For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/2 cup of butter, room temperature
8 ounces (1 package) of cream cheese, room temperature
3 cups confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar), sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Kitchen Supplies:
20 paper or foil muffin cups
1 toothpick for testing doneness of the batter
2 pipe bags and tips for frosting cupcakes and creating shamrocks
Green food coloring
2 24-cup muffin tins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill muffin tins with 20 muffin cups.   In a small bowl, whisk together sifted flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  In a larger, separate bowl combine 4 eggs, sugar and oil until slightly thickened.  Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients until incorporated.  Fold in shredded carrots, apples, raisins and walnuts.  Spoon into muffin cups, dividing evenly between the 20 cups.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  Cool on wire racks.

Once cool, combine butter and cream cheese in a small bowl with a hand or stand mixer.  Beat until smooth.  Gradually add sifted powdered sugar until smooth and creamy.  Beat in vanilla extract.  Spoon approximately three-fourths of the frosting into a pipe bag and pipe onto cupcakes.  Add two to three drops of green food coloring and mix well.  Add remaining green food coloring to other pipe bag.  Pipe three connected circles and a stem to make shamrocks.  Unwrap and enjoy!