June 2, 2014

Carrot Cupcakes with Mascarpone Icing


Hi, guys!

(Yahoo!  I finally a recipe that doesn't involve drinking fruits and veggies.)

It has been an exciting past few weeks with a trip to Austria and Italy and my sister's wedding.  I have a special wedding post coming soon!

I told one of my best friends that I would make him a birthday dessert, and he requested carrot cake.  Now, last time I made carrot cake, I left the leftover cake on the counter while I ran down to get something from the basement.  When I came back upstairs, my dog Rudy was standing up on the counter working his way around the cake for the cream cheese frosting, ignoring the cake.  Clearly, he's learned from all my baking that frosting is the most important part of a cake.   So, I decided I needed to twist up the carrot cake, in hopes of deterring Rudy. :)

Enter Carrot Cupcakes with Mascarpone Icing!

These cupcakes are flavored with orange juice, so they come out a little sweeter and more moist than most carrot cakes.  Mascarpone cheese is a little softer and more creamy that cream cheese, and it makes a divine buttercream frosting.  Normally, buttercream frosting made from just butter can be almost a little too rich and sweet for my liking, so adding cream (whether whipped cream or a cream cheese) helps mellow the richness from the butter.  The mascarpone made for one creamy buttercream that didn't taste like you were eating a stick of sweet butter.

These cupcakes were a nice spring twist on the usual carrot cake, and Rudy did not get any leftover cupcakes.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weeks leading up to summer!

(PS: Sorry for the not-so-great picture.  As luck would have it, I misplaced my pastry bag so no pretty frosting design, and then I couldn't find my Nikon camera charger (which resulted in the iPhone picture!)  Naturally, I found the pastry bag and the camera charger shortly after.)

Carrot Cupcakes with Mascarpone Icing
Yields 10 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp. maple syrup
1 small orange, zested
2 large eggs
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
7 tbsp. orange juice

For the icing:
6 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
4 oz. cold mascarpone
1 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF, and line a cupcake pan with 10 paper liners.

In a bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, and baking powder, and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar, maple syrup, and orange zest until pale and creamy.  Beat in the eggs once at a time, and stir in the carrots.  Stir half of the flour mixture into the batter, and then add the orange juice.  Add the remaining flour mixture, followed by orange juice.  Mix until smooth.

Spread the batter in the liners in the pan, and bake until the cupcakes are risen and golden, about 20-25 minutes.  After the cupcakes are finished baking, transfer them to a wire rack and allow them to cool.

For the icing, beat the butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract, and mascarpone until blended.  When the cupcakes are cool, first and garnish with toppings, if desired.

SourceWilliams-Sonoma

3 comments:

  1. So funny about Rudy. I once had a beloved cocker spaniel somehow stand on her toes and reach a baked chicken on the table when we weren't looking. For the life of me I don't know how she didn't burn her mouth. Gotta love them! These cupcakes look wonderful. Carrot cake is one of my all time favorites.

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  2. Any boy that knows his way around frosting is my kind of dog! I love carrot cake but I've never made carrot cake cupcakes. I will now! Just for Rudy.

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  3. We've all been there. My worst dog/food experience was a beloved Irish Setter who got to the pecan pie I made for Thanksgiving. Ate the WHOLE thing. This was long ago, back in the days of most stores being closed on Sunday. We were expected to bring this pie to a communal dinner so we spent two hours going to every little store we could find until we had enough ingredients to do it again.

    The dog? Sure she was sick all day long and then begged for more pie when we served it. Hope Rudy is smarter.

    Love, love, love the addition of mascarpone. I might just skip the cupcakes. :)

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