Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

   I love pinterest, but it's kind of being a pain. My most popular board is my food board and the other day my number of followers went down by a few hundred, but after i logged back in it went back to the correct number. Well, this last night the number went form over 1,000 down to 667...not cool. Well I found that if you went through to the help section that you can send them your username so they will look into it. The only problem is that this apparently is happening to a lot of members and it's taking time to fix the error.

 The kittens are getting bigger by the day. Their personalities are very different yet similar. Charlie is the leader and is fearless when it comes to the other cats, she is still smaller than her brother, but can gives as good as she gets. Gus Gus is still a big cuddle bug, is a little more cautious when it comes to doing new things, and likes to chew on my school books. Their new favorite thing to play with are straws and they like to try to steal them from my drinks .
  For the past few days we have been having some really bad storms here. I decided to make a pot of chicken tortilla soup. I will share the recipe later on.  Instead  I'm going to share another dessert recipe...carrot cake cupcakes. I originally wanted to try this recipe, but considering I didn't have xylitol and I didn't know if using coconut sugar would be okay I just decided to leave it for another time. I ended up cutting the recipe in half since we don't need 24 cupcakes in the house, even though my dad could and would happily finish them off. After trying the first cupcake while I was taking pictures, he commented about them being like potato chips...you can't have just one...so far he has finished off 3. 

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with a Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from: The Cilantropist

yields: 12 cupcakes

>Cupcakes:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (I used freshly grated)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup applesauce, unsweetened

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp (1/8 cup) canola oil
2 large eggs, room temp. 
1 1/2 cups peeled, grated carrots
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, optional

-Note: If you want to add raisins: Add the amount of raisins (1/2 cup or so) you want in a small bowl and add in boiling water until it covered the raisins,soak for 15 minutes before draining, and patting dry before adding into the batter. I prefer golden raisins. 

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a regular size muffin pan with paper liners.  
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.  3. In  a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, applesauce, and canola oil.  Add the eggs and vanilla.  Then add the flour mixture, beating just until everything comes together. 
4.  Add the grated carrots and chopped nuts and fold to evenly distribute all the ingredients.  Add the batter to the prepared muffin pan, filling each 3/4 full.  
5. Bake the cupcakes for 15-18 minutes (mine were done right at 17 minutes), or until a tester inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  
6. Cool completely on a cooling rack before frosting them.

>Maple Cream Cheese Frosting: enough for 12 cupcakes
1- 8 oz package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 stick butter, room temperature
3-4 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 cups confectioner's sugar

In a stand mixer beat together the cream cheese, unsalted butter and maple syrup until completely smooth.  Slowly add the powdered sugar in until smooth and fluffy.  Chill the frosting in the fridge for 30 minutes or so before frosting. Frost the cupcakes by spreading the frosting over the top using a spoon, spatula, or use a piping bag to decorate.