Cheater Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Why I Love This Recipe
I made these cupcakes while on a road trip with my husband to visit his aunt. When we found out his other aunt who lived nearby was sick and in the hospital, we wanted to make her cupcakes but I didn't have access to any of my cook books (or Bake Space!) so I came up with a hearty carrot cake recipe using a boxed mix as the base.
Ingredients You'll Need
1/4 cup yellow raisins
1/4 cup regular raisins
1 Tbsp hot tap water
1 box dry carrot cake mix
Ingredients called for on box to prepare mix (usually 1-3 eggs, some oil and water)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
2 large carrots, shredded
1 large tub white frosting
Red, yellow and green food coloring
Directions
In a small bowl, combine both kinds of raisins and 1 Tbsp very hot water. Cover and set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees or temperature called for on cake mix box. Prepare cupcake pan with liners and set aside.
Combine dry cake mix and wet ingredients called for on box until well mixed. Stir in carrots and walnuts. Drain any excess water from raisins and gently fold into mix.
Evenly divide cake mix between 24 cupcake cups, filling about half way. Bake for time indicated on box or until toothpick inserted in center of cupcakes comes out clean. Allow to cool 5 minutes in pan before inverting onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
Stir frosting in tub and remove a 1/4 cup portion and a 1/2 cup portion into two small bowls. Add about 5 drops of green food coloring to the 1/4 cup portion and stir. Continue adding food coloring and stirring until desired color for leaves is reached.
Add 5 drops yellow food coloring and 2 drops red to the 1/2 cup portion and stir. Continue adding food coloring and stirring until desired color for carrots is reached.
When cakes are completely cool, spread tops of cupcakes with remainder of the white frosting. Spoon the green and orange frosting into two ziplock bags and snip a very small piece of one corner off of each. Use orange and green frosting to create different carrot shapes on the top of each cupcake.