Carrot Cupcakes

Before this, I had never made carrot cake. I was never a huge fan of carrot cake--mostly I think I avoided it because recipes usually include nuts, but I was also not totally convinced vegetables would be good in cake. But when asked to make some cupcakes that would be appropriate for morning, I thought these might be a good bet. I thought these were delicious--granted, I don't have much to compare them to, but others seemed to like them as well!

Carrot Cupcakes
-1 lb. peeled finely grated carrots
-3 eggs, room temp.
-1/3 c. buttermilk, room temp.
-2 c. sugar
-1.5 c. vegetable/canola oil
-1.5 tsp. vanilla extract
-1/2 c. raisins
-3 c. all purpose flour
-1 tsp. baking soda
-2 tsp. baking powder
-1 tsp. salt
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1 tsp. ground ginger
-1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1. Whisk together carrots, eggs, buttermilk, sugar, oil, vanilla, and raisins.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.
3. Stir the flour mixture into the carrot mixture until combined. Divide batter into 24 lined cups and bake at 325* for 23-28 minutes, rotating tins halfway through.

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
-1/2 c. softened butter
-8 oz. softened cream cheese
-1 c. packed light brown sugar

1. Beat together butter, cream cheese, and sugar until smooth.

Chocolate Spice Cupcakes

In the fall and winter, I have a tendency to want to add spice to everything. So instead of a regular chocolate cake recipe, I opted for this chocolate spice cake recipe. I coupled it with a chocolate cinnamon buttercream frosting, and I was totally in love.

This recipe makes a weird batter, but the texture of this cake is unbelievable. The molasses flavor really jumped out--I ended up using organic molasses for these, and it seems to have a stronger flavor than the kind I normally buy; I'd be interested to try this again with the "normal" kind too, just for the sake of comparing. Either way, I don't think these will disappoint.

Chocolate Spice Cupcakes
-5 T. softened butter
-1/4 c. Dutch process cocoa powder
-1 t. baking soda
-2/3 c. boiling water
-1 1/4 c. flour
-1/4 t. salt
-1 t. ginger
-1 t. cinnamon
-1/4 t. nutmeg
-1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar
-1 egg, room temperature
-2/3 c. molasses

1. Add baking soda to the boiling water. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and spices.
2. Beat together butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in the egg. Add molasses and hot water.
3. Gradually add in the flour mixture until well combined.
4. Divide batter among 12 lined baking cups. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes, rotating tin halfway through.

Chocolate-Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting
-1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
-1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
-3/4 c. cinnamon
-1/8 c. milk
-1/4 c. butter, softened

1. Combine sugar, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. Add in butter and milk. (Adjust the consistency with more sugar or more milk, as needed.)

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes

Fall came, and my cabinet was ready with a healthy supply of pumpkin. I don't generally need much of an excuse to make cupcakes--in this case, having pumpkin handy was reason enough. And cream cheese frosting...

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes
-2 c. cake flour
-1/2 t. baking soda
-2 t. baking powder
-1/2 t. salt
-1 t. cinnamon
-1 1/2 t. ginger
-1/2 t. nutmeg
-1/4 t. cloves
-1/2 c. butter, softened
-1 1/4 c. light brown sugar, packed
-2 eggs, room temperature
-1/2 c. buttermilk, room temperature
-3/4 c. pumpkin puree

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices.
2. Beat together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat until incorporated.
3. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with two additions of buttermilk. Once combined, beat in pumpkin puree.
4. Divide into 16 lined baking cups, and bake, rotating tins halfway through, for 15-18 minutes at 350*.
5. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cardamom Bread

Back again, with two months of posts! I'm starting with this, because it was one of my favorites. Last Christmas our neighbors brought us a large loaf of cardamom bread, sprinkled with red and green sugar--it was beautiful, and we enjoyed it for days. We had never tried cardamom bread before that, but all of us loved it. I did a little researching and found out that it was fairly common to put cardamom in sweet breads in Scandinavian countries. When I found a recipe for "Swedish Coffee Bread" (from King Arthur Flour, as usual) that called for cardamom, I hoped it would produce something like the loaf we had last winter.

The dough didn't rise as much as most yeast doughs--I was a little worried that I had ruined it somehow--but in the end, it made a perfect loaf. I managed to devour it in about two days (which is why I don't usually let myself bake bread alone...)--plain slices, toast with butter, toast with apple butter... I plan on making it again over the holidays, hopefully when I'll have help eating it?


Cardamom Bread
-1/2 c. lukewarm milk
-1 package active dry yeast
-2 1/2 c. flour
-1 egg
-1/4 c. sugar
-3 T. softened butter
-3/4 t. slat
-1 t. crushed or ground cardamom
-melted butter
-cinnamon & sugar

1. Combine the milk, yeast, and 1/2 c. flour in a large bowl, and let stand for about 15 minutes, until bubbling and expanded.
2. Beat in egg, sugar, butter, salt, and cardamom.
3. Gradually add the remaining flour until the dough forms and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead for 3-4 minutes. Allow it to rest while greasing a large bowl, and then knead for another 3-4 minutes. Once the dough is smooth and elastic, return it to the greased bowl and turn it over several times to coat it with oil. Cover and let rise from 1.5 to 2 hours.
5. Punch down the dough, turn it out again onto a floured surface, and knead briefly.
6. Divide the dough into three equal parts, and shape each into a long rope. Braid the ropes together.
7. Place the braid into a greased loaf pan (4.5"x8.5"), brush the top with melted butter, and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Cover the pan and let it rise again for 1 hour.
8. Bake the loaf at 350* for 30 minutes. Turn the loaf out and cool completely on a rack.