Crazy Delicious Carrot Cake Cupcakes w/ Brown Sugar, Cinnamon & Almond Buttercream

Another day, another dol-errr, blog post! 


I have been watching Extreme Couponing a couple of days per week (I watch it on-demand on Netflix) and man, has it ever got my antsy to do some couponing of my own!  The hard part about couponing for me is that I eat almost 100% Organic food, and I use only biodegradable, ethically sourced, chemical-free cleaning products.  Well, even though I haven't figured out how to save as much money (or in some cases MAKE money!) as the people on this show save (but I wouldn't eat that so-called "food" any way!) I HAVE learned a few things from them; such as look for sale items in the store, see if the store has a coupon for that item, and then see if they'll allow another coupon to be used with the sale item that they already have a coupon for.  It's also helpful to know ahead of time what items might be on sale.  For example; I took into consideration that it is the Holiday Season and stores put things that are commonly used in Holiday dishes (think chocolate chips, tea, sparkling cider and apples for pie) on sale.  Well, if I can figure out which items are on sale then I search the interweb to see if I can find even a .50 cent coupon -- it adds up!  Collectively between 2 stores I save about $18, AND since I use my own bags at the store I get an additional .10 cents, .05 of which goes to the local Food Bank, so it's a double feel-good whammy!  Yippee!

If you want to start couponing then type in the name of the company that you want a coupon from in to your browser (I like to type something like, "Ecover Printable Coupons") and search around.  It's not always huge savings, but it adds up!  I figured that if I saved $18 every two weeks that I would save $36/month on grocery and household items. Multiply 36 in to 12 (for 12 months in the year) and I would save $432 yearly.  See!  That IS a lot of savings!  And if you can get items on sale AND use a coupon then your pockets will definitely be singing a happy money-saving song.

And now, before I share with you the recipe that you came here for I must, must MUST rave about Daiya's Jalapeno Garlic Havarti wedges. I found them in the dairy/dairy-free section at the grocery store, and even though it was not on sale I snagged myself a package and took it home where I made a Daiya/Tempeh/Baby Spinach sandwich in the cast iron pan.  Delish!  If you haven't yet tried this dairy-free cheese then you're missing out.

Now, on to the recipe!

While I wrote this blog, I listened to:
That's What You Get - Paramore
(click to watch/listen)

Crazy Delicious Carrot Cake Cupcakes w/ Brown Sugar, Cinnamon & Almond buttercream

I love these little cupcakes--and other people do, too!  In fact my friend's, Meredith and Brad love these cupcakes SO MUCH that they hired me to make them 100 of them for their wedding this summer (flowery cupcakes featured below. I stuck Calendula flowers in each cupcake).  I have never made so many cupcakes in my life, and I certainly don't want it to be the last time that I make that many cupcakes (although I wouldn't mind having someone to prep and clean-up after me).
They are the perfect mixture of softness, chewiness, and crunchiness!  I love adding various spices to this recipe, too!  This is such a strong, delicious little cupcake that you can try-out almost any spice or spice mix in place of the ones I recommend, I believe that the flavour will often (if not always) turn-out super-swell.  This little cupcake is a definite crowd-pleaser, and makes for a great little gift – to you or to someone that needs a little somethin’-somethin’.

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose Gluten-Free flour

 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg 
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
2/3 cup brown sugar or Sucanat 
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar
1/3 cup Earth Balance Original Soymilk (or other dairy-free alternative)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup finely chopped pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup raisins

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 325.  Line muffin or cupcake tin with 12 cupcake liners.
In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, oil, coconut cream, vanilla, flax seeds and lemon juice/vinegar and freshly grated ginger, leaving the dry spices out for now.  Whisk until smooth.
Add the carrots, chopped pumpkin seeds and spices.
Sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir until no clumps remain.
These cupcakes are dense and very moist because of all the fresh carrot.

Fill the cupcake/muffin tins ¾ of the way full.  Bake for about 10 minutes, but be aware that gluten-free flour cooks a little fast so I would recommend sticking a toothpick or fork in to one of them at about 8 minutes to see if they are done (the utensil should come out relatively goo-free).
When they are done remove them from the oven and let them sit in the pan for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack or a plate by an open window.  Top generously with the Brown Sugar, Cinnamon & Almond buttercream (below).  You can put use pumpkin seeds as a garnish (featured above) and sprinkle them lightly with cinnamon to make them extra appealing.

Brown Sugar, Cinnamon & Almond buttercream

1/2 cup Earth Balance Buttery Spread
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated shortening
3 cups of confectioners’ sugar, sifted if clumpy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoon Brown Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon Almond Butter


Directions: cream the shortening, Earth Balance Buttery Spread, Vanilla, Brown Sugar Cinnamon and Almond butter together until fluffy, then sift in the sugar in 2 batches, mixing between the first and second batch.  
You can cut this recipe by 1/3 if you are going to spread the butter cream instead of piping it.  I prefer piping!

XOXOX

Love, Aubrie