Cupcakes full of carrots and shame

"I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't squeeze my love handles in public, Carl."

So begins the week with that dreaded holiday that I won't even mention by name. I'm sure before Wednesday is out I will have shared my feelings about it with the online community, but for now, I will rein them in. Instead, I'll share with you one of the weekend's extracurriculars, aside from mixing every alcohol ever conceived by man in my system on Friday night and a Saturday afternoon of hangover-impaired Guitar Hero. (At what age is it socially inacceptable for men to still play video games? As long as I get a turn to play "My Name is Jonas" on Medium every now and again I won't complain about the manchildren with whom I associate.)

In any case, I made these cupcakes, and they had a bizarre effect on everyone who came in contact with them. People were eating them in multiples like. whoa. I watched the Boy eat four in a row while watching 30 Rock on DVD. Not even looking at the plate, just straight up lifting and inserting in mouth. Hot. My roommate, the raised-in-a-house-with-no-junkfood-and-therefore-does-not-eat-it one (the horror), LICKED THE FROSTING BEATERS like they were Brad Pitt's abs, people. And then ate two cupcakes and walked around in a daze; she didn't know what to make of the sugar high. I ate, uh, five in the past 24 hours. Judge me. I don't know what it is - it's just carrot cake for crying out loud. Carrot cake is humble - I feel like farmers probably eat a lot of it, and people aren't usually like, "GAH, I just need a dessert featuring root vegetables!" But for some reason, these cupcakes are so moistly scrumptious that, well, not to be dramatic, but resistance is pretty much futile.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Makes about 22 cupcakes

Recipe adapted from Ina

Cupcakes:

2 cups sugar

1 1/3 cups vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. baking soda

10 oz. shredded carrots, chopped into tiny bits

Frosting:

12 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 1/2 sticks of butter, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 lb. confectioner's sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Beat the sugar, oil, and vanilla together in a large bowl with an electric mixer.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating to combine.

4. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, and baking soda.

5. Add half of the flour mixture to the sugar and oil mixture, beating on low to combine.

6. Add the chopped carrots to the remaining flour and mix well to coat, then add to the batter and mix until just combined.

7. Line muffin pans with paper liners. Scoop the batter into 22 muffin cups until each is half full.

8. Bake cupcakes at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then lower temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

9. Meanwhile, make the frosting: Cream the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer. Add confectioner's sugar a bit at a time until you reach desired sweetness. (I ended up using about 3/4 of a pound.)

10. Once cupcakes have cooled frost them generously and dust with a little cinammon sugar if you feel so inclined.

Notes:

• Ina (who I used to actually think was a shoeless, cooking Contessa) calls for 1 cup of raisins, and 1 cup of chopped walnuts. The person I made these for feels that it is blasphemy to have any other ya-yas but carrots in carrot cake ("Otherwise it would be called Carrot-Raisin-Walnut Cake, Kate"), so I left them out. It's your call, but I imagine they'd be good. Just stir 'em in with the carrots.
• Ina also says to fill the muffin cups 3/4 of the way full. I did this at first, but the batter was cooking up over the top resulting in flat-looking cupcakes. The flat tops, however, were really delicious and crispy, almost cookie-like in texture, and contrasted nicely with the moist cake underneath. They were pretty ugly, though, so if aesthetics is your thing, fill them only halfway.
• And finally, Ina, God love her, said to bake these puppies for 45 minutes, which I found was way too long.