Anniversary Ginger Carrot Cupcakes
Made for my Grandparents 65th Wedding Anniversary. 65 years!! 65 years!! That is incredible!
Made for my Grandparents 65th Wedding Anniversary. 65 years!! 65 years!! That is incredible!
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| They go together like carrot cake and cream cheese frosting! |
These ginger carrot cupcakes are dense and moist and topped with a smooth cream cheese frosting. The fresh ginger gives it a little different flavor from your average carrot cake and a nice change.
It is always a joy for me to be baking in the kitchen. Especially with the kids. As impossible as it can be at times, its all so much fun, and they just love it, as long as I continuously feed them! I only have a small window of time to bake from about 8am to 10am. After that there is nap time for the little one, then prep for lunch, eat and clean up, another nap and dinner prep eat and clean up. That pretty much takes care of the day until bedtime. That's when I do the decorating! So if I can get the cakes and frosting made, I'm good to go!
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| Carrots: a bunnies favorite snack |
Daniels job is to line the carrots up in the food processor, then push the button. One of his favorite movies is 'the food processor movie'. The one that came with the FP. It has a chef on there making a bunch of different recipes using the 'prep 7 food processor' (that he, the chef, says about a hundred times!). Daniel would watch it every day, over and over if I let him. But he can tell me exactly how to make a pie crust using the FP! He's so visual.
Before doing anything else, get those walnuts roasted. They need to cool before adding them to the batter. The best way I found was to bake them at 320-350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until they start to crackle.
Daniel and I watched a few YouTube videos on how to roast walnuts. I knew how but wasn't quite sure how long and the temp, so maybe I didn't really know how. But again, this is a favorite thing for Daniel, to watch cooking shows. I think it's wonderful!
Daniel and I watched a few YouTube videos on how to roast walnuts. I knew how but wasn't quite sure how long and the temp, so maybe I didn't really know how. But again, this is a favorite thing for Daniel, to watch cooking shows. I think it's wonderful!
They will be light brown when toasted correctly. They smelled so good and toasting them really brought out the natural flavors.
I ate about half of them! And then once the cream cheese frosting was done, I would take a walnut and pipe a little dot of frosting on it, then eat it. I don't understand how my Mom can bake and not taste-test anything. That would be pretty much impossible for me.
He has his own whisk.
Whisking eggs is a daily job around here. Every morning we make eggs for breakfast. Those delicious free range green eggs have such a deep yellow yolk. I think my Dad eats eggs every day too. And I'm pretty sure my brother does. Must be something we learned growing up on the farm.
Dolly is my helper, or mess maker, whichever way you want to look at it! I think she's helping in her own little way. She has her own chair that she pushes over to the counter herself, she also pushes a short little bench over too so she can get up and down from the chair. Smart as a whip and oh so independent! Reminds me a little of myself.
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| Ginger, Sweet Ginger! Fresh ginger was the key to making this cake different. The smell of fresh ginger is irreplaceable. The recipe called for 2 tsp and that was plenty. Once the cakes were baking, it filled the whole house up with the smell of ginger. I happen to like ginger, but not everyone does. You can replace it with ground ginger which I think would make it a little less 'gingery' if that's a word. |
I only needed a few cupcakes so I made a little layer cake also.
And look at those cute little cupcake papers! My mom found these Wilton papers at Walmart! I also just saw them at JoAnne. Love them and want more!
Ahhh the cream cheese frosting. Num num. It took 3 batches of this to pipe the cupcakes and the layer cake. I had about 2c. left over.
I have to admit, that every time I bake anything, the kids get a huge spoonful. They stand there begging me saying 'can I have some now?" over and over. I try not to let those little fingers in the bowl, but Lydia is so quick. Today I was making a marble cake and she snuck her little fingers right into the bowl, got a big huge handful! But that's the fun of being a kid AND the fun of baking!
I always use my Pampered Chef cookie scoop to drop the batter in. That way each cup cake is equal. But, you already know that trick. I wonder at what point my cookie scoop will end up in the sandbox?
Now it's time to decorate, my favorite part! I wouldn't mind having someone bake the cakes so I could just decorate them. But then, my Uncle Dick reminded me, that I could just use a shoe box if I just wanted to decorate something! Ha! he's right!
Of course it has to have a carrot piped on it. Have you ever seen a carrot cake w/o a carrot on it?
I totally messed up and did not take a picture of the final layer cake. BUT here is a lovely picture of the crumb coat! So imagine this looking a lot like the cupcakes but in layers :D
All in a days work. Or maybe it was two days. I am for hire if anyone has a request ;-) The more tricks I learn the more fun I have. It's really just a matter of when there is time. Next month I'm learning how to play with gum paste and fondant!
All cakes I decorate are done in the wee hours of the night. I cant think straight when I have kids glued to me. Guess that's another reason why God made me a night owl. Oooh, how about an owl cake....there I go dreamin again.
Happy Anniversary Oma und Opa!
Your family appreciates every minute of those 65 years spent together! Thank You!!
All cakes I decorate are done in the wee hours of the night. I cant think straight when I have kids glued to me. Guess that's another reason why God made me a night owl. Oooh, how about an owl cake....there I go dreamin again.
Happy Anniversary Oma und Opa!
