Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting

Carrot cupcake/muffin recipes tend to be very high in fat and for that reason, are not one of my go-to desserts when I'm thinking of entertaining or including them in my inventory of baked goods to offer my customers.

However, a long time ago I came across an old recipe in one of our church cookbooks and after making a few modifications, I ended up with a delicious recipe that is still higher in fat than I'd like, but hey, on occasion, isn't harmful (right?). By cutting some of the oil and a lot of the sugar, these carrot cupcakes are absolutely amazing on their own, and even more-so with my cream cheese frosting.

Which brings me to the next hurdle - coming up with a light, airy, not-too-sweet cream cheese frosting that was also "pipe-able". 
After failing miserably a number of times, I recently got down to business and with the help of my stand mixer working away for a good amount of time blending the unsalted butter and the low-fat cream cheese, the results were fantastic. I used only 2 1/2 cups of icing sugar compared to most recipes that call for 3 3/4 or 4 cups of icing sugar. The  cream cheese frosting was soooo light! but added that little bit of decadence, turning these carrot muffins into high-standard carrot cupcakes. 

Carrot Cupcakes

Carrot Cupcakes with
Cream Cheese frosting