Vanilla Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcake with
Vanilla Buttercream

I've always admired those baking sites with beautiful photos that clearly showcase their products for their customers. Some day that will be me, but in the meantime, I'm making do with my at-home in-the-kitchen pics to give you an accurate impression of my Bling baking.

A while ago I was in the bakery section of a local grocery chain looking at their cupcakes. $1.99, and it seemed almost as big as mine which I was beginning to market for $3.00. Oh dear. Why would anyone buy my cupcakes when they could get something almost the same size from this place. I bent down to look more closely at my competition through the glass and - surprise surprise - it wasn't a standard cupcake, it was a little mini one with 2 inches of frosting on top. Well now, that's a completely different bowl of cream! The cost of the cupcake is in the cake, not the whipped sugar and lard of the frosting. Not really competition after all! 

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".