Chocolate carrot cake

Sunday was my friend and roommate Sarah's birthday.  As a special birthday treat I baked chocolate carrot cupcakes, topped with a thick and delicious layer of cream cheese frosting.  Sundays I usually go home for the day,  so I was lucky enough to have my mom's company in the kitchen. 

2 C flour
2 C sugar
2 t cinnamon
2 t baking soda
2 T cocoa
1 1/4 oil
4 eggs
3 C grated carrots

First chop the carrots.  I bought a bag of matchstick carrots and the chopped them.  It is much easier than chopping an entire carrot!

Beat all ingredients all ingredients until well mixed.

This doesn't look entirely appetizing,  but the batter should look like this.

Spoon the batter in to a 9 x 13 inch cake pan or a cupcake pan.  I always use a jumbo muffin pan.  Bake at 350 until toothpick comes out clean.

They came out a bit flatter than I wanted, but all the better for a mountain of frosting.

For the frosting:

1 - 8 oz package of cream cheese

4 C powdered sugar

2 sticks of butter, softened

2 t vanilla

Beat all ingredients until smooth and creamy.  The frosting will be pretty dense.  Spread over cooled cakes.

This is half batch, but make a full batch because I ran out!

To add a decorative garnish to my finished product, I chopped up milk chocolate chips to add to the top of the frosting.

Look at this adorable platter that Blair made!

TAH-DAH!

We had Brette and Emily over on Monday night to enjoy cupcakes and coffee.  Here is the beautiful birthday girl!

What a delightful social hour!

Cheers,

Katie