Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I love carrot cake—in fact, it's the flavor I chose for my wedding cake! However I'm not good at layer cakes; they are always lopsided and the frosting looks bad. So cupcakes are much better for me. This recipe is from Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller. The cake has a light texture. The recipe for the frosting made way too much, so I scaled it back and still ended up with enough to frost 24 more cupcakes. To get the right texture for the carrots, I grated them with my food processor and then used the knife blade to finely chop them. Enjoy!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla paste or vanilla extract
1 cup canola oil
1/4 cup milk
2 cups cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
5 carrots, finely shredded
1 cup chopped pecans
Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Beat oil and sugars with a mixer. Add in eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Add in vanilla and milk. Combine cake flour and next 3 ingredients; gradually add to sugar mixture. Stir in carrots and pecans. Scoop batter into lightly greased muffin pans.
2. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely; spread frosting on top of cooled cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
2 (8-oz.) blocks cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (16-oz.) box powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla paste or extract

1. Beat cream cheese and butter with a mixer. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until mixture achieves spreading consistency. Stir in vanilla.