Carrot cupcakes

I get to listen to a lot of lectures in life. Lectures about how I need to lose weight, how I need to stop eating fatty foods, and how I need to stop eating cakes and cookies. I've also heard one about how I need to stop baking and start to learn to make the traditional snacks, all of which are deep fried. Go figure.

To me baking is a thing of joy. To me it's a total stressbuster. It takes a lot of concentration and precision, and forces one to switch off all external thoughts and focus on the recipe.

Today's baking binge was a little elaborte. I picked something that needed a lot of prepping. I decided against using any appliances, and went the old fashioned hands only route, took a little longer, but ended up a lot happier in the bargain.

I've always wanted to make a 'good' carrot cake, but the few attempts ended in products that shall not be spoken about. I got my hands on a recipe for carrot cupcakes today, and this was a winner.

A carrot cake requires sligtly longer prep time. Carrots need to be grated fine, walnuts need to be chopped, and if you're not using store bought applesauce, you need to finely grate some apples too.

Despite the long prep time, the end result was absolutely worth it. A beautifully moist cupcake that, in my humble opinion, tasted great without the frosting.

Carrot Cupcakes

200 g Flour/Maida

75 g Walnuts (chopped fine)

1 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tsp Cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp Nutmeg powder

2 large eggs

120 g Sugar

1/2 cup Oil

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1 cup Carrots, finely grated

1 cup Apples, finely grated

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a muffin tray with cupcake liners.

Whisk together flour, walnuts, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg powders and keep aside.

Beat eggs till fluffy. Add oil, vanilla extract and sugar, and beat till the mixture thickens. Add the grated carrots and apples.

Fold in the flour mixture.

Pour into the prepared moulds and bake for 25-30 minutes, or till a tester inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean.