What’s Up Doc! The Best Carrot Cupcakes

Bugs Bunny is my childhood favourite cartoon character. You don’t wanna mess with this clever, carrot eating, smart little hare whether you are a hunter like Elmer Fudd, a martian like Marvin, an over smart duck like Daffy, a gruesome gorilla … You antagonize him and you’ll be sorry. I heard years ago on some movie show that this character was inspired by the role Clark Gable played in the movie, “It happened one night” where he was shown in a scene eating carrots rapidly and talking fast with his mouth full.

There was an episode when a family of bears enacts Goldilocks and three Bears and instead of porridge Mama Bear makes carrot soup and the aroma of carrots brings Bugs Bunny to their house. Baking these cupcakes remind me of such dramatic scenes where the steam from carrots lure Bugs and he floats and get where the carrots are!

         These cupcakes are an absolute treat…. so soft and spongy… so flavourful…. a perfect balance of sweet and spice. I use a blender for combining wet ingredients and it gives a well emulsified mixture in lesser time. I prefer blending the grated carrots too which makes the batter really smooth and silky and there would be no strands of grated carrots in the baked cupcake either. If you fancy go ahead and frost them with cream cheese frosting.

ingredients: (makes 12)

1 1/4 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (jaiful in Urdu)

1/4 tsp salt

3 medium carrots, grated, about 1 1/2 cups

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup cooking oil

method:

Preheat oven at 180 C / 350 F. Line a muffin tin with paper cases.

In a mixing bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and salt. Put granulated sugar, brown sugar and eggs in a blender and blend till sugar is well blended and mixture is frothy, about 60-90 seconds. Add oil in a steady stream with machine running till the mixture is well emulsified. Add grated carrots to blender and blend for 30-40 seconds more. Add the carrot mixture to dry ingredients and mix well with a spoon. Fill the paper liners with the batter, about 3/4 full and bake for 20-24 minutes. Rotate the pans halfway through the baking time for even baking. Check doneness by inserting a toothpick in the centre of a cupcake and when it comes out clean, cupcakes are done. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack.

Frost when completely cooled with cream cheese frosting.