Attack of the Mutant Frosting

Ah, the end of the semester!

This sort of glorious accomplishment calls for something special, like Ina Garten's carrot cake cupcakes. Instead of, you know, eating my carrots this week, I decided to turn them into something sweet to celebrate the end of another busy semester.

I subbed about 75 percent of the oil for unsweetened applesauce to no ill effects. In addition, I always add more cinnamon that she calls for - you can't tell there's a ton in the end due to all the strong flavors imparted by the baked carrot.



Now, when it came to the frosting, holy smokes. After I beat my first mixer to death early in this blog, I acquired a small powerhouse of a hand mixer. When they say it's a Black and Decker, you should expect it to behave like a Black and Decker might. It beats the everloving snot out of everything (at 250 watts plus a power boost for those finicky candies, it should!) and definitely can cut through some not-quite-room-temperature cream cheese.

In fact, the frosting beat its way up the beaters like some kind of possessed sugar tornado. I had to add some liquid to coax the bulbous mess off the top of the beaters and back into the bowl. Alas, I ran out of powdered sugar and my frosting came out less than stiff in the end, but the consumers of the cupcakes didn't mind much.

Recipe, from Ina Garten and the Food Network website, here.