Martha Stewart's Carrot Cake cupcakes

No eggs, no go!

The final recipe I tried was from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Sadly, as good as I was cooking the first two, all of my bad habits came back in this dish. In fact I made it twice, because I forgot the eggs! Let me repeat I forgot the EGGs! Who does that!? How did it even bake into cakes that rose at all? Anyways, when I went to make it again I changed the recipe somewhat. The original calls for a cup and a half of oil--that is a crapload of oil, the batter was oily and while the cakes didn't taste oily, they didn't have eggs so what could I tell. The other issue was that I'd only bought a little of the golden raisins from the bulk bin, so I didn't have enough for the second round. I had some dried apricots from another dish that I chopped really really fine and used with what raisins I did have. So besides dividing this in half I reduced the oil from 3/4 of a cup for a half batch to 1/3 of a cup of oil and the rest crushed pineapple and juices.

Ingredients:

1 pound carrots
3 large eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 golden raisins
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves

So the first thing I did was screw up the first batch, then I tried again. This recipe starts in a different way. The carrots, raisins (and apricots), sugars, oil (and pineapple), buttermilk, and vanilla are mixed together well--if you don't reduce the oil this needs to be whisked a lot or you have an oil slick. Next the dry ingredients are whisked together in a bowl, and slowly folded into the wet ingredients until just mixed. This is a very wet batter, much runnier than the others--even in the batch where I forgot the egg it was thinner.

This went into a cooler oven--325 degrees for 10-12 minutes for the mini muffin tin and 22-24 minutes for the bigger muffins. I did turn half way through to get even cooking.

This recipe turned out an entirely different tasting and appearing cake from the other two. These are a pale light color and rose pretty well even without the egg! You can see on this picture, these cakes are in the middle of the two others, and really stand out in comparison.

The Verdict: This recipe--even without my changes, is much sweeter, still moist, but less dense and more airy. I think in part the fact that this uses all granulated sugar made a big difference. The extra add ins really contributed to a different texture and flavor profile--with the pineapple, raisins, and apricots this is more fruity as well. I found it addictive, and ate way more than I should because it feels so light. It isn't light, though, so watch out. The interesting thing is that this was the clear winner, even though I mangled the recipe--my sister liked it best, and it got the most votes at work as well. Personally I think it was good, but not a traditional carrot cake taste.  It makes a good cupcake, but if you are looking for a more traditional texture and flavor go with the other two.