Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 F and line muffin tins with 18 liners. Set out your frosting ingredients to bring to room temperature.

Step 2

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and salt. Whisk together.

Step 3

Whisk in vegetable oil, eggs, and applesauce, stirring until well combined.

Step 4

Using a spatula, fold in grated carrots, chopped nuts and raisins. Fold just until ingredients are incorporated into the batter.

Step 5

Divide the batter evenly between 18 cupcake liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 3-5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely to room temperature before frosting.

Step 6

Make cream cheese frosting. Add about 3/4 cup frosting to 2 small bowls. Add orange food coloring to one and green food coloring to the other, adding just enough to reach your desired color.

Step 7

Transfer remaining white frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip Wilton 1M and pipe over your cooled cupcakes.

Step 8

Transfer tinted frosting to piping bags fitted with a small open star tip Wilton 32 and another bag fitted with a large round tip Wilton 2A.