(Star Trek) Carrot Cupcakes

Hello there! My name is Amy, and this is my new food blog. First, a warning: I really can't cook. I mean, not yet. I do however love to bake. I hope that this blog will chronicle my learning process for both (or as it may be, lack thereof...)

Now, before you say "Where are the photos of food?!" here's a little teaser:

Carrot cupcakes! I suspect that it's fitting that I kind of messed them up a tad... the cupcake tin I used was much too small, and alas! The cakes are overflowing! Still, they are delicious.

So wait- let's back up a bit. 

You already know my name, but here's a little more about me. Feel free to skip ahead to the next photo if I'm rambling too much- I tend to do that. Occupational hazard of being an English major, I suppose. (And yes, I'm aware that I just typed a phrase rather than a fully formulated sentence. Deal with it.) 

I also recently added the FGSS (Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies) major. (And yet I'm baking? Yes. Feminists can bake. They can also kick ass and quote Gayle Rubin.) I'm also fully aware that according to most people, these two disciplines are dead-ends when it comes to careers. And again, I say: deal with it.

Part of the reason I started this blog is because I've realized that sometimes it's nice to indulge in activities purely based on one's pleasure, rather than what success one may find at the end of the road. As you can tell from my monstrous cupcakes, I'm not exactly a prize-winning baker, and until last year, Ramen noodles were the height of my culinary expertise.

In any case, a blog seemed like a good way to reinforce that lesson. If I have a blog, I thought, then I'll have a ready excuse to make things! (And then eat things. Best part, in my humble opinion.)

Anyway, there's this little film coming out soon about oh, some starship and a guy named Captain Kirk and his bromantically involved First Officer Vulcan, Spock? Yes, Star Trek! No way, you've heard of it too?

I decided to make plomeek muffins in celebration of this momentous occasion. 

These are not those muffins. (I will attempt those at a future date.)

I discovered very quickly, hollering down to my mother downstairs (oh yeah, forgot to mention that I'm 20, in an Ivy League university and yet, still living at home. Go figure, with my majors), that our fridge contains neither celery nor carrot juice. Mom: "Carrot juice isn't a thing." Me: "Pretty much." No juicers to be found in this household.

Instead, I nabbed her index card stack of recipes and found to my delight that I had remembered incorrectly: the carrot cake recipe was not in Chinese for a change! Hooray! I can read it! 

Anyways, I'll cut to the chase. I have provided the measurements for the cake recipe, which usually fits well in a 9x13 inch casserole dish. You may want to adjust accordingly if you're making cupcakes, unlike me, because I'm mathematically disinclined and thought I could get away with adding a little more than 2/3 batter per cupcake. That was illogical.

INGREDIENTS 

4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
2 cups sugar
3 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3 cups grated carrots (loosely packed)
(1/2 cup nuts- optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. If you're going to take a long time preparing the batter and grating the carrots (and with me being the novice that I am, it took me a long time), you can wait a bit before preheating.

If making a cake, grease a 9x13 inch cake/casserole dish. If not, do whatever you need to do to prepare cupcake pans/mini loaf pans, etc.

Mix eggs and sugar in a large bowl.

Then add oil to eggs and sugar, and stir.

In another bowl, combine the rest of the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon).

Add the dry ingredients into the large bowl in which you've mixed the wet ingredients. TIP: Add the dry ingredients 1 cup at a time, or even 1/2 a cup at a time. The flour is less likely to fly about and puff in your face this way. (I've learned the hard way, believe me.)

Add in your grated carrots.

Distribute your batter evenly into a cake pan or muffin/cupcake pan/tins. The batter should not exceed 2/3 of the height of your cupcakes, or they will overflow like mine did. (The ones of the leftmost tin are too full, but the ones in the larger-sized tin were just right.)

Cake: bake for ~1 hour. Cupcakes: I put mine in for ~30 minutes. To check if they're ready to come out, stick a toothpick in the center of the cake/cupcake; if it comes out cleanly, they are done!

Let cool. (Look at that tiny non-deformed cupcake in the top right corner of the small tin! A lone voice of sanity amidst a sea of madness.)

I decided to decorate mine for Star Trek using powdered sugar and a paper cutout Starfleet badge, but these taste great without anything extra. Cream cheese frosting would also go well with these!

And that is all for now. Let me know what you think, about these cupcakes and/or about the blog so far! (Do you like the photos accompanying the steps, or would you prefer all the instructions in one place without pictures in-between?)

LLAP!