My nephew turned 1 last Tuesday and his birthday party was Saturday so of course, I was making the dessert! I've always wanted to make a cupcake cake. Ya know, when people arrange cupcakes in a shape and then spread the icing all over?? I LOVE these! They can be so fun. I was browsing the Internet looking for fun shapes or animals to make for his party and was torn between a monkey and a turtle. I decided to go with the turtle! (Hence the name of this blog)
Kids + chocolate PROBABLY isn't a good thing. The turtle cupcake cake used chocolate icing but I decided against that. That's what Wilton icing color is for!
My sister wanted a "healthier" cupcake for his first birthday...like a carrot cupcake. Carrots DO make things "healthier" but I don't think you could really call this recipe that I decided on "healthy" (Sorry Alex).
When searching for a recipe I ALWAYS look for ingredients that are going to make the final product moist and delicious. I've learned in the past that less ingredients is not always the way to go. Yes, it's more convenient if you have a recipe with very few ingredients, but in cupcakes or cake, you want to look for recipes that have ingredients that make the final product FLAWLESS.
Ingredients that make cupcakes/cake flawless: FATTY SUBSTANCES! These include canola/vegetable oil (I'm not sure that I've seen a recipe that uses olive oil, but there could be some out there), sour cream, Crisco, whole milk, or whipping cream. Apple sauce can also do the trick but this is used to make a recipe healthier instead of using any of the other ingredients above. Vegetables like zucchini or carrots will also make treats more moist because they are wet veggies.
I used this carrot cupcake recipe from one of my favorite websites, Joy of Baking. This recipe was like a spiced carrot cupcake recipe because it had cinnamon in it. It used oil AND applesauce which immediately told me this was going to be a flawless one. I've never baked with applesauce but I've heard so many good things about it. I left the nuts out of this recipe.
Dom was my big helper and grated the carrots for me. Thanks babe!
I one-and-a-halved the recipe so it would make about 18 since 15 people were coming to the party. Well..it actually made 24 so we had some extras :) I used Betty Crocker's design and put the cupcakes in the shape of a turtle. Instead of using chocolate icing though, I colored the icing brown for the turtle's body and then colored some green for his feet and head.
It turned out good! I could have improved the shape of the turtle had we not been almost an hour late getting to the party. Once we dug into the cupcakes though at the party, everyone was raving! So moist and tasty! The icing was divine and I couldn't have been more pleased with how they turned out :)
Shawn ate one in three bites and was looking for more!
I HIGHLY recommend this recipe!
Cheers!
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