Carrot cupcakes with mascarpone and honey frosting

Some months ago I was thinking it was time that my blog had a logo  so I talked to a friend of a friend (Syni) who was happy to help me. After some weeks this super creative guy came to me with 5 options, and my instinctive choice was the logo that you now see at Mandarina’s homepage. I love its bright color and simple design
Thank you so much Syniii…

So, to thank him for his great work I prepared these super easy and yummy cupcakes. The spices’ combo makes them smell and taste amazing and the creamy frosting is just wow…

They are a bit high in calories, even though I tried to eliminate sugar as much as I could, and replaced some of the butter with olive oil, so be careful

I’m sure everyone would love them, so if you want to surprise your loving ones make a batch of these cupcakes…

Makes 12 cupcakes

Time : 40 min

Ingredients 

Cupcakes

• 1 & 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 50 g butter
• 2 eggs
• Juice of 1 orange
• 4 medium carrots peeled and grated
• 3/4 cup walnuts chopped
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground coves

Frosting

• 250 g mascarpone
• 30 g butter
• 1 tbs honey

Directions

1. Line a muffin tin with muffin liners and set aside
2. Preheat oven at 180 degrees celsius
3. Clean and grate the carrots using a cheese grater
4. Cream butter and sugar together
5. Add olive oil and mix again
6. Add eggs one at a time and continue mixing
7. Add orange juice and mix again
8. In another bowl mix flour, baking powder, spices and salt
9. Mix the wet mixture with the dry mixture
10. Incorporate the grated carrots and chopped walnuts into the batter. Save few (2 tbs max) of the chopped walnuts for the frosting
11. Divide it in muffin tins and bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius fir 18-22 min.
12. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Meanwhile prepare the frosting.

1. Cream the butter, mascarpone cheese and honey together and put in the freezer to chill for around 20-30 min.
2. Frost the cupcakes. Sprinkle some chopped walnuts at the top and enjoy.

If there are any left keep in the fridge in an airtight container for two days max.