The Best Ginger Carrot Cupcakes with Cardamom Cream Cheese Frosting

So I was having a huge craving for carrot cupcakes, which is kind of odd because I didn't even realize I liked them so much.  I kind of based this off a few cupcakes that I've had at Cupcake Royale--my favorite cupcake place.  They turned out ridiculously delicious so I just had to share.

 

Ginger Carrot Cupcakes Recipe (Makes 24-30 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts, chopped

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

      1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 tsp. allspice

1 pound of carrots, grated

3 eggs

1/3 cup low-fat buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups canola oil

1 Tbsp. ginger, grated

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Line two 12-cup cupcake pans with cupcake liners. Place them aside.

3. Heat a pan to medium heat and place the walnuts in to toast.  It will take about 4 minutes for them to toast, make sure they do not burn or become black.  You will begin to smell them when they are ready.  Place them aside.

4. In a bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, cloves, and allspice.

5. In a separate bowl, place grated carrots, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, sugar, canola oil and grated ginger. Give it a good stir to make sure all the ingredients are combined. 

6. Pour the wet mixture with carrots into the flour mixture.  Stir until combined. 

7. Fold walnuts into batter until evenly combined.

8. Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full with batter.

9. Bake pans for 20 minutes, rotating the pan once after 10 minutes of baking.  Make sure that when you stick a fork in the cupcake it comes out clean.

10. Cool cupcakes completely before frosting.

Cardamom Cream Cheese Frosting

 Ingredients:

(Warning this makes double the amount you will need for these cupcakes but I like a lot of frosting on my cupcakes and it is so delicious and can be frozen to use at a later time).

3 sticks sweet cream butter, room temperature

3 (8 oz. packages) cream cheese, room temperature

1 ½ cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp. cardamom

Directions:

1.  Mix all frosting ingredients together with a hand mixer or stand mixer until they are all incorporated and the frosting is fluffy.  

enjoy!