Luis Troyano's golden carrot cupcakes | Recipes

Ingredients

• 325g finely grated carrot

• 250g raisins

• 3 medium eggs

• 150g caster sugar

• 50g soft light brown sugar

• 175ml corn oil

• ½ tbsp orange extract

• ½ tbsp vanilla extract

• 175g plain flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

• 1 tsp cardamom powder

• 1.5 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp ginger

Cream cheese frosting

• 250g cold full-fat soft cream cheese

• 140g icing sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla paste

• 125ml cold double cream

How to prepare Luis Troyano's golden carrot cupcakes

1. Ideally the day before you want to make these cupcakes grate the carrots and squeeze out any excess juice. Place them in a bowl and mix in the raisins. Cover and pop in the fridge until needed.
2. Set your oven to 150°C fan.
3. Fit a whisk attachment to your mixer. Whisk together the eggs and sugar for 6 minutes until thick, pale and smooth.
4. Briefly whisk in the corn oil, no more than 15 to 20 seconds.
5. Add all of the remaining ingredients, except the carrot raisin mix and whisk until smooth and well combined.
6. Finally fold in the carrot raisin mix until well combined. This is a runny mix, which is correct.
7. Put the cupcake mix into a large piping bag and pipe it into your cases distributing it evenly.
8. Bake at 150°C fan for 25 minutes until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean.
9. Remove from oven, allow to cool in tin for 1 minute, then get them quickly onto a cooling rack to prevent the cases peeling.
10. Allow to cool completely before decorating. Will keep for 3 days in an airtight container.

Make the cream cheese frosting

1. Fit your mixer with a whisk attachment.
2. Whisk together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla paste until it thickens. This could take a few minutes so be patient.
3. Once thickened add the double cream and whisk again. It will go runny then thicken again. Keep an eye on it. You want a piping consistency. If you whisk it too much it will split.