Chocolate and Carrots

I have a stack of old Cooking Light magazines in my 'cook book cuboard'. I used to get them monthly, devour them and the recipes inside. But then the stack kept getting bigger and bigger and recipes seemed to be redundant so I decided that should cancel my subscription. Which was a good idea-you can only have so many cook books in your cuboard and stay sain. I kept all the old ones though because I didn't want to have to rip thru the magazines for the recipes I liked at that moment and I also didn't want to have to organize them somewhere else- plus there is a recipe index in the back of each magazine, something I am just too lazy (or don't have the time to do).

Lately, I have taken to pulling a couple out for the month that we are in (hey it's June, I bet I have at least 2 old June CL mags that have great dinner, BBQ, desert ideas for the season). And every time I do this I find a new gem of a recipe. I like how that works.
This past Monday as I ate my breakfast with O. I flipped thru the pages, sticky note and pen in hand and found Carrot cupcakes with chocolate. I stuck my pink note on the page and added carrots to the grocery list.

On Tues. evening after O was down for the night and A was busy surfing the web, I got the recipe out, along with my bowls and ingredients. Stirring and grating and baking away. Next time I make these I am going to not add as much sugar- almost 2 cups seems like a lot and carrots are so sweet on their own. I might also give a go with using applesauce instead of oil and adding a little cinnamon to the mix. (talking to my mom about these changes is probably a good idea since she is the baker and good at modifications)

I added a cream cheese frosting (because that is how my mom always makes carrot cake, with cream cheese frosting) to the ones we were going to eat and stuck the others in the freezer for later. They came out moist and yummy and the chocolate is just a fun surprise when you take a bite. Enjoy!

These would make a nice Father's Day morning treat if you are up to baking this morning!

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Carrot-Chocolate Cupcakes from August 2003 Cooking Light Magazine

1 lb carrots, peeled and sliced
1 3/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons veg oil
1/3 cup low fat buttermilk
3 large eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 once semisweet chocolate finely chopped

1. preheat oven to 350
2. place carrots into food processor; process until finely minced (you could also use a cheese grater for this- grating the carrots keeps them from turning green)
3. Combine carrots, sugar, oil, butter-milk, and eggs in a large bowl. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.Add flour mixture to carrot mixture; stir until smooth. stir in chocolate
4. spoon batter into 22 muffin cups (reg size) lined with paper liners. Bake for 22 min. or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on  a wire rack and remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

If you are going to freeze these for later enjoyment don't frost, place in a zip top bag and place in freezer. To thaw individually place in microwave on medium 15-20 seconds or if you have more time let sit at room Temp until thawed.

You can either dust these with powdered sugar or do what I did and mix up a little cream cheese, butter, vanilla and powdered sugar to create frosting.