Another day, another dollar. That’s the saying that we’ve been repeating over the last 2.5 weeks, at the end of every work day. Although it’s been a hectic, swamped and challenging June thus far, we’re pleased to announce that we can finally take a day off beginning next week! Until then it’s been a seven day a week, 15 hour days of pure work. Anything less than those hours means running home and hosting dinners to some hungry dinner guests (producers). That means seven days = seven dollars to add to our escalating gasoline bill! Don’t any of you feel defeated when your hard work and slightly fatter paycheck gets suddenly skinny to the bills waiting for you at home? We feel this way every time we check our mail box. Ugh! Luckily this blog has allowed us to relax by cooking, sharing and distracting us from what lies ahead at work. We cook in the mornings or late at night, or sometimes not at all after work. Getting home past midnight or 1am means just enough time to shower and crash in bed. But all your company and kind comments keep us going and powers us to repeat another day at the office. Thank you everyone!
Since our last big party, we’ve not even wanted to think about posting any recipes from the menu. There’s just not enough time during the day and at this point, impossible to have the recipes ready any time soon. During the course of the next few months, or even till the end of the year, we’ll slowly but surely write out the recipes, one by one. Until then, we’ll post the recipe of the mini tangerine carrot cupcakes that so many of you have requested. These mini cupcakes that were made for the big party were perfect for the quick grab dessert. For large parties such as these, we always like to have platters of sweets that don’t require any utensils or plates. It’s easier for those to crave sweets who satisfy their desire for sugar in a quick and clean manner, before cutting of the cake or the main desserts.
Having a platter of mini cupcakes is standard at our large gatherings and on the menu that day were the tangerine carrot cupcakes. There were still tons of tangerines on the tree and sweet carrots in the garden, so we decided to put the combination of these two into cupcakes. Based loosely on the carrot cake batter, but with the addition of citrusy tangerine, these cupcakes were just delicious, flavorful, bright and summery! Better yet, we kept our food costs for the party down by gathering from the garden as efficiently as we could. The frosting we made is a cross between a cream cheese and a buttercream, smooth, creamy, not too sweet and bright with fresh tangerine flavors. Add as much tangerine zest as you want to the frosting, the more, the better! Just make sure you use a very fine microplane. We’re submitting these tangerine carrot cupcakes to Weekend Herb Blogging, a fun event started by Kalyn at Kalyns Kitchen. This weeks host for the event is Joanna from Joanna’s Food.
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Tangerine Carrot Cupcake w/ Tangerine Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Ingredients
3 c Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 t Baking Powder
1 1/2 t Baking Soda
1/4 t Salt
1 1/2 t Cinnamon
4 Eggs
2 c Sugar
1/2 c Vegetable Oil
1/2 c Applesauce
1 t Vanilla Extract
3 T Tangerine Juice
Grated Zest of 2 Tangerines
2 c Carrots, finely grated
Preheat oven to 350º F
1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
2. In a mixer bowl, beat eggs and sugar until thick and light colored. Add oil and applesauce and beat on medium-high for 3-4 minutes. Add vanilla extract, tangerine juice, and zest and mix well. Fold in the grated carrots.
3. Mix dry ingredients into wet until just combined. Line mini-muffin tins with papers and fill each 90% with batter. (alt fill technique: Hold muffin paper in hand, and fill @ 75% full, then place in muffin tin. Then fill to 90% full.)
4. Bake in preheated 350º F oven for @ 15 min. or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked in cupcakes. Allow to cool.
Tangerine Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
3/4 c (1 1/2 sticks or 170g) Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
2 packages (8 oz or 225g each) Cream Cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 c Confectioners Sugar
1 t finely grated Tangerine Zest
1 T finely grated, peeled fresh ginger
pinch of salt
1. In a mixer bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy on medium-high speed. Toss in cream cheese and beat until both are light and fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and beat for approx. 5 min.
2. Try not to eat too much of the frosting before frosting the tops of your cooled cupcakes.
Our tangerine tree has been generous to us this year and our “world’s smallest carrots” which are not so small any more. Making these party-perfect mini cupcakes is on the menu for next month’s bash…which we hope to have on Live Web Cam! You’re all invited!!
Perfect mini-bite size party desserts!
More dessert dishes that you might enjoy:
- Grilled white peaches w/honey balsamic glaze and homemade creme fraiche
- Plum and muscat gelato
- Tangerine and carrot cupcakes with tangerine cream cheese frosting
- Thomas Kellers red beet ice cream
- Candied walnuts with walnut syrup
- Silky chocolate whiskey tangerine pie
- Chocolate chunk banana bread
- Mangoes and rum cream
- Puff pastry diamonds
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{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
Yay! I love it when people bake, heh heh
I love the combination of orange and carrots (it sort of sounds like a side dish, doesn’t it?!), and it looks absolutely delicious! 
Yikes! That’s a lot of working! Enjoy your day off. Thanks for the recipes!
Oh, I wish I had a tangerine carrot cupcake for breakfast. That would be ok, right?
Gorgeous! I love the idea of adding tangerine to a more traditional carrot base. Your photos are beautiful per usual. Thanks for the inspiration, as usual, too.
Oh la la they looks delicious and beautiful.
from those cupcakes
I can smell the delicious aroma here
These must taste like little carrot cakes…the test from the tangerines would give a wonderful zing!
Putting these on my “to-do” list! My stuff never looks quite as polished tho, lol. Glad you both have a day off – enjoy it!
What a lovely celebration of the color orange! So cheery… I’m insanely jealous of your access to citrus trees. Thanks for the gorgeous post!
Cheers,
Miss G.
Beautiful photos! Your guests were very lucky. These cupcakes look fantastic.
Wow, that sounds even worse than my schedule during the school year (which is pretty bad!) I’m glad you’re finally gettint a day off. Love the sound of tangerine and carrots together. Your carrots are beautiful. My carrots are still tiny, but I have eaten some radishes! Hopefully I’ll have carrots soon.
I am SO excited that you posted the recipe for these! I have a big housewarming party coming up and I’m definitely making these cupcakes! I do wish I could get these ingredients from the garden like you though.
I can actually taste these already. The brightness of the tangerines… yummy! I’m glad you posted this recipes.
i love carrot cake flavored with a bit of pineapple, so i’m 100% convinced i would love it with tangerine too. to be honest, all that really matters is the frosting.
I love tangerines!!!!
When I lived in the Valley, circa 1974 – 1975, even had a winning appearance on “The Joker’s Wild”, we had a tangerine tree as well as an orange tree and a tangelo tree. We also had plums and assorted other fruit bearing trees at our house. Oh how I miss that.
These look wonderful!
Those are just too cute! I bet they were delish, too!
Beautiful little cupcakes! The combination of carrot and orange is so interesting — not something I would have thought of.
Any thing orange-coloured makes a party even more festive.
I feel for you guys. In this economy, we’ve been working like maniacs just to break even! My blogging activities have definitely been curtailed. I’m too pooped!
I adore those little cupcakes! Not only are they very cute, but they look scrumptious! Carrot and tangerine sounds like a wonderful combination. Sadly, I’ll have to buy my carrots at the grocery store, but my brother has a BIG tangerine tree!
tangerine and carrot cupcakes..;wow this is the healthiest dessert i could ever think of!!! can you fed ex me some
The tangerines add such a beautiful touch. The cupcakes look gorgeous, especially the frosting! How you manage to keep sane and whip out gorgeous perfection amidst all the hectic schedules truly astound me
I can’t believe all the hours you guys are working. That’s crazy! Makes me appreciate your blogging all the more. Thanks for posting this gorgeous recipe – I love citrusy not-too-sweet desserts and will have to give this a try. What kind of tangerine tree do you have? I had an owari satsuma that died unexpectedly and am hoping to get another tangerine or mandarin.
I never would have come up with this flavor but it sounds like it would be delicious! And I still get a kick out of those small carrots, lol.
If I tell you to step back and smell the tangerines…will it make a difference? Probably not. Love those cupcakes and I’m amazed you can hold yourself up long enough to take that shower before flopping into bed.
Really delicious-sounding! Man, 7 day work-weeks are not healthy! Take a day off soon… PLEASE! also, as jealous as i am of your land and garden, one thing that does please me about living in Brooklyn is that I am not reliant on gas/car. we are so lucky to be able to get anywhere we want within the 5 boroughs for a measly $2.
wages need to increase that’s for sure. gas will never be low again… we’ve got to get used to it and wages must increase to compensate.
What a wonderful, fresh, summery idea for cupcakes. Love it. That first pic of the carrots is just wonderful. I love the close-up… dirt and all!
tangerine is one of my faves for baked goods. It is so much better then orange and this is a must try, but I thought that when I saw them a few posts back at the party.
These cupcakes sound really good!
These look so good! Thanks for sharing the recipe!!!
C
http://lifedramatic.spaces.live.com
Fabulous to have a tangerine tree in your garden
Joanna
Yum! Citrus annd ginger in the one cupcake sounds fantastic. I have to make these soon – although because tangerines aren’t easy to find here, I might sub in oranges.
I just love that you guys can make food that starts in your backyard and winds up in people’s tummies
These are so lovely and I am completely enamored with your garden, which I will adopt as my own from waaaay over here… Your garden is my vicarious garden and you are my vicarious neighbors (because our ghetto neighbors let their three ghetto dogs shit in our yard all the time and they make me nuts). Yes, if I could make a wish, it might be to move you and your garden (with a little micro climate sitting over YOUR backyard, but nowhere else) into the ghetto neighbors’ space and remove them to Compton… A girl can dream.
What an amazing backyard! Everybody needs a backyard to live out fantasy – I love your fantasy come to life!!
These are really gorgeous cupcakes (and carrot makes it all healthy!!)
Oh. Those look so wonderful. I will definitely make these for a special occasion!
Looks so pretty! I just bought some tangerines yesterday! Bookmarked the recipe! I will try converting it to vegan with some flax meal and will let you know! This looks beautiful:)