Carrot, Coconut and Lime Cupcakes

This is one of my favourite recipes and I'm so excited to share it with you! I originally stumbled across it (See the original post here) whilst looking for a "traditional"  8 inch carrot cake, which I never continued my search for. I have adapted the original recipe to suit our tastes (I'm really not a fan of cream cheese icing) and also to make a variety of different cake sizes. I can brownie-honour-hand-on-heart say that I would never use another Carrot Cake recipe, and I challenge you to try it too. I would bet my carrot cake, that it'll be your new favourite!

Carrot Cake - Cupcakes (12)
Ingredients
125g Plain Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Bicarb
1tsp Cinnamon
Pinch Nutmeg
50 Desiccated Coconut
2 Eggs
110g Dark Muscovado Sugar 
1tbsp Golden Syrup
90ml Veg Oil (I have used both sunflower oil and coconut oil - they both work fine!)
175g Carrots (Grated)
Zest of 1/2 Orange
250g Unsalted Butter
500g Icing Sugar
Zest of a Lime (Retain the juice from the lime just in case its required!)

How-To

1. Combine your sugar, golden syrup, vegetable oil and eggs in your mixer. 
2. Sift your flour, baking powder and bicarb together in a bowl and then add your spices and coconut. 
3. Gradually fold your dry ingredients in to your mixed wet ingredients (If using a stand mixer, use a low speed so not to over mix). 
4. Once combined, add your grated carrot and orange zest. 
5. Split between 12 cupcake cases (Top tip: I use an ice cream scoop to get an even measure in each case! It's all about the flat tops and  even rise to make your cupcakes super easy to decorate)
6. Bake at 160 degrees celsius in a fan over, for 20 minutes until your cake skewer comes out clean. 
7. Meanwhile, beat your unsalted butter (room temp) until soft and creamy. 
8. Add in half of your sifted icing sugar, mix until combined. 
9. Add your second half of sifted icing sugar, alongside your lime zest and mix until combined.

You are aiming for a buttercream consistency that you can pipe, so add some lime juice if required to soften (a little at a time!). Allow cupcakes to cool before decorating. 

These cupcakes can be decorated in a variety of ways in keeping with the carrot cake theme; The photos above show candy melt carrots made using a silicon carrot mould, you could bake the cake in little silicon plant pots decorated with carrots poking out the top or use the cupcakes as a base for an easter or spring themed cake with little fondant bugs!