JessKa's Kitchen

I was beyond excited when I first laid eyes on the bunches of purple carrots at Pick ‘n Pay William Nicol (a local supermarket chain in South Africa). I had never in my life, seen a vegetable so exciting before. After a bit of research it turns out that purple carrots are nothing new, in fact they have been around longer than orange carrots!

Heirloom veggies are making a comeback, and I can’t wait for more exciting varieties to hit our shelves. Even Yuppiechef recently did an article regarding these new, but old vegetable favourites.

What better use for a bunch of carrots, than a carrot cake, and after browsing the multitude of recipe books I own, I settled on using the easiest recipe (as well as the recipe for which I had all the ingredients).

This recipe comes from the You – Let’s Cook, Top 500 Recipes recipe book, by Carmen Niehaus. The nice thing about this recipe book is the fact that the recipes come from a South African publication that has been around for decades. This book features the best of the tried and trusted recipes from the Huisgenoot and You recipe books, and I must say, this carrot cake recipe is going to be one I have to share.

Purple Carrot Cupcakes (makes ±24)

Ingredients

3 eggs

1 ½ cups sugar

1 cup oil

3 cups grated purple carrots (you can use the orange variety if you want)

2 ½ cups flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 180° C (350° F)

Grease/Line your cupcake tins with cupcake liners

Add the eggs to a bowl of an electric mixer and beat while slowly adding the sugar

Add the oil, and beat again until incorporated

Add the grated carrots, and mix again. (I use the grater attachment on my KitchenAid to grate carrots quickly, alternatively your food processor may have a grating attachment, or you can go old school and use a box grater – just mind your fingers)

Add the flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon and salt, and mix again.

The batter is now ready to be spooned into your cupcake trays. Fill each cupcake to about ¾ full.

Bake in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until a cake tester (or a toothpick) inserted into the middle of a cupcake, comes out clean.

I initially wanted to ice my cupcakes with a purple lime glaze, but unfortunately, my purple food colouring, lost its colour, and it came out turquoise instead. I had also finished my icing sugar, so I had to use something else.

I melted white chocolate for a couple of minutes in the microwave, and dipped the top of each cupcake into the chocolate. The chocolate complimented the carrot cakes beautifully, so it really was a happy improvisation.

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