Happy Birthday to me

= carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for the other interns at work!

Recipe to follow as soon as I find the time to type it up.

Update:
Here goes! I found the cupcake recipe eons ago on recipezaar and the cream cheese frosting was found on the truly wonderful Joy the Baker blog.

I scaled down both recipe to more "European" portions. Can I pose the question to the Americans; What do you guys do with the additional twelve cupcakes all the time? :-)

These quantities are for twelve deliciously rich cupcakes. They were a big hit at work and gave us all a sugar rush.

Maple Carrot Cupcakes:
120 gr. flour
110 gr. sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (Natron)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
120 ml vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
60 ml maple sirup
3 medium sized carrots grated

Preheat the oven to 175°C.
Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a second bowl mix the eggs, the oil and the maple sirup together. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones until just combined. Then fold in the grated carrots.
Line a muffin tin with paper cups and fill them with the batter until about two thirds full. A very easy way to get equal size portions is to use an ice cream scoop to do this!
If you don't want to frost the cupcakes later on, you can sprinkle them with a cinnamon sugar mixture at this stage.
Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until an inserted tooth pick comes out clean.
Leave to cool before frosting.

For the frosting:
170 gr. butter
110 gr. cream cheese
55 gr. light brown sugar
half a teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
250-500 gr powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp milk

Make sure your ingredients are room temperature. Start by beating the cream cheese for about a minute. Add the butter and beat 1 to two minutes until well combined. Add the brown sugar, salt and vanilla extract until well combined.
Turn off your mixer and add 250 gr of powdered sugar to the bowl. Start your mixer on a low speed setting. Beat until well combined and repeat the process of adding a little more sugar until the frosting is of the desired consistency. Add milk to thin it out if necessary.
Pipe or smear it onto your cold cupcakes.