Carrot Cake Cupcakes

For Easter, you have to have carrot cake. You just have to. Even in quarantine. Delicate spice cake riddled with carrots and topped with tangy cream cheese frosting. One of my favs. I didn't want to make a big three-layer cake when there are only three of us in the house, so I halved my regular recipe. This recipe makes about 18 cupcakes. These were possibly the softest cupcakes I have ever made in my life. I would have eaten the entire cake if I did make it... a little regret there, but not as much regret as I would have had eating an entire three-layer cake.

For the cupcakes:
1/4 c vegetable oil
1/4 c unsalted butter (1/2 stick), room temp
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c all-purpose flour

3/4 c cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Pinch of cloves
3/4 c buttermilk
About 8 oz grated carrots
*You can add additional fixins like nuts and/or raisins. I'm a purist. You do you, boo.

1.Preheat oven to 350F and prepare cupcake pans with liners. Grate carrots and set aside. *Can I also just say that the store only had baby carrots which are a bitch to grate. Perrin was happy that he got to have all the nubbins. Perrin is my dog. I feel like you should know this already. Are we even friends?
2. In a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream together oil, butter, and sugars. Add in the yolks of the two eggs- keep the whites separate. Add in vanilla extract.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together egg whites until at stiff peaks. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients- flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
5. Pour 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture and mix to combine.
6. Pour 1/2 of the buttermilk into sugar mixture and combine.
7. Pour another 1/3 of dry.
8. Pour second 1/2 of buttermilk.
9. Pour in the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients.
10. Slowly fold in the egg whites that were whipped up earlier. *This ensures that the batter will be light and fluffy.
11. Fold in the grated carrots.

12.Distribute into pans and bake for 18 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
13. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
8 tbsp (1 box) cream cheese, room temp
4 c (ish) powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt
*splash of milk to thin- this is optional, but I felt like it needed it so I could pipe. 

1. In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream together butter and cream cheese.
2. Add in powdered sugar slowly, a little at a time.
3. Add in vanilla and salt.
4. Whip until light and fluffy. Add milk if you need to thicken. Add more powdered sugar if it's too thin.
5. Slather on cooled cupcakes. I didn't pipe- I feel like carrot cakes should be rustic. 

Baklava

This is my first post that isn't part of my 2018 Baking Challenge! At this point, I am going to start

sharing some recipes that I have made that I just really loved.*This doesn't mean I haven't changed the recipe, but that even if I didn't completely follow the main recipe, I ended with something totally delicious.* Most will still be baking, but some might be savory meals as well! Anyway, baklava. I would put baklava in my top 5 desserts of all time. I can literally eat my weight in baklava. It's a dessert that I have to physically remove myself from in order to stop eating.
So. Much. Butter. Honey. Nuts. Flaky, flaky phyllo. Man I need some fucking baklava NOW! Okay, sidetracked there. It happens. So here's the recipe I used: https://hubpages.com/food/baklavarecipe
I will warn you that this is not a difficult recipe, but it does require some time. It is a bit cathartic though. So, if you are ready to slather butter on about 1 million paper-thin sheets of dough, then jump on in, folks!

First of all, you will need:
1 box Phyllo Dough *you can buy it frozen at the store, just make sure that you let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
1 pound of butter, melted

For the filling:
1 pound Walnuts (4 cups) *you don't have to use walnuts. You don't even have to use just one kind of nut. I literally went through my pantry of all my leftover nuts and kept pouring until I had enough. I used pecans, pistachios, and walnuts in mine.
1 c granulated sugar

1. Chop the nuts in the food processor until about pea sized or smaller. You can also chop these with a knife or hand chopper.
2. Once chopped, put in a bowl with the granulated sugar and mix to combine.
3. Set aside until assembly.

For the Syrup:
2 c granulated sugar
1 c water
4 tbsp honey

1. Combine sugar and water into a small saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil, and then add the honey.
3. Once the boil has returned, reduce the heat and keep simmering while you assemble the baklava. *The recipe doesn't tell you when to stop simmering. I just did it until I put the baklava into the oven, and then let it cool while the baklava was baking. It turned out fine for me. **Also, don't multi-task. I was like I'm gonna make this WHILE I am layering my butter and dough so I don't waste time. Just waste the 5 minutes and make this before you are doing the assembly. I have an electric stove, and so much sticky stuff had to be cleaned when I wasn't paying attention and the syrup overflowed.

Assembly and baking:
**This will take a little bit of time, and like I said above, this is not a multi-tasking moment. Put on some good music, and settle in.
1. Get your phyllo dough, melted butter, and filling in one place.
2. Take a baking sheet, and brush some of the melted butter on the sheet.
3. Place a sheet of phyllo on the baking sheet and brush with butter. *If your sheets are too long, you can fold over. If they're too short, you can cut them. It really doesn't matter, as long as you have butter between every overlap of dough.
4. Add another sheet, followed by butter. Repeat once more.

5. At this point, you have 3 sheets of phyllo with butter. Now, you can add 1/3 of the filling all over the dough.
6. Add three more phyllo sheets (each separated by butter), then another third of the filling.

7. Repeat this process again, and add the final 1/3 of filling.
8. Add three final sheets (each separated by butter) to the top of the baklava. *So you have dough ->filling ->dough ->filling->dough->filling->dough. Just so we are clear!
9. Preheat oven to 350F.
10. Take a sharp knife (I used serrated), and cut the baklava BEFORE it bakes. Cut diagonal lines one way, and then turn and repeat the process.

You will end up with diamond shapes that look like this: 

11. Bake in the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. The color should be golden brown. 

12. While the baklava is baking, check on the syrup. It should have cooked down a bit and be a little thick and golden in color. 

13. Once the baklava is out of the oven, pour the syrup all over it WHILE IT'S HOT! All the syrup will soak into all the layers of phyllo, and HEAVEN!!! 

Difficulty: 2

Amount of Time: 3

Awesomeness: 5