Cupcake Icing

The Carrot Cake Cupcakes I made last week tasted perfectly delicious but didn't look like Kara's. I wanted the frosting to have the same mounded up look. I found a cupcake decorating kit in WalMart that included triangle-shaped plastic bags and several decorating tips. The tip that I found made the perfect look was the Wilton 1M tip included in the kit.

This tip put out a thicker bead of frosting and I was able to make it mound up nicely.

These look so much better than the flat swirl look I had before.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

4 eggs

1½ cups vegetable oil

3 cups finely grated carrots

½ - 1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°. Place about 24 cupcake liners in cupcake pans. Lightly spray liners with non-stick spray shortening. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add eggs and oil. Blend until combined. Add carrots and pecans. Pour into cupcake liners, filling ⅔ full. Bake for 20-24 minutes. Cool completely, then frost.

 
Cream Cheese Frosting - Updated
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup Crisco butter flavor shortening
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
2 lbs. powdered sugar (7½ cups)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. almond extract
½ tsp. coconut extract
1 Tbsp. milk

To spread frosting, I put frosting into a quart-size Ziploc® bag and cut out the corner to create a round hole then squeezed the bag as I was decorating. You should probably keep cupcakes refrigerated due to the cream cheese in the frosting but take them out 30 minutes before serving to soften slightly.