Sugar and Spice

Carrot cake is my favorite cake EVER! However, that seems to be the one cake I have never been able to bake correctly. The carrots are either too thin, or too thick, something is never quite right.
Recently I found a spice cake recipe that I really liked, so yesterday I decided to change out the milk the recipe calls for and replaced it with carrot juice. The result was a really nice, light cupcake, with just the right amount of sweet and spice. I topped it off with a cinnamon vanilla buttercream.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 cup carrot juice
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin tins. Whisk dry ingredients and spices in a large bowl. Mix mil, eggs and vanilla extract in a 2 cup measuring cup.
Beat softend butter into dry ingredients, firt on low, then medium until mixture forms pepple sized pieces. Add about 1/3 of the carrot juice mixture and beat on low until smooth. Add remaining juice mixture in two stages; beat on medium speed until batter is just smooth. Add the sugar and beat until just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Pour batter into muffin tins.
Bake for about 25 minutes, until done. When cool frost with the buttercream frosting.

Frosting
1 cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 TBSP heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

*I also used walnuts for a garnish and to add a bit of texture