Carrot-Apple Cupcakes (Gluten-Free)

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
1 (15-oz) pkg. gluten-free yellow cake mix
1/4 cup rice flour
1 cup shredded carrot
1 medium apple, finely chopped
1/3 cup softened butter
3 eggs
2 tsp. gluten-free vanilla extract
Frosting:
3 cups sugar
6 oz. light cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp. butter, softened

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line 18 cupcake cups with paper liners; set aside [i managed to get 24 cupcakes out of the recipe and my first 12 were still pretty big so i think i might have been able to extend that to at least 30 cupcakes]. In a large bowl, combine cake mix [i couldn’t find gluten-free cake mix so i used regular mix but it gives you an extra 3 oz], flour, carrot and apple; mix well. Add butter, 2/3 cup water, eggs, and vanilla. Using an electric hand mixer, beat 1 minute or until well-blended. Spoon batter evenly into cupcake cups [at first i was doing about 1/3 c of batter per cupcake but that was way too much so i just used about half of that and those turned out more reasonably sized].
2. Bake 12-15 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove pan from oven and let cool 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
3. Meanwhile, for the frosting, place sugar in a blender; blend to the consistency of powdered sugar [i wouldn’t recommend blending all 3 cups of sugar at the same time; i started to smell smoke from my blender…lol. i’m pretty sure you could use powdered sugar if you wanted cause if your blended can’t do the job, your frosting ends up kind of grainy—it still tastes fine, it’s just got a funny consistency]. In a large bowl combine cream cheese, butter and blended sugar [i added about 1/4 tsp of vanilla also]. Using an electric hand mixer, beat until light and fluffy. Spread frosting on top of each cupcake.

*Notes:
For spreading the frosting, i would recommend just putting it in a baggy and piping it on top. Also, who knew there was gluten-free vanilla?! haha. go figure. I found the frosting really sweet—not as sweet as i thought but it can get a little overwhelming (unless you’re 6). the picture is of my first cupcake [that i had the sense to eat before frosting the rest of them]. it was way too much frosting, so on the rest of them i put about half [are you noticing a pattern here, cause i kind of am]. Anyway one thing that’s really cool about this recipe is that when you’re eating the cupcakes, every now and then you get a little chunk of apple that just explodes on your tastebuds….needless to say, these were delicious.