Recipe of the Week - Carrot Cupcakes

It's fall and I am thinking about the recipes that we love this time of year. My favorite cupcake of all time is the carrot cupcake...my mom made this recipe for me every birthday (with toxic-mega-sweet cream cheese icing of course).  It also has cream cheese in the cake instead of being loaded with oil...good times!

Luo Liu  via  Flickr

Carrot Cupcakes

3 cups grated carrots
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 eggs
8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
1/4 cup applesauce
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (8 ounce) can drained crushed pineapple (I puree this in a food processor)
3/4 cup chopped pecans - optional

It goes without saying that you have to put cream cheese icing on these!

Poppy 524  via  Flickr