Carrot Banana Cupcakes with Nests

With Easter coming up and Spring in there air it's hard to resist all the flavours and lovely colours that it brings. I became a little head over heels for a cupcake from howsweeteats. With pastel chocolate eggs and some of my favourite flavours in particular carrot cake how could I pass it up.

I decided to change the recipe slightly and in doing so got a little bit a head of myself. In the end they did turn out well and very moist. I would suggest to refer back to the original recipe before attempting to make these though. As mine is not as fool proof as hers probably is.

What I changed was: I made half of the recipe, I used apple sauce instead of coconut oil and I used brown sugar because I love brown sugar and how it makes baking more moist/chewy and gives a bit of richer taste. In this case I needed to add more flour in to make up for using brown sugar, and I need to cook it twice as long. In the end I probably should have done some more adjusting, but that's just how it goes.

Spring Carrots Banana Cupcakes:
adapted from howsweeteats
1 cup AP flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 bananas mashed
1 cup grated carrots
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 + 2 tbsp buttermilk (I used almond milk with 1/2 tsp of white wine vinegar)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, put in paper liners to your muffin tin and put aside. 

In a small bowl combine the dry ingredients

In a large bowl whisk sugar and eggs until combined. Once combined add in the apple sauce, carrots, vanilla and bananas. Mix these ingredients together.

Alternately add the flour and buttermilk to the carrot mixture. Stir until well combined and batter is smooth.

Once batter is ready, fill each cup 3/4 of the way full. 

Bake for 35 minutes or until centers return when poked or tooth pick comes out clean.

Set aside and cool completely.

Coconut Cream Cheese Icing:
1/2 cup cold cream cheese
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup toasted coconut + more for sprinkling
Cadbury mini eggs

In a medium bowl blend cream cheese until smooth.
Add in the icing sugar, vanilla and coconut and blend until smooth and combined.
If you like the icing thicker or thinner adjust to your preference. (icing sugar thicker, milk thinner)
Either pipe the icing on or use a spatula to spread the icing on the tops of the cupcakes.
Once iced roll the edges in toasted coconut and place mini eggs in the center.