Carrot Muffcakes

So.. I'm on a mission... to attempt a good number of recipes that are top-rated on allrecipes.com. That means those 5 star ones with hundreds or thousands of reviews.. because really, that's almost a sure bet that it will taste good. I've probably made 7-8 of them.... most recently, the apple pie, and pumpkin bread. I made the potato and ham soup yesterday with leftover Thanksgiving ham, and that was really really good.
Later that night, I decided to give carrot cake another try, this time, without applesauce. It was a really hearty muffin. I still don't understand, what the difference between a cupcake and muffin is, I mean, when I hear of muffins I think of dense, fruity or nutty things. When I hear of cupcakes I think of, light, fluffy, plain-jane cakes, with sometimes decorated tops. I don't know what this falls into so I'll call it a muffcake, since I decided to decorate some, and leave some plain.

My version of "Sam's Famous Carrot Cake" on allrecipes.com
Makes around 15-16 cupcakes (odd # I know, maybe you can stretch it to 18, I scaled the original recipe by 1/3)

Wet
2 eggs
1.5 tsp vinegar and enough milk to fill to the 1/2 cup mark (I always use whole milk)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cups white sugar (original = 1 cup)
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract

Dry
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1- 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix-ins
1- 1/2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup flaked coconut
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
2/3 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice
2/3 cup raisins (6 mini boxes)

1. Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Place all the wet, dry, and mix-ins, in three separate bowls. Mix each one separately until it's combined.
2. Plate dry into wet, mix until combined, then place mix-ins into the wet/dry mixture.
3. Spoon by 1/4 cupfuls into the muffin pan and bake for 20 minutes.

As for the frosting....
I topped these with whipped cream cheese frosting, it had around 1/4 cup whipping cream, 2 oz cream cheese 1/4 tsp meringue powder, and 1/3 cup powdered sugar, I whipped the cream with chilled beaters and bowl until it reached the stiff peaks stage, then I removed it from the bowl, and whipped the cream cheese ( softened by defrosting it for 10 seconds in the microwave) I added the meringue powder and powdered sugar until combined and fluffy, then mixed in the whipped cream until everything was combined. It doesn't look as cute as the mini cupcakes because this is a regular sized cupcake. It would look better if I liked a lot of frosting, but I don't... even the frosting was not low in fat.... : ) heavy cream, regular cream cheese... yummmy. This was pretty easy to pipe with and wasn't too cheesy or sweet, I used the wilton 2D drop flower tip without a coupler.

Overall, this cupcake was a lot of work! So many ingredients! I think I had another recipe earlier on a carrot pineapple cake, I don't know which one I like more, but I guess I'll tweak this one further. I will try a ratio of 3/4 oil and 1/4 apple sauce next time. I think it was a little greasy for my liking, definitely not low fat.. with the whole milk, coconut, and oil... haha I can't seem to make things taste good that are low in fat... : )