Carrot Cupcakes

I've been wanting to try out a carrot cupcake recipe for a while and finally just chose a recipe and went with it. The recipe I used produced a lighter, fluffier cake that contrasted the traditional dense base of carrot cake. I was pleased with the lighter cake batter, but at the same time it made it that much harder to just eat one (or two). The recipe I used included raisins, which I feel are vital to carrot cake, but if you're not a fan they can be omitted. I frosted the cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and added fondant carrots to the tops.

Ingredients:
1 pound carrots, peeled and grated
3 large eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup golden raisins
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon each of salt, cinnamon, + ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Preheat oven to 325 F. Whisk together carrots, eggs, buttermilk, sugar, oil, vanilla and raisins. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then combine with the wet ingredients. Divide batter evenly among the cups and bake 23-28 minutes, rotating half way through, until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound confectioners sugar, sifted
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar 1/2 cup at a time and then vanilla, and mix until smooth.

To finish the cupcakes, make a batch of fondant, color it orange and green and then shape the fondant into miniature carrots. For detail, I added little lines to the orange part of the carrots with the dull side of a knife.