All dressed up Eggless Carrot Cupcakes- A Thank You gift

It's officially summer here, with DD's school closed for the school year. For this year when I asked her what she wants for her teacher as a thank you gift, she asked me to bake carrot cupcakes for her with little carrot decorations on top....she remembered from one of her conversations, that her teacher loves carrot cake. So we baked these goodies for her second grade teacher & other staff, which they really liked.

But I really like to share one of her classmates opinion on those cupcakes(they didn't get to eat cupcakes....school district policy no home made goodies for students).....a compliment given by an 8 yr. old(her best friend), which she told me about after coming back from school.........S said  " I want your mom to bake cake for my next b'day as I think she's a professional"......wooohhhoooo, she made my day......these cupcakes are not the prettiest one but I was amazed that how an 8 yr. old can get so happy by just looking at simple things....isn't being child a greatest thing in this world.

For cupcakes I used my old trusted eggless carrot cupcake recipe & for icing :

1. 4 Tblsp. butter
2. 4 Tblsp. veg. shortening
3. 4 oz. cream cheese
4. 1 tsp. clear vanilla extract
5. 2 cups confetioner sugar

Cream first 4 ingredients, slowly add sugar & mix till everything gets together & smooth. I was left with almost a cup of icing after frosting dozen cupcakes. So one can easily half this recipe if making for dozen cupcakes. Carrots for decorations were made using fondant & for leaves tinted little icing with green color & piped it using leaf tip.

Note : I used veg. shortening because it was very hot day....temperature reaching almost 93 degree on that day & was not sure that if cupcakes will get a chance to sit in the fridge or not in the school before they are consumed. Only butter & cheese would have made frosting little runny consistency I guess, but you can totally leave shortening out & increase the amount of butter or cream chesse acc. to your taste.

Also made a little shell bookmark using crochet, as DD told me that my teacher loves reading so much that sometime she stays up late in the night just to read her fav. books.