Carrot Cupcakes Everyone seems to love Carrot Cake, what I also like about them is how wonderfully moist they are and how flavorful they taste. I love this Carrot Cupcake recipe because it's so easy to make. No mixer is required. The time consuming part is the grating of the fresh carrots. I have included applesauce in the cupcake batter which, along with the oil, makes these cupcakes so moist. But, if you like, you could use an equal amount of grated apple or even crushed pineapple. You can also add 1/2 cup (120 ml) of currants or raisins to the batter. Carrot Cakes became popular with the health food craze of the 1970s. There are many theories on the origin of this cake, some say it descended from the English's baked carrot puddings or European steamed carrot puddings. Others say it may have come from German carrot breads. Carrots were used in European sweet cakes since the Middle Ages when other sweeteners were hard to find or just too expensive. In fact, carrots, along
Black Bun Black bun , sometimes known as Scotch bun , is a type of fruit cake completely covered with pastry. It is Scottish in origin, originally eaten on Twelfth Night but now enjoyed at Hogmanay . The cake itself is similar to a traditional Christmas cake or Christmas pudding mixture, including ingredients such as raisins and currants along with spices such as cinnamon, black pepper and allspice. It has been called a much bigger version of a Garibaldi biscuit, and it has been suggested that the origin of that biscuit may have been influenced by the black bun because the inventor of the biscuit, John Carr, was Scottish. The cake is now commonly used as a Hogmanay custom, where people visit their neighbours after midnight to celebrate the New Year. This is called first-foot , and the gift of a black bun was meant to symbolise that the receiving family would not go hungry during the forthcoming year. It was also used a traditional cake to serve to those visiting homes as