Cupcakes

2 cups sugar

1 ¼ cups vegetable oil

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground allspice (we hand ground allspice berries for this!)

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

3 cups grated carrots

¾ cup raisins, rough chopped

2 Tbsp Maple Wine

Icing

12 oz mascarpone cheese, locally sourced if available

1 lb confectioners sugar

3 Tbsp Maple Wine

½ tsp vanilla extract

Maple sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease two 12 count cupcake pans, or line them with cupcake liners.

Beat the sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla, and eggs together at medium speed until they are light in color, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices, being careful not to over mix. Fold in the carrots, raisins, and Maple with a spatula until just combined.

Scoop batter into the greased/lined cups so they are 2/3 full. You may not fill all the cups; remove the liners of the unused cups. Bake for 20-30 minutes (this will depend on the efficiency of your oven, so keep an eye on it) or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and let cool for at least 15 minutes.

In a medium bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese, Maple Wine, vanilla, and ¾ of the confectioners sugar together at medium speed until smooth and silky. Taste the icing; if it is too thin or not sweet enough, add the rest of the sugar. Fill a ziplock bag with half the icing, and cut of the very tip of one of the corners. Frost the cupcakes by gently squeezing the icing through the tip of the bag. Sprinkle the frosted cupcakes with a little maple sugar.

Serve any time of day, preferably with our Maple Wine, which you have conveniently left over from this recipe 🙂

Crostini with Peaches, Blue Cheese and Honey
(adapted from Heather Christo’s Generous Table)

Pair with Little Piggy Pink, Little Bandits

For 12 crostini:

• 1 baguette, cut at an angle in ½ inch slices. We got our’s from O Bread Bakery in Shelburne
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1-2 peaches, pitted and sliced into thin wedges
• 8oz Cambozola cheese (but you could use Jasper Hill’s Bayley Hazen Blue, Blue Ledge Farm’s Middlebury Blue, or Bonnieview’s Bonnie Blue from Craftsbury)
• 2 Tbsp Honey, we used Artesano’s

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Arrange the baguette slices on a rimmed baking sheet and evenly drizzle the olive oil all over the bread. Bake for 7 minutes, until the toasts are a light golden brown. Remove from the oven and rub the top of each toast with the piece of garlic. Place 1 or 2 slices of peach on each toast (whichever will fit to your liking). Divide the cheese over the peaches (if this looks like too much, you can always test by baking one crostini and tasting it before doing all 12) and return to the oven for another 5-7 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the peaches have softened. Remove from the oven and gently drizzle the honey over all the toasts. Then plate and enjoy! This is a great Little Piggy Pink Pairing.

We loved this recipe because it was super easy, super fast, and super yummy. It also gracefully accommodates pantry miscalculations, so if you don’t happen to have peaches available you could probably substitute juicy pears, nectarines, or even mango if you wanted to get a little wild! We are fortunate enough to have many wonderful bakers who provide us fresh bread, as well as many fruit growers and cheese makers, so if you are a local warrior you can always find ingredients around here to suit your fancy. The cambozola cheese in this recipe is a triple cream gorgonzola, so it is very strong; if you prefer a milder or sweeter blue cheese, we would suggest trying Middlebury Blue or Bayley Hazen Blue. I wouldn’t say no to a fresh chevre or tomme either. Have fun with it!