Sorry I haven’t posted in a while; I was out of town. But I wanted to share what I baked for Easter/my dad’s birthday.

We usually have coconut cake for Easter, but this year I wanted to something a little more bunnylicious. Carrot cake was a no-brainer.

You may notice these photos were taken in a guest kitchen — at my mother-in-law’s house. She also gave me the adorable cupcake papers and rabbits for the top!

I love carrot cake, but I hadn’t made it before. I thought I’d try a slightly tweaked version of the tropical carrot cake from epicurious.com

What “tropical” means is macadamia nuts, coconut, pineapple and ginger. You can use candied ginger if you’d like (see the original recipe for instructions), but I left that out because it is expensive and can be difficult to find.

The way I made this, the batter was very thin and the cupcakes didn’t rise a lot — but they were very moist. If this worries you, drain the pineapple before you add it to the batter, and/or add up to 1/4 cup more flour.

The cupcakes on the left have more flour than the ones on the right. They were still moist, just not quite as moist as the others.

This cream of coconut is for the frosting. The coconut cream cheese frosting. Best. Frosting. Ever.

I threw some more macadamia nuts and coconut in the food processor and sprinkled a little of that on top of each cupcake. Regular sweetened coconut, toasted coconut, sprinkles or candied ginger would also be cute. And you don’t have to wait for next Easter! These would be great for spring and summer parties — with or without the bunnies on top.

Tropical carrot cupcakes (Adapted from Epicurious.com, with frosting from Southern Living) Makes about two dozen cupcakes
1 1/4 cup sifted all purpose flour (sift, then measure)
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1/2 cup dry-roasted macadamia nuts
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup finely grated peeled carrots
1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple in its own juice

Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake tins with papers. Place 1/4 cup flour in a food processor with macadamia nuts and flaked coconut. Process until nuts are finely chopped. Whisk remaining 1 cups flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and baking soda in medium bowl to blend.

Using an electric mixer, beat sugar and oil together in a large bowl. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add flour-spice mixture and beat to combine. Stir in coconut-macadamia mixture, then carrots and pineapple.

Fill cupcake cups 3/4 full, then bake until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean (20-25 minutes). Cool in pan for a few minutes, then place on cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

Coconut cream cheese frosting
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, at room temperature
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
16 ounces powdered sugar (plus more if necessary)
1/4 cup cream of coconut (like Coco Lopez – sometimes found near cocktail mixes)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add about 3/4 of powdered sugar, beating at low speed until combined. Add cream of coconut and vanilla and beat until smooth. Taste. Beat in more powdered sugar if necessary for taste or consistency.

If frosting tastes right but is too runny, refrigerate for about 30 minutes before piping onto cupcakes.