Carnivorous Cupcakes with Sweet potato frosting

I've recently changed my diet in life and have been taking the grains and processed sugars down. I had a moment in my kitchen one day when  I realized how much bread, oats, and granola I was eating. Actually, it was all I was eating. So, I did some research and decided I would start cooking more. I would cook more meats, eat more fresh vegetables, and be aware of what my body does well with. I by no means have gone hardcore gluten free (pizza and movies last night...duh), but I am making an effort to stay further away from processed foods and extra sugars. This has put a damper on my baking. And I am well aware of the Paleo world of sweets but I've intentionally stayed ignorant to them because I lack the time and money to plunge into that world. Maybe one day, but not today.

Anyways, I've started a new life in Georgia and my chapter includes the spawning of new relationships with classmates and the people in my world. It has been wonderful. Seriously. I am actually sad this first semester is coming to an end because I know this is gonna create a shift in the dynamics but onward and upward.

These cakes are for a classmate who has some inspirational eating habits. We have a precedent set that someone bakes for a classmates birthday and I picked this chance to make a special cake. Here are some manly meat cakes for those non sugary friends of ours. I really feel weird calling them meat cakes...it just sounds like something you shouldn't offer to a stranger. I digress.

Carnivorous Cupcakes (with Sweet potato and Cauliflower frosting)
**Start the frosting early. If you only have one cooking source, it behooves you to get the potatoes done early in the day**

• 2 lbs ground Turkey
• 2 medium carrots, shredded
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C Panko bread crumbs (I used a gluten free version here, but you could use regular)
• 1-2 Tbls ground sage
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 dash cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper

As always, heat the oven to 350. 
Now, get that meat into a bowl and throw in all those wonderful vegetables. The ratio will look kinda funky but remember, veggies are your friend. They should be abundant. Add the seasonings and feel free to adjust these to your favorite meatloaf seasonings. Give it a good mix with your hand till everything is incorporated. Next, add the eggs and panko, then mix again.

Here, you can do a bit of variaton. I wanted these things to look nice since they are for someone's birthday. So I lined a muffin tin with a paper liner and filled it with the meatloaf mix. Seriously, mush that stuff in there. If I were making these for just me, I would just grease the muffin tin (depending of the fat content of my meat) and bake them. I didn't necessarly want a domed cake so I mushed it flat and tossed it into the oven for about 20-25 minutes. If you are NOT making these as a prep meal, go ahead an let them cook for 30-35 minutes. I wanted mine close to the line of undercooked since they are gonna be reheated later and microwaves murder turkey moisture (as if turkey is moist anyways).

You should get about 18 cakes total after the baking.

Sweet potato and Cauliflower frosting
-1 large sweet potato
-1 small head of cauliflower
-1/4 C cream/milk/cow juice
 -Cinnamon

Seriously, you will have left overs. Especially cauliflower.
This might take a bit of prep but I love sweet potatoes and figured it would totally worth it. Plus, I only have one cooking source so I roasted my potatoes way earlier in the day.
Start by wrapping your sweet potato in foil individually. I cut the ends off of my potato to help me later. Throw that sucker into a oven that has been heated to 400 degrees F for about an hour (you can give the foil a squeeze WITH AN OVEN MIT ON to check if the potato is soft after the hour. If not, keep baking). You should start getting the cauliflower mash ready here. If you have your own way, good, do that. If you have never made mashed cauliflower, try this.

Start by cutting the head of cauliflower into smaller pieces (flowerets) and put them into a veggie steamer (of if your cheap like me, just boil them). Test them with a fork after about 10 minutes. They should be tender if they are done. If not, keep boiling. Once the cauliflower is cooked use either a food processor, blender, or some device to "rice" the cauliflower. After that, add the cream and if you wish some butter. The cauliflower wont look like potatoes but if gives a different texture to the sweet potatoes. Which are probably done at this point. 

Pull those potatoes out of the oven and let them cool. After they are cooled, take a knife, make a line just through the skin length wise down the potato (ya know, fold the paper hot dog style? same thing). you should be able to just peel the skin off the potatoes from this point. Mash that thing up and toss it into a piping bag with some cauliflower. I tried to get all creative and do half of the bag sweet potatoes and the other half cauliflower mash. In retrospect, I would have just added the cauliflower the the sweet potatoes till I got a consistency I liked. 

Pick your frosting tip and decorate away. 

I will definitely make these again for myself because this seems like an incredibly easy way to get lunch prepped for a week.

Till next time.