carrot cake muffins Archives

INGREDIENTS (Makes 12)

180g wholewheat flour
¾ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1.5 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
120g carrots, finely grated (about 2 medium carrots)
120ml milk of choice
135g maple syrup
85g apple sauce (about 1 apple’s worth)
1 egg
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Optional add-ins:

50g raisins
A few handful of chopped nuts
Shredded coconut

Icing:

60g icing sugar
1 tbsp cream cheese (or vegan alternative)
½ tsp vanilla

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line a muffin tin with muffin cases
Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl
In a separate larger bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients.
Add the dry flour mixture into the wet and mix until just combined. Don’t overmix!
Fold in any extras (nuts, raisins etc.)
Dollop even amounts of mixture into the liners and then bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
Meanwhile, mix together the ingredients for the icing until smooth
Leave the muffins to cool and then top with icing if desired

My first proper Autumnal recipe of the season! I LOVE using pumpkin puree in my bakes and I also love making raw protein balls with it but that’s another recipe! I find ‘baking buddy natural pumpkin puree’ the best and easiest to use and you can find it in Tesco. So for this particular recipe I actually started out with my carrot cake muffin recipe that I have been working on in order to perfect it, but then I though, why not add pumpkin!? What gave these little treats such a lovely taste was holy lama vanilla and cinnamon spice drops… They really do taste like Autumn!

Now these you can enjoy with or without the vanilla icing- it depends whether or not you want to have them as a healthy snack or a bit of a treat- or it can just be down to how sweet you would like them to taste.

Ingredients (makes 8)

2 cups of wholemeal self raising flour
1/2 cup of ground almonds
1/3 cup of coconut sugar (I used thecoconutcompany)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 medium egg (of flax seed egg for vegan option)
2 tablespoons of melted coconut oil
1 cup of cashew milk
1 cup of pumpkin puree
1 carrot (grated)
1 medium mashed banana
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
3 drops of holy lama cinnamon spice

Icing

1 cup of powdered sugar
1 drop of holy lama vanilla spice
1 tablespoon of cashew milk

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and prepare a cupcake tray with 8 cupcake holders (can use paper ones or silicon moulds).
In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, ground almonds and baking powder.
In a separate bowl, mash your banana, and add the egg, melted coconut oil, vanilla essence and cinnamon spice. Add this to the dry ingredients.
Then gradually add your cashew milk, stirring as you go along to combine all the ingredients.
Now, depending on whether or not you prefer a pumpkin filling or you want to mix all the pumpkin in together, add either half a cup or the full cup to the mix. The half you choose not to use will be a filling for the muffins.
Lastly, add the grated carrot and stir in gently.
If you’ve chosen to go for a pumpkin filled muffin then spoon some mixture into each cupcake mould (only half full) then place a little scoop of pumpkin on top (as shown in the picture). If you’ve chosen to mix all the pumpkin in then simply spoon your mixture evenly into each cupcake mould.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Allow to cool completely before icing.