Carrot Cake Muffins

I was put off making carrot cake after failing in epic style to make one for my daughter's 1st birthday. To this day I'll never know what exactly it was I did wrong, but after nearly 5 hours in the oven all I had managed to make was a cinnamony carroty swampy mess that ended up in the bin!! 


Needless to say I thought this was the one kind of cake I was destined not to bake. 


Then I decided to try again. I looked around for a simple recipe, tweaked it a little for my own preferences and...voilà! Soft, fluffy, carrot cake muffins!

Ingredients:~


The muffins...
4-6 medium carrots (approx. 300g / 10½oz)
4 dl / 250g / 9oz flour
3 dl / 250g / 9oz  sugar
2 tspn baking powder
1½ tspn powdered cinnamon
¾ dl / 100g / 3½oz chopped almonds
100g baking margarine
3 eggs


The frosting...
200g / 7oz cream cheese
1 dl / 50g / 2oz icing sugar
1 tspn vanilla sugar
1-2 tbsp lemon juice (depending on taste!)


To decorate...
Chopped almonds or lemon rind


Method:~


1. Pre-heat your oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.


2. Peel and grate your carrots into a large bowl.


3. Melt the margarine and leave to cool while you put all of your dry ingredients into another bowl.


4. Add the cooled melted margarine and the eggs to your carrot.


5. Add in your dry ingredients and mix until combined.


6. Fill 12-18 muffin cases with the mixture. (You need to fill the muffin cases quite full so don't worry if it looks like you have far too much mix left over!)

7. Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes until the tops feel springy to the touch.


8. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack.

9. To make the frosting, combine all of the ingredients and mix well - adding lemon juice to taste. (If you prefer your frosting to be stiffer, add more icing sugar and less lemon juice)


10. Add a generous amount of frosting to the top of each muffin and decorate by sprinkling over some chopped almonds or adding some lemon rind to the top.

11. ENJOY!


I can't believe how easy this recipe was to follow and how good the results were! I made some for my work colleagues and my daughter's teachers...they all disappeared rather quickly so I guess that says it all!
Would love to know how you get on if you try out this or any of my recipes!


Happy baking!