I have baked carrot muffins a few times but have not found a recipe that I really like, not until now. I am using a recipe from Smitten Kitchen and it is definitely a keeper. It is very moist and light. I reduced the amount of sugar and added some sultanas. My kids loved them even without the frosting and it is a great way of having them eating their vegetables.
Since I have leftover cream cheese seating in the fridge, I made the frosting as well. It's a lovely frosting with a hint of maple but I will probably omit the maple syrup next time mostly because I am so used to having carrot cake with plain cream cheese frosting.
Carrot Cake Muffins with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients
muffins
1 cups self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cups + 1 tbsp canola oil
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups grated peeled carrots
1/2 cup sultanas
frosting
80 gr cream cheese, softened
40 gr unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Line 12 muffin molds with papers, or butter and flour them.
- Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots and sultanas. Divide batter among muffin molds, filling 3/4 of each.
- Bake muffins 18 to 20 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool in pans for five minutes or so, then transfer cakes to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before icing them.
- For the frosting, beat all the ingredients on medium until fluffy. Chill the frosting for 10 to 20 minutes, until it has set up enough to spread smoothly.
