Say THAT 3 times fast!
I don’t bake. It’s messy, too scientific to make up your own recipes and I hate frosting (because it’s messy). But I LOVE to eat baked goods. Such a conundrum.
Dan loves carrot cake and I love Dan. So originally I was looking around for a breakfast carrot cake muffin. I am not sure what would make it breakfast-y, but I was determined to find it. Oatmeal maybe? Once I got to searching, I got stuck on carrot cake so I just went with it.
I found a great recipe for carrot cake muffins. BUT THEN, I had this instant uncontrollable urge for cream cheese frosting. Because, carrot cake. So I carried on.
Here is the original recipe. I doubled it and added raisins and flax seed (because flax seed is a glactagogue and when I do bake or make smoothies, I put it in there).
Also, when I took the insides out of the muffins (we might as well just call them cupcakes now), I saved them and you’ll never guess what I did with them! (Spoiler alert, I made mini carrot cake balls.)
Ingredients:
*1/2 cup applesauce
*1 tablespoon coconut oil
*1/2 cup granulated sugar
*1/2 cup light brown sugar
*2 eggs
*2 teaspoons vanilla extract
*1 1/2 cups carrots, finely shredded
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
*1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
*2 pinches (upon further googling, 2 pinches is equal to 1/8 of a teaspoon) of ground cloves
*3 teaspoons baking powder
*2 cups all purpose flour
*2 tablespoons flax seed meal (mixed with 4 tablespoons water) – optional
*2 handfuls of raisins – optional
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with liners. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT use muffin liners from the dollar store. No matter how much of a good deal it seems. End PSA.
Finely shred your carrots. Mine took 3 carrots and I used the finely shred option on my box grater.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, mix together applesauce, oil and sugars until well blended. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Mix in carrots. Add the flax seed (if you’re a weirdo like me) and the flour and remaining dry ingredients. Finally, add the raisins.
Scoop batter into cupcake liners. Each cupcake should be full.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out almost completely clean. Mine took 22 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before putting on a cooling rack. Start your cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients:
*4 oz cream cheese, softened
*1/4 cup butter, softened (1/2 stick)
*1-2 cups powdered sugar
*1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
In a stand mixer, combine butter and cream cheese until mixed well. Add the powdered sugar about 1/2 cup at a time. I ended up using 1 1/2 cups. Add vanilla.
Place a sandwich size ziploc bag in a cup and fold over the top. Fill the bag with frosting. Cut a slit in a bottom corner of the bag. TA DA! A pastry bag! You’re welcome.
Take your muffins (I mean cupcakes) and using a butter knife, cut a hole in the center of the cupcake and dig out a little bit of the inside. Put the insides in a bowl – save them! Next Monday I’ll tell you why 😉
Pipe the frosting into the cupcake. Eat.
