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Carrot Cake Muffins
5 from 4 votes

Carrot Cake Muffins

Individual moist and fluffy muffins made healthy with reduced sugar in the cakes and in a light cream cheese frosting with orange.

Prep Time
25 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
45 mins
Servings: 18 cakes
Calories: 300 kcal
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: British

Ingredients

Carrot Cake Muffins:
  • 300 g (10.5oz/ 3¼ cups) carrot organic, finely grated (weight after peeled, fresh
  • 1 orange unwaxed/organic (keep 1 teaspoon aside for the frosting, zest only
  • 300 g (10.5oz/ 2½ cups) all-purpose flour or ½ each of plain and wholemeal flour, plain
  • 175 g (6oz/ ¾ cup) light brown sugar or cane sugar
  • 3 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt fleur de sel
  • 3 teaspoon mixed spice pain d'épices/gingerbread spices or pumpkin spice, ground
  • 3 large egg organic (or 4 medium
  • 175 g (6oz/ ¾ cup) sunflower oil or other neutral oil (e.g. canola)
Cream Cheese Frosting:
  • 75 g (3oz/¼ cup) butter softened, unsalted
  • 210 g (7.5oz/1 cup) cream cheese at room temperature (e.g. Philadelphia, soft, 33% fat
  • 75 g (3oz/ ⅓ cup) confectioners sugar sifted
  • 1 teaspoon orange zest
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla powder or extract
  • walnuts to decorate (optional, or pecans, broken

Instructions

For the muffins:
    Cup of Yum
  1. Heat oven to 180°C/160°C fan/360°F (Gas 4) and prepare all cake ingredients first. For frosting later, ensure butter and cream cheese are out of the fridge.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, spice and orange zest. Whisk together the eggs and oil, then stir into the dry ingredients with the grated carrot.
  3. Prepare muffin tins lined with 18 paper cases. Divide the mixture between cases, filling ¾ of the way up. Bake for 20-22 minutes until a skewer poked in comes out clean. (If making a large cake, then bake for 40-45 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack).
  4. Remove the muffins from the tins as soon as they are out of the oven and transfer to cool on a wire rack.
To make the frosting:
  1. Beat the softened butter until light creamy, then beat in the softened cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla and orange zest. Either by hand or using beaters of a mixer.Either swirl the icing on top of the cakes using a palette knife or use a piping bag with a star tip to pipe out spiral toppings. Sprinkle with broken or crushed nuts, a little vanilla powder or extra grated orange zest.

Notes

  • *Cream cheese: after making the same frosting using French St Moret cheese (it's a healthy low fat cheese), the frosting was runny as it doesn't contain enough fat. The result tastes just as good but if you wish to pipe out your frosting to make it pretty, choose a cream cheese with at least 33% fat to reach perfect piping consistency.
  • Storage: keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze (without the topping) for up to 3 months.
  • For recipes and more on healthy carrots, read the market produce carrot page.
  • Measures: Please note that all my recipes are best made using digital kitchen scales in precise metric grams. Both ounces (and cups) are given as an approximate guide.