Healthy Carrot Cake Cupcakes (or Muffins)
OK, I will admit that healthy and carrot cake don’t exactly go in the same sentence, but these cupcakes were much healthier than any of the recipes I saw online, and they tasted amazing.
If you don’t add the frosting and just eat them as muffins, they actually are healthy, but that’s a big ask for most of us.
This is a recipe that I modified from the Sweet Laurel cookbook, which is vegan and gluten free. These cupcakes are gluten free but they’re not vegan. The frosting has real cream cheese and butter in it.
Muffin / Cupcake Ingredients:
2 cups almond flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 TBSP ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 cups grated organic carrots*
1 cup raisins (optional)
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
Cupcake Frosting Ingredients:
8-ounce reduced fat cream cheese
3 TBSP butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Directions for muffins / cupcakes:
Preheat your oven to bake 350.
Wisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl (almond flour, baking soda, salt & cinnamon).
In a separate, larger bowl, wisk wet ingredients (eggs, oil, & syrup).
Add dry ingredients to wet a little at a time and combine well.
Stir in the carrots, raisins and walnuts and mix well.
Place 12 liners into a cupcake pan and spoon the batter in.
Cook for approximately 25 minutes or until the tops are slightly browned and mostly firm to the touch.
Remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack before frosting (if you can … sometimes we can’t wait).
Directions for muffins / cupcakes:
Combine cream cheese, butter and sugar into a mixing bowl.
Mix well with a hand mixer until your frosting is smooth and creamy.
Frost cupcakes once they’re cooled, or store your frosting separately and there’s a small chance you might eat one without the frosting. It is possible. One of my clients did it! Though I will confess I have not yet. The frosting was a little too good to skip!
* I washed the carrots but did not peel them and no one seemed to notice. If you have organic carrots, you keep more of the nutrients if you don’t peel them.
