Who doesn’t love a good old carrot cake! Especially when it’s super moist, slightly sweet, spicy and warming in this cold weather. These carrot muffins are all of the above plus they are so extremely quick and easy to make that literally nothing can go wrong. They make a great addition to breakfast or just a sweet treat to your afternoon coffee. And the most important thing is that they are super healthy and refined sugar free so you can eat loads and don’t feel guilty about it!

Ingredients (makes 6-8 muffins):

For the muffins:

• 250g grated carrots
• 100ml almond milk
• 100ml sunflower oil
• 100ml maple syrup
• 200g oat flour * (use GF if needed)
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 50g chopped walnuts (optional)
• a pinch of salt

* You can simply make oat flour by blending oat flakes in a food processor or high-speed blender.

For the frosting:

• 200g cashews (soaked for 4-6 hours)
• juice squeezed from ½ lemon
• 6 tbsp. almond milk
• 4 tbsp. maple syrup
• a pinch of salt

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
2. To make the muffins place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl mix almond milk, maple syrup and sunflower oil. Slowly pour the wet mixture into the bowl with dry ingredients and mix thoroughly until smooth. Then add grated carrots and walnuts (optional) and mix again.
3. In a cupcake tin prepare muffin cases (I used tulips but regular cupcake cases will work just fine) and place an even amount of dough in each. Put in the oven and bake for 20-25 min or until a wooden stick comes out dry.
4. Take out of the oven and set aside to cool.
5. While the muffins are baking, make the icing. Drain the cashews and place them in a food processor, add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth; this will take a good few minutes, you want the icing to be completely smooth and creamy so be patient.
6. When the muffins cool down, put the icing on top of each, sprinkle with chopped walnuts and they are ready to serve. Store in room temperature for up to 2 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Enjoy!

Julia xx