Carrot cake muffins

Serves:

12

Ingredients

• 3 cups grated carrots
• 2 cups (400g) brown sugar
• 2 cups (300g) self-raising flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups (375ml) vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

  Icing

• 50 grams butter
• 75 grams cream cheese
• 1 cup (150g) icing sugar
• Fondant
• Orange and green food colouring

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with muffin liners and set aside.

Peel and grate the carrots, and set aside.

In a bowl combine sugar, flour, spices and oil into a large bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, stir in carrots and walnuts (optional) and combine until all ingredients are moist.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then cool further on a wire rack.

In a bowl using a mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth and then gradually add the icing sugar until light and fluffy. Use a small amount of green food colouring to colour the icing. Spread over cooled muffins or if you have a grass icing tip Wilton No.233) you could make the top look like grass.

To make the carrots, colour the icing and knead the colour through. If it gets a little sticky you can use icing sugar to thicken it again. Taking a small piece roll a tapered tube then put small indents in. Using green fondant, create the leaves and poke them into the top of the carrot a wee bit to secure them.

Tips:

Serving Suggestions

Note

• The oil in this recipe must be tasteless so please use a neutral oil like vegetable oil and not olive oil.
• You need to mix this recipe until the ingredients are just moist. If you over-mix muffins they become tough in texture.