Carrot cake muffins recipe

Our carrot cake muffins are nutty, sweet with a hint of lemon, walnut, and almonds.

Unlike our classic carrot cake recipe which makes one large cake, this recipe makes 12 regular muffins. It takes just 40 minutes to prepare and bake a batch of these carrot cake muffins. For the topping, we've gone for the go-to cream cheese frosting and honey but you can leave this out if you want to make these muffins healthier.

Ingredients

• 225g butter, softened
• 225g soft light brown sugar
• 3 eggs, separated
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 2tsp lemon juice
• 180g self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 75g ground almonds
• 125g walnuts, roughly chopped
• 175g carrots, peeled and grated

For the topping:

• 225g cream cheese
• 2tsp runny honey

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, gas mark 4). Line a muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Cream together the softened butter with the sugar until pale and well mixed. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the orange zest, and sift in the flour and baking powder. Fold in with the lemon juice, ground almonds, walnuts and carrots.
3. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until they reach a medium peak, and fold gently but thoroughly into the cake mixture. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases, leaving a slight hollow in the centre of each one. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, until risen and golden. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
4. For the topping, beat together the cream cheese and honey until smooth, and spread over the tops of the muffins. Ensure that they are cool before doing this or the icing will melt.

Top tips for making carrot cake muffins

If you're prone to over-mixing the mixture, stir the wet ingredients together first in one bowl and then mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. To bring them together, make a small hole in the dry mixture and slowly pour in the wet.

You might also like...

Blueberry muffins

Banana muffins

Carrot cake cupcakes