Home » Recipes » Carrot Cake Muffins with “Cream Cheese” Frosting

Carrot Cake Muffins with “Cream Cheese” Frosting

Posted by lisa on 3 Feb 2013 in Recipes, Snacks, Treats & Desserts | 18 comments

It’s my husband’s birthday and his favorite kind of cake is carrot cake. I dutifully make him a carrot cake every year just like he makes me cherry pie for my birthday. I decided to make the cake into muffins since there are only two of us at home and there is no way we need to eat an entire cake. With muffins, I can take a few over to a friend after my husband has had his fill. We make almond flour muffins fairly regularly, but these really are different than muffins. Our muffins usually contain about 1 teaspoon of honey for the entire batch with no other sweetener. These muffins have a whole cup of dates and three bananas, making them truly sweet just like a cake. Hmmm…maybe they are actually cupcakes.

Yes, more like cupcakes…

Ingredients

2 cups almond flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup of pitted medjool dates
3 ripe bananas
3 eggs
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 1/2 cups carrots, grated
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
optional: you could also add raisins, chopped pineapple, nutmeg, ginger

What to do

Preheat the oven to 350 F/ 175 C
Combine almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl.
Dry ingredients
Put your dates, bananas, eggs, vinegar and oil together in a food processor and pulse until well combined.
Pour your wet ingredients from the food processor into your dry ingredients and mix well.
Mix wet into dry
Now stir in the grated carrots and walnuts.
The ‘healthy’ part
Spoon your batter into paper lined muffin tins or use silicon baking cups.
I filled my muffin cups right to the top for extra big muffins. I ended up with 11.
Ready for the oven
Bake at 350 F/ 175 C for 25-30 minutes.
Cool before frosting. They are delicious without frosting, too.

I wrote up a separate post with the recipe for the dairy free cream cheese frosting which you can have a look at here. Yes, these cupcake/muffins are wonderful. But the frosting? OMG!!! And I never say OMG.

Mr. Swiss Paleo’s birthday cupcakes

Print this post...

18 Comments

Darlene / 3 February 2013

Just made this yesterday from Elana’s Pantry-SO GOOD!!

Reply
- Julie / 3 February 2013
  
  I had the pleasure if eating one if these birthday cupcakes today…AMAZING!!!!
  
  Reply
  - lisa / 4 February 2013
    
    Reply
- lisa / 4 February 2013
  
  Hi Darlene,
  Anything with frosting is good
  
  Reply
Christian / 4 February 2013

Happy belated birthday to your husband!
This cupcakes “with frosting” looks amazing, i’m gone definitely make this beauty for my birthday next month!
Thanks for sharing!

Reply
- lisa / 4 February 2013
  
  Thanks Christian I’m starting to feel like I know you since we exchange so many comments! Be sure to let me know if you are ever in the Zürich area so we can meet up for a coffee!
  
  Reply
  - Christian / 5 February 2013
    
    I would defintely let you know! It has been a long time since i was in Zürich!
    
    Reply
    - Gwenaelle / 8 February 2013
      
      I did the recipe it ‘s fabulous! Thank you for sharing your recipe. I discovered a new way of cooking more healthy. Merci Beaucoup!
      
      Reply
      - lisa / 10 February 2013
        
        Hi Gwenaelle,
        I’m so glad you enjoyed it and that you are discovering healthy cooking!
Janice / 10 February 2013

I just made these and put them in the oven. I am wondering about them because my batter was really dry. I did not have almond flour so I used coconut flour instead, would this be the problem?

Reply
- lisa / 10 February 2013
  
  Hi Janice,
  Oh No!! Coconut flour sucks moisture out of recipes like nobody’s business and is usually used in very small quantities in paleo baking. It is mostly the fiber from the coconut and so it absorbs huge quantities of liquid. A good rule of thumb is to use one quarter of the amount of what you would have used if you were using regular flour. I’m pretty sure you are going to have hockey pucks when those muffins come out of the oven—although, it looks like you are writing from Canada so maybe a few hockey pucks will come in handy
  
  Reply
Marci / 26 February 2013

About how many dates would you say you used?

Reply
- lisa / 26 February 2013
  
  Hi Marci,
  I don’t have any on hand to do a quick measure for you and I can’t remember exactly. I’m going to guess between 5 and 8…
  
  Reply
Katie / 1 May 2013

Hi,

I’ve been looking for a great Paelo carrot cake for my sister’s birthday and these look amazing – but she wants cake not cupcakes (!!)

Any tips on turning this into a cake – I’m assuming a revised cooking time but most other things the same? How long would you suggest?

Many thanks!

Reply
- lisa / 1 May 2013
  
  Hi Katie,
  I have no idea really since I haven’t tried it, but I would guess around 45 minutes to an hour. I would start checking on it at 45…look for it to be firm in the middle and it’s done when a toothpick or knife comes out without runny goo on it
  
  Reply
  - Katie / 10 May 2013
    
    Thanks Lisa. In the end I stuck with the cupcakes, and they were absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! No-one could believe they were Paelo – and even my father went back for seconds.
    
    Reply
    - lisa / 10 May 2013
      
      Hi Katie,
      YAY!! I’m so glad they turned out for you. I love it when non-paleo people are surprised at how good stuff can taste I hope your sister had a fabulous birthday.
      
      Reply