Carrot Cake Muffins with “Cream Cheese” Frosting
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
39 Comments
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Just made this yesterday from Elana’s Pantry-SO GOOD!!
I had the pleasure if eating one if these birthday cupcakes today…AMAZING!!!!
🙂
Hi Darlene,
Anything with frosting is good 🙂
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!
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!
I would defintely let you know! It has been a long time since i was in Zürich!
I did the recipe it ‘s fabulous! Thank you for sharing your recipe. I discovered a new way of cooking more healthy. Merci Beaucoup!
Hi Gwenaelle,
I’m so glad you enjoyed it and that you are discovering healthy cooking!
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?
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 🙂
About how many dates would you say you used?
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…
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!
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 🙂
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.
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.
The Muffins are great and tasty expecially the topping, but the dough was a bit runny. Perhaps it was due to the size of the bananas whitch where fairly large. Perhaps it would be more helpfull to give the amount of the bananas used in Cups and not pieces. Your recepices are that great, keep them coming!
Excuse my english, I am German.
Du kannst auch auf Deutsch schreiben obwhol dein Englisch sehr gut ist!
Das finde ich toll, dass ich auch auf Deutsch schreiben kann, ich tu mich da leichter.
Ja, du kannst immer auf Deutsch schreiben. Ich verstehe alles (und kann auch Deutsch sprechen) aber kann nicht selber so gut auf Deutsch schreiben 🙂
Hi Eva-Maria,
Thank you! That’s a very good tip about weighing my bananas for future recipes because it is very true that two large bananas would be different in a recipe than 2 smaller ones. I’ll try to be more organized and clear next time 🙂
Do you have to use the vinegar?
Hi Jennifer,
No, I’m sure you could make it without. The vinegar just helps to give the muffins a bit more rise.
Hello, my boyfriend looooves carrot cake anything and I want to bake these for him, however, he is severely allergic to bananas. Any suggestions for a replacement?? Avocados maybe???
Hi Michelle,
I would try applesauce. Avocado might work, but then you have to add in more sweetener someplace to make up for the sweetness that would have been in the banana. Hope they turn out for you 🙂
Comment
These look too good to be filled with vegetables!
They taste too good as well 😉
I know this might be a silly question but I’m really wondering. When you call for coconut oil in your recipes is it in the solid form or liquid form?
Hi Misty,
No question is silly! Coconut oil is solid at room temperature and liquid when it is heated. I’m usually much too lazy to heat it to liquid form (no microwave at my house) even if a recipe calls for it. Either form would work just fine in this recipe 🙂
My colleague made these for my birthday today! Best carrot cake muffin i have ever eaten! Thank you!
Happy Birthday Sarah! What a nice colleague you have 🙂 So glad you enjoyed them!
Hi
this looks delicious, do you know what the UK measuring conversions are?
Hi Amanda,
Sorry, I don’t 🙁 I used measuring cups from America. Maybe this chart will help https://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/resources/conversion-tables/us-cups-conversion-table/
I love carrot been training to get lean what are the calories and macros each muffin if you know many thanks