Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I love carrot cake. I love cupcakes, they’re delicious. Do you love carrot cake and cupcakes? I hope so. Are you there Internet? It’s me, Patrice.

I searched for a recipe online for a straight up non-sugar, fruit or honey sweetened carrot cake recipe that didn’t sound like it would end up like a brick. There’s a lot of information out there in this world of Internet fancy food blogs and gourmet food sites. People are totally creative and pretty much awesome when it comes to alternative ingredients. Honestly, I think stevia takes gnarly and I’m not a big fan of soy flour: just throwing it out there, if you like those things by all means eat up!

I’ve discovered that using a sifter while working with whole wheat flour is of the utmost importance when making baked goods. This would seem like a pretty common sense, food not bombs kind of educated conclusion. Sifting helps break down whole wheat flour a bit so that your goodies come out less like weapons and more like delicious.

Ingredients:

1 cup of whole wheat flour, sifted

1 cup of wheat bran, sifted as much as you can

1/2 cup of ground almonds

1 1/2 cup of grated carrots

1/2 cup of raisins

1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup of low-fat yogurt

1/4 cup of canola, olive, or vegetable oil

1/4 cup of honey

1 juice of an orange, plus the zest of the orange divided into 2 parts (1/2 for frosting 1/2 for cakes)

1 1/2 tablespoons of molasses

Instructions:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees

- Fill a 12 count muffin tray with liners, or grease

- use your food processor to finely grind some almonds or chop the heck out of ‘em

- grate carrots or use a food processor for fast grated carrot fun

- sift whole wheat flour & bran into a large bowl with baking soda, salt, & spices

- Whisk 2 eggs together with molasses & honey, then add to flour mixture

- Wash and zest your orange before juicing it, reserve zest and juice

- Add orange juice and half of your orange zest to flour mixture

- Add carrots, raisins, oil and mix well

- Portion out carrot cake mixture into muffin tin using about a large spoonful for each

- Bake for 20 minutes

- Allow cupcakes to cool before frosting

Frosting Ingredients:

- A little over 1/2 a package, or 5 ounces of low-fat cream cheese at room temperature

- 1 Tbsp butter

- 1/3 cup of agave

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1 tsp of orange juice

Instructions:

- Whip cream cheese, butter, agave, vanilla, and orange juice together with the whisk attachment of an upright mixer for 5 minutes

- Refrigerate frosting mixture for at least 20 minutes in a pastry bag , or a plastic bag to be converted into a pastry bag by cutting an edge off for frosting cupcakes.

Serving suggestion:

Delicious after dinner with a stovetop cup of espresso, even more delicious in the morning as a sweet treat breakfast.

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