Healthy Redesigned Carrot Cupcakes Recipe

This is the second Carrot Cupcake recipe I've created. I decided the first recipe could be easier and, yes, even yummier. So I set about to make a newer, better recipe. Motivated by the upcoming celebration of our son's marriage to his college sweetheart, I spent the week before the event (dubbed the I Do BBQ) planning, shopping and making the dishes and dessert.

Our son Nur and his college sweetheart Annaliese met over 11 years ago. Nur participated in the Anime club on campus and met Annaliese there. Smitten from their first meeting, Nur spent much of the years winning her over—a true romantic tale. Both being minimalists and creatures of habit, they seem made for each other, highlighted by their love of Anime and annual vacation to Comic-Con in San Diego. The two lovebirds married in a private ceremony at San Francisco City Hall (a beautiful and cheap venue) on June 19th. The I Do BBQ allowed the extended family to meet Annaliese and share their well-wishes with the newlyweds.

Run the carrots through your juicer and add the filtered water. Add coconut oil, honey and eggs to a medium-size bowl and mix thoroughly then add to the carrots.

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. I used quinoa flour and buckwheat flour, but you can choose any flours you want—make it gluten-free or add 2 cups of one type of flour. Your choice.

Add the carrot mixture to the flour mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the vanilla, lemon juice, walnuts (optional if you like) and raisons. Add a bit of water if the mixture is too dry. Batter should be wet enough to easily scoop into cupcake papers. Sprinkle with some natural sugar and bake.

Viola! The buckwheat flour made these cupcakes look like chocolate cupcakes. I certainly fooled a few when they bit into the delicious cake. The crowd loved em!

Carrot Cupcakes ReDesigned

from Chris Pedersen

yield 16 cupcakes

category Dessert

cuisine Vegetarian, no sugar

ingredients

3 carrots

1/2 C filtered water

2/3 C coconut oil, melted

2/3 C raw honey

2 eggs

1 C buckwheat flour

1 C quinoa flour

1 C rolled oats

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 C chopped wlanuts

1/2 C raisons

1-2 Tbsp coconut sugar or sucanate

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º

2. Run carrots through a juicer and use juice and pulp. Add water to carrots and pulp.

3. In medium bowl, mix together oil, honey and eggs. Add to carrot mixture.

4. In separate bowl, mix flours, oats, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

5. Add carrot mixture to dry ingredients and mix well. Add vanilla, lemon juice, walnuts and raisons. Combine.

6. Scoop mixture into cupcake papers in a muffin tin. Fill to just below the top. Sprinkle coconut sugar or sucanate on top of each cupcake.

7. Bake for 20 minutes. Test with toothpick.

I elected to add some fun and decorative frosting to the cupcakes. A search for vegan cream cheese frosting yielded this perfect and easy recipe. If you want to do something similar on top of your cupcakes, take a sandwich bag and cut a teeny, tiny triangle off one bottom corner of the bag. Scoop in the frosting then squeeze from the top of the bag (this can be messy) until the frosting comes out of the hole. Decorate away!

What's your idea of a good cupcake recipe?