Moreish vegan carrot cake muffins with cream cheese frosting

When I mentioned to my friends that I was working on this vegan carrot cake muffin recipe, to my surprise, I got a mixed response. Some were very keen to try the recipe, but others were put off by the idea of eating vegetables inside a cake.

But I am a big carrot cake lover, so I simply had to create this vegan & dairy-free recipe and hope that by making them into cute bitesize muffins it would be more appealing to all the carrot cake haters out there.

I have made these gluten-free as I do believe that with the right flour, you can achieve really lovely squidgy cakes with none of the belly aches! But if you prefer, you can substitute the flour like-for-like with gluten-based flour.

Carrots are quite a sweet vegetable full of moisture, so I believe they complement desserts and cakes well. But I will leave the final verdict to you, after you try out my version of this classic cake, in muffin form!

Lucy

Vegan carrot cake muffin recipe

A gluten-free and vegan recipe with cream cheese frosting

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Servings: 12 muffins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: British

Ingredients

  

Cupcake Mix

• 9 tbsp aquafaba (the water from a can of chickpeas)
• 200 g Soft light brown sugar
• 125 ml Organic sunflower oil
• 240 g Gluten-free self-raising flour
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp Ground ginger
• 230 g carrots finely grated
• 100 g Pecans roughly chopped

Frosting

• 200 g Icing sugar
• 100 g Vegan cream cheese
• 50 g Vegan butter
• 50 g Coconut yoghurt I use Alpro soy yoghurt

Equipment

• Mixer
• Sieve
• Muffin tray

Method

 

1. Preheat oven to 180° (fan 160)
2. Grease a muffin tray (the mix makes 6 large muffins or 12 smaller muffins)
3. Start whisking the aquafaba with a mixer (or a handheld electric whisk), you’ll want to whisk for about 10 minutes until the mix is stiff and has formed white peaks
4. Gradually spoon in the sugar to the aquafaba mix whilst still whisking
5. Set aside the aquafaba and sugar mix
6. Sift the flour with the baking powder and spices into a large bowl
7. Mix in the finely grated carrots and chopped pecans to the flour mix.
8. Stir in the oil until well incorporated and then fold in the aquafaba-sugar mix
9. Pour the cake mix into the greased muffin moulds
10. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden brown
11. Take out of the oven and leave to cool
12. Whilst waiting, sieve the icing sugar into a bowl
13. Whip up the butter and cream cheese together until smooth and well incorporated
14. Whisk in all the icing sugar to the butter and cream cheese mix
15. Gradually spoon in the yoghurt whilst mixing, take it slowly to avoid curdling.
16. Once the muffins have cooled, pipe on the frosting – or simply spoon straight on top!