Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins

These simple healthy carrot cake muffins are made with the classic deliciousness of moist, rich carrot cake without refined flour or sugar.

Hello!

Man, last week went FAST!  Both my regular sitters were out all week, I had some backup help, but nothing beats my regular nanny and MIL.  So none of the posts I went up last week, but we’re back to mostly normal this week!  So starting strong with a new recipe! 

I had a tough time deciding whether to name these carrot cake muffins or cupcakes.  To be fair, they are muffins if you go light on or skip the frosting. If you go heavy on the frosting, they are cupcakes. That’s my view!  Either way, they are tender, moist, and full of nourishing ingredients with no refined flour or refined sugar! I had a hard time not eating them all while trying to get them photographed.  #pregnancyproblems  But, luckily, here we are with the finished product! If you get a chance to make these this spring, let me know!  We loved them!  

 

How to Make Carrot Cake Muffins

This is a pretty standard muffin recipe. Mix your dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls, then combine! 

Then, it’s time to mix in your ingredients and divide out the batter into a muffin tin.  Each muffin whole will be a little over halfway full.  Then bake! 

Here are a few tips to avoid dry muffins:  

• Set horizontally on the middle rack. 
• Flip the pan around 180 degrees halfway through baking (at about 8 minutes.) 
• Start checking at 16 minutes and check every 2 minutes after that.  Once the toothpick inserted into the center muffin comes out clean, remove from heat.  
• Remove the muffins from the pan to the cooling rack as soon as possible after removing them from the oven.  
• Once completely cooled, store in an airtight container until ready to frost.  

SWAPS AND SUBSTITUTIONS

• Whole Wheat Pastry Flour– You can sub regular whole wheat flour or white whole wheat flour.  Please do not substitute any alternative gluten-free flour.  If you are looking for a gluten-free carrot cake, I suggest my UBER popular oat flour carrot cake. 
• Baking powder, baking soda, and salt – do not omit or substitute. 
• Spices & Vanilla – feel free to adjust as desired. Just know it will change the flavor of the final cake. 
• Coconut Sugar – swap regular cane sugar or any other DRY sweetener.  
• Maple Syrup – swap any other liquid sweetener such as agave syrup or honey. 
• Unsweetened Applesauce – you could use more oil instead of applesauce.  The applesauce cuts down on the oil used while adding a little sweetness. 
• Coconut Oil –  swap butter or palm oil would be the best swap.  You could probably use avocado oil or canola oil, but I haven’t tried it. 
• You could probably sub two flax eggs, but I haven’t tried it. 
• Shredded Carrots – make sure to shred your own. Pre-shredded carrots at the store are HARD and yucky in dessert recipes.  Trust me. I made that mistake before. 
• Walnuts – feel free to sub pecans if you are pecans in carrot cake fan. 
• Raisins – is it even carrot cake if you do something with the raisins? 
• Cream cheese frosting – if you want to make your own healthy frosting, I suggest the dairy-free version I use on my carrot cake-baked oatmeal.  However, I usually buy my go-to Miss Jones Cream Cheese frosting and move on!  Feel free to skip the frosting as well! 

How to Freeze and Store

Store:  On the counter for up to two days or in the fridge for up to seven days.  Whether on the counter or in the refrigerator, I recommend keeping them covered in an air-tight container or bag (if you hhaven’tfrosted them yet.)  

Freeze: If you want to freeze these muffins, I recommend doing so before you frost them.  Then you can defrost and freeze them later! Freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.  

More Carrot Cake Fun:

• Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal
• Healthy Carrot Cake
• Oat Flour Carrot Cake
• Carrot Cake Greek Yogurt Pancakes
• Carrot Cake Quinoa Muffins 
• Carrot Cake Smoothie Bowl 

Tag me if you make these! I love to see what you guys make! You can tag me on Insta @hungryhobbyRD and Facebook @hungryhobby!