This weeks bake I have been craving a good carrot cake for a while, I usually make my own recipe adapted from an old recipe that I have swiped and changed things over years, but when I saw this Waitrose magazine recipe from the November edition with coconut I couldn’t resist trying it. I love making muffins or smaller cakes as that way they are easy to package up and send out to all family. The coconut frosting is what caught my eye as I had never seen coconut cream being used before but love it so much, the icing was quite runny but thickened in the fridge and hardened overtime. The icing is quite sweet and I didn’t use all the recipe made so have adapted it the recipe to make less, the other bonus is that it makes them a little bit healthier if you have less or no icing. My mum being a savoury lover prefers the muffins without the icing and as they are so moist it isn’t needed anyway.
Ingredients for muffins
- 175g Soft dark brown sugar
- 2 Large eggs
- 150ml Sunflower Oil
- 200g of Carrots (About 2 carrots)
- Zest of 1 Orange
- 100g Dried Apricots
- 50g Desiccated Coconut
- 1/2 tsp of Vanilla bean paste
- 1tsp of Mixed Spice
- 1 1/2 tsp of Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tsp of Bicarbonate of Soda
- 160g Self Raising Flour
Ingredients for Icing
- 40g Salted Butter
- 1 tbsp Coconut Cream
- 80g Icing Sugar
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius, line a muffin tin with 12 cases, if you prefer larger muffins use 10 cases.
- In a large bowl whisk together the two eggs and soft brown sugar until well combined, then add the oil.
- Grate the carrots and chop the apricots into small pieces, then mix into the wet mix along with the vanilla bean paste, orange zest, and desiccated coconut.
- Weigh the flour and spices and bicarbonate of soda and fold into the wet mix, do not over mix. Fill the cases with the mixture and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
- Leave the cakes to cool, whilst they are cooling prepare the icing by beating the butter with an electric whisk until light and fluffy, add the coconut cream and beat again until smooth then add the icing sugar until light and fluffy.
- Toast the desiccated coconut in a dry pan until lightly browned and leave to cool.
- Spread the icing onto each muffin, and sprinkle with the toasted coconut and serve.
Willey's Weekly Bake 