The Hunny Bunny batch

Carrot Cake: It’s my go-to cake of choice when asked for my favourite and what I’ll generally opt for to test out the quality of a new coffee shop or bakery. Don’t worry though, I’ve never reacted in the Pulp Fiction ‘Honey Bunny’ way if I end up with a drier-than-dry slice! Yet…

However, I’ve not actually made one myself since I was about fifteen. So when my shopping was delivered with a free, large bag of carrots I thought I had better redress the balance for Monday Munchies – I have been slacking in the baking department after all!

As soon as I began though, I remembered why I hadn’t bothered after the first time! Grating carrots (the old-school, ‘let’s try to avoid adding blood and knuckles to the mixture’ way) is soooo annoying. And wet. And grotty – I mean, those little ‘goldfish’ slivers stick everywhere!

Once I’d got over myself, the rest of the mixture was incredibly easy to make – I’d trawled the web and opted for a carrot cupcake inspiration. Finally, I settled on a combination of easy bakes that I tweaked a bit to my liking, the main difference being that where they required golden syrup / oil, I swapped it for clear honey.

The ‘batter’ was very liquid-y when I poured it into the cases (look at the mess I made!) and I feared I was in for a soggy mess. But 25 minutes later, out came some lovely cakes that have remained incredibly ‘that word that begins with M and means a bit wet‘. (I’m sorry, I just have an aversion to it!!)

I topped them off with some cream cheese frosting so that I could once again astound you with my icing prowess… (Seriously, why do I find this part so hard??) Oh, and I also sprinkled a little orange zest on top because I’d bought an orange and couldn’t remember why – I don’t even like oranges! (It’s the same colour as a carrot, maybe that was it!)

Result: Yummy little treats that work at any time and include one of your 5-a-day so it’s totally okay to eat the whole lot. Isn’t it? 😉

Let me know what you think and whether you try out the recipe – thanks for reading as always!

What You’ll Need: (Makes 10 cupcakes)

• 200g of carrrots, peeled and grated.
• 100g soft dark brown sugar.
• 80g of butter or margarine.
• 80g of clear honey.
• 150g of self-raising flour.
• 2 medium eggs.
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda.
• 1 tsp of cinnamon.
• 50g of raisins of chopped walnuts (optional).
• 110g cream cheese.
• 225g icing (confectioners’) sugar.
• 1tsp vanilla extract.
• Zest of 1 orange.

*For the frosting

Method:
Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4 (180 C). Line a cupcake tray with 8-10 cases.

In a large saucepan, melt together the butter, honey and sugar over a medium heat. Remove from the heat and add the flour, grated carrots, soda, cinnamon and eggs.

Mix together until you have a smooth-ish batter (the carrots will still cause lumps!) then pour into cases until 2/3 full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

For the frosting, cream together sieved icing sugar and cream cheese then mix in vanilla extract. If too runny (which clearly mine was), add more sugar gradually (which clearly I didn’t!).

Decorate each cupcake as you wish, finally sprinkling with zest for a little extra zing. Enjoy! 🙂

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Image Credits: Mine and Pinterest (Pulp Fiction scene) 🙂

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