No added sugar carrot cupcakes

25th March 2021 | Eativity editors

Easter is coming, which means your kids might be wanting to leave out a carrot or two for the Easter Bunny (although we personally prefer Puddles the Platypus or the Easter Bilby as Australia’s official chocolate egg courier). Carrots are available year-round in Australia, but according to AUSVEG, the industry representative body for Australian vegie growers, they’re at their best value right now. So while you’re stocking up on snacks for the Easter Bunny, you might as well grab some extras so you can whip up a batch of these little beauties.

Easter Bunny carrot haul

This recipe for sweet and spicy carrot cupcakes not only contains carrots (so they must be good for you, right?), they also don’t contain any added sugar. So while they might not exactly replace a salad as a healthy meal, they’re certainly not as bad as a basket full of Easter eggs. If you want to make them even healthier, you can try using wholemeal flour instead of plain, and use light cream cheese instead of regular for the icing. And if you want to make them gluten-free, just swap out the plain flour for gluten-free plain flour.

No added sugar carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing

No added sugar carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing

Makes 12 cupcakes

You’ll need:

For the carrot cake mix

2¼ cups plain flour
1 cup Lakanto Monkfruit Golden Sweetener
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
3 large eggs
1 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
½ cup chopped pecans
¾ cup milk
1½ cups grated carrot

For the cream cheese icing

1 cup cream cheese, softened
½ cup Lakanto Monkfruit Classic Sweetener
Extra grated carrot and pecans, for decoration (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC fan-forced. Prepare a cupcake or muffin tin with cases or grease sides with oil or butter.

2. Combine all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

3. Combine all the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl.

4. Carefully fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and gently stir until fully combined. It’s important not to over-mix the batter or it will become heavy and doughy.

5. Pour the mixture evenly across 12 cupcake cases.

6. Bake for approximately 12 to 15 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, for the icing, use an electric hand mixer to whip the cream cheese with the sweetener until combined. Set aside.

8. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before icing with the cream cheese frosting. Decorate with grated carrot and pecans if you like.