Carrot and Pecan Nut Muffins

I absolutely LOVE muffins and when I heard Carrot and Pecan Nut Muffins was available for a blog post, I grabbed it! They LOOK divine and are sure to please young and old! With an option of a plain muffin or one with a cream cheese topping like a carrot cake would traditionally have, you have the perfect in between snack or tea time treat!

Ingredients

• 1 c (100 g) sugar
• 2 c (280 g) cake flour
• 2 t (10 ml) bicarbonate of soda
• 2 t (10 ml) ground cinnamon
• 1 t (5 ml) ground ginger
• ½ t (2,5 ml) mixed spice
• ½ t (2,5 ml) salt
• ½ c (100 g) finely grated carrots
• ½ c (60 g) pecan nuts, chopped
• ½ c (75 g) sultanas or raisins
• 1 c (250 ml) Clover milk
• ½ c (125 ml) sunflower oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 t (5 ml) orange zest

Cream cheese topping (optional)

• ¼ c (60 g) cream cheese
• 3 tbsp (45 ml) Clover Mooi River butter
• 1 t (5 ml) orange zest
• ½ c (65 g) icing sugar, sifted

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180 °C and grease a muffin pan or line a pan with paper muffin cases.
• Place the sugar into a large mixing bowl. Sift the cake flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ginger, mixed spice and salt into the bowl.
• Add the carrots, pecan nuts and sultanas or raisins. Whisk the milk, oil, eggs and orange zest together and pour over the dry ingredients.
• Carefully fold the mixture together until just combined, without over-stirring.
• Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan or cases and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
• These muffins are delicious on their own.
• For a sweet treat, top cooled muffins with cream cheese topping and serve as carrot cupcakes or decadent muffins.

Cream cheese topping

• Beat the cream cheese, butter and orange zest together until smooth.
• Gradually add the icing sugar and beat until the mixture thickens.

This recipe was brought to you by Clover SA’s Best Bakes! Please support this recipe book that for each sale, 15% goes to Clover Mama Afrika, so you get to receive yummy recipes AND support a great cause!