Recipe: Mini Carrot Cakes with Orange Icing (using coconut milk)

MINI CARROT CAKES WITH ORANGE ICING

"If I were going to eat cake, it would always be carrot cake. This is a slightly healthier twist on an old-fashioned version, made in miniature sizes so you don't overindulge."



2 cups almond flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 teaspoons ground ginger
a pinch of sea salt
a pinch of vanilla powder or 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
6 medium carrots, washed (unpeeled) and finely grated
2 medium eggs, preferably free-range or organic, whisked
1 (10 ounce) can coconut milk
1 teaspoon coconut syrup
Orange Icing (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a mini muffin pan with 20 cupcake liners.

Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl. Mix the carrots, eggs and coconut milk together in another. Combine the wet and dry mixtures and spoon into the liners - you can fill them to the top, as these cakes don't rise very much.

Cook for 30 minutes, until they are golden and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle. Then leave to cool on a wire rack.

Spread the icing on top of each cooled cake with a knife. Put the cakes into the fridge for 10 minutes for the icing to firm up, then serve decorated with the reserved orange zest.

ORANGE ICING

1 cup no-aroma coconut butter (not coconut oil), remove from the fridge 10 minutes before using
Juice of 1 orange
Zest of 2 oranges, with some kept aside to garnish
A pinch of vanilla powder or a teaspoon of vanilla extract

Whisk all the ingredients for the icing together until smooth, reserving a little of the zest to sprinkle over the top.

Makes approximately 20 mini cupcakes
Used by permission to Recipelink.com from Random House
Source: Cook. Nourish. Glow by Amelia Freer