Carrot Cake Muffins

He first had carrot cake when he visited Canada as a child and now it is a birthday staple. She never really gave much thought to carrot cake, but has started to perfect her American version for the occasional dessert for him. This time we decided to try making our usual carrot cake recipe into muffins because they are easier to serve and we love using our muffin cups! Of course, you can make a cake instead.

Carrot Cake: 

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
4 cups grated carrots
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or almonds (we use almonds)
  
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 

Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large bowl mix together the sugar and eggs. Stir in the oil and dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon). 

Fold in the carrots and nuts.

 
This time we made half with nuts and half without because of allergies.





Spread into the prepared pan or muffin cups. 

A cake will take 40 to 45 minutes, muffins take about 15 minutes. Check if done with a toothpick. 


Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup finely chopped almonds (or other nut)

Beat the cream cheese and butter until completely mixed together. Add the powered sugar and optional nuts. Once again, we made half with nuts and half without nut icing.

Frost the muffins or cake once they are cool.