I don’t know about you but I love carrot cake.  A certain someone has always claimed he does not like carrot cake.  Carrots??  In a cake??  Just wrong he proclaimed.

So I had the double challenge of proving him wrong AND making them healthier.  Oh and vegan.  Triple challenge.

Challenge(s) accepted.

Like any good recipe it ALL starts with the right ingredients.  And carrots aren’t in carrot cake because people want to eat a cake that tastes like carrot.  Carrots have a natural sweetness and during the middle ages, sugar and other sweeteners were difficult or expensive to come by in Britain so carrots have long been used as sugar substitutes.

For these muffins you will want to use the fine side of the grater (the one normally reserved for such things as parmesan cheese) because even though I like carrots, I don’t necessarily want large strips of carrots in my muffins.  And I still had a certain someone to prove wrong who I’m pretty sure would have an objection if he could actually SEE the carrots in the muffins

Not just a hat rack my friend ?

And because carrot cake, like pumpkin anything, is all about the spices.  So don’t be shy with them.

There’s also no oils, fats or refined sugar in these muffins either.  Wait.  What?  And they’re still moist and delicious and everything you want from a muffin?  Damn right they are.

Ms Meg agrees.

In the interests of transparency it took me a couple of attempts to get these right.  The first batch I made with date paste and flax ‘egg’.  So much wrongness.  The date was ALL you could taste.  The mixture was too stodgy and their texture was more like a hockey puck than a muffin.  Phooey.

Then I remembered I’d used apple cider vinegar in these vegan Hot Chocolate Muffins.  The vinegar might seem a strange addition but when combined with the baking soda it causes a chemical reaction and helps leavening (replacing eggs as raising agents in vegan baking)

And yes, in the end, I did indeed prove him wrong.  Good muffins and I was right = winning at life ?

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