Dairy-Free Carrot Cake Muffins

If you know anything about us, you know we are obsessed with chocolate. Chocolate bars, chocolate ice cream, chocolate pudding… we love it all. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: If chocolate is on the menu, we don’t bother looking any further. That is, with one exception: Carrot cake.

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There’s just something about the combo of carrots, raisins, walnuts and spices that gives us allll the feels. But we love the idea of leaving animal products out of our diets as much as possible (plus, dairy doesn’t always agree with us 😳). And, despite the fact that it’s got a vegetable in its name, carrot cake isn’t exactly the healthiest dessert. So we decided to try our hand at concocting a healthier, dairy-free version that’s more like a muffin than a cake (so we have no guilt diving in every. single. day.).

For the cake portion, we took inspiration from our No Bake Blackberry Cheesecake Bites and our super popular Fresh Fruit Tartlets,which combine dates and cashews in the food processor to create a “crust.” Except, since carrot cake traditionally includes walnuts, we replaced the cashews with them.

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For the frosting–the hardest part to make dairy-free, we paid homage to one of our favorite recipes–Vegan Key Lime Cheesecake (coming soon to a blog near you ;)), which uses cashews and a few other pantry staples to make a delicious, dairy-free frosting. We combined soaked cashews (we soaked them to get them nice and soft, which helps add some creaminess to the mixture), almond milk, coconut oil, coconut flakes, maple syrup and vanilla extract, and a slash of lemon juice and water (to keep the mixture moving) in our processor. The result: Creamy, sweet frosting we had no shame licking from the bowl.

Muffin Ingredients:

• 3 cups shredded carrots
• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1 Tbsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 cup raisins

Dairy-Free Frosting Ingredients:

• 2 cups raw cashews, soaked overnight
• 2/3 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/3 cup water (use more or less to achieve desired consistency)
• 2 Tbsp. shredded coconut
• 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• Lemon juice, to taste

Directions:

1. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Combine all muffin ingredients except for raisins in a food processor and process till a “batter” is formed.
3. Add raisins and pulse for a few seconds until evenly distributed but still whole.
4. Divide mixture evenly across muffin cups and press down using fingers or back of spoon until smooth and firm.
5. Rinse food processor then add all frosting ingredients and process until smooth and creamy.
6. Top muffins with frosting then place in fridge for at least one hour to set.