Carrot Cake, Take 2 aka SUCCESS!!!

Summer Carrot Muffins

After yesterday's dismal results, I hit the books in search of a recipe to better my first and found Stephan Franz's simple and summery Apricot Muffins, from one of my all time dependable cook book, The Cook's Book. I modified his recipe for 2 reasons: a. I hate apricots, and 2. I was on my carroty quest. So I present my formula below:

250g (8.5 oz) carrots, shredded and pat dry
100ml (3.5 fl oz) carrot or orange juice
375g (13oz) flour
4t baking powder
125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter
125g (4.5oz) sugar
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
250ml (8.5 fl oz) plain yogurt
Grated zest of 1 orange or lime

1. Soak carrots in juice for 3 hours
2. Sift flour & baking powder, set aside
3. Beat butter, sugar, salt until light & fluffy, add eggs & beat well
4. Add yogurt, zest & drained carrots to the party
5. Gently introduce the flour & mix briefly
   
6. Spoon into greased muffin tins
7. Bake at 180'C (350"F) for 25 minutes or well rised & golden
8. Bring them to the park (above) or zoo (below) & take some lovely pics for the family album

As I don't fancy oranges much, I've used lime zest instead to give the muffins a lively background, and baked them in mini tins rather than jumbo sized ones, but it is your preference, just tweak the baking time accordingly.

I'm pleased with the results, the muffins were light and not too sweet. Soaking the carrots in carrot juice enhanced their inherent flavor which is usually lost in many carrot muffins, and they added an orange hue to the overall results. Lovely!