less than 30 mins
10 to 30 mins
Makes 12 muffins
You can have all the same flavours and carrot cake in a muffin, plus the sweet cream cheese icing as a surprise filling.
Ingredients
- 75g/2½oz shredded
bran cereal - 225ml/8fl oz
milk - 1 medium
orange, zest only - 120g/4oz
cream cheese - 1 tbsp
caster sugar - 3 large
carrots, peeled - 125g/4½oz light-brown muscovado
sugar - 200g/7oz
self-raising flour - 1 tsp
baking powder - 1½ tsp ground
cinnamon - 1tsp
ground ginger - 2 free-range
eggs - 4 tbsp
sunflower oil
Method
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Put the bran cereal and milk in a large mixing bowl and stir just to mix. leave to soak for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper muffin cases.
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Add half the zest to the cereal and milk and put to one side. In a small bowl, add the cream cheese and caster sugar to the remaining zest and mix well – this will be your filling.
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Using the coarse-hole side of a grater, grate the carrots onto a board. Weigh out 150g/5½oz grated carrot and add to the large bowl. (Save any leftover carrots for a salad.)
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By now the cereal will be very mushy. Add the brown sugar and mix well with a wooden spoon. Sift in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger but don’t mix them in just yet.
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Break the eggs into another bowl and add the oil. Beat with a fork just until the egg yolks are broken up and mixed with the whites. Tip into the large bowl and mix everything together with the wooden spoon.
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Using a medium-sized spoon, drop a dollop of the carrot mixture into each paper muffin case in the tray. Drop a small spoonful of the cream cheese filling into the middle.
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Cover the filling with the rest of the carrot mixture, dividing it evenly among the cases. Place in the heated oven and bake for about 20 minutes until golden-brown. Check the muffins are cooked by gently pressing the centre of a muffin with your finger – if it springs back then it’s ready.
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Remove the tray from the oven and leave for five minutes, then carefully transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container and eat within 24 hours.
