Grain-free Carrot Cupcakes with Dairy-free ‘Cream cheese’ Buttercream

Every couple of months there’s a recipe that; no matter how many times I try, just won’t work out.

I have a really hard time giving up on things and have a very strong desire to reach for my dreams, no matter how ridiculous they may be.

Who dreams of making the perfect grain-free cupcake?

This girl does. And for the past 3 months, that’s all I’ve been dreaming of.

I should mention that not all attempts during this long and drawn out 3 month process were failed attempts. I’ve enjoyed countless batches of grain-free carrot muffins as a result of months of cupcake recipe testing. In fact, I’m pretty sure that if I saw another carrot muffin I’d probably die.

No more carrots for me for awhile, but you can pass the chocolate my way. Mkay?

… of course that’s after I finish scarfing down these cupcakes.

Speaking of chocolate, I made this killer sugar-free chocolate fudge that’s ridiculously high in calcium, jam-packed with super foods and is 100% carrot free. Total bummer that I’d made the fudge at 4am on Saturday morning and can’t figure out what I put in the stuff.

The only thing I can remember was thinking, “Wow, this is going to have so much calcium in it!”

Why was I up at 4am on a Saturday? The better question is why was I eating fudge at 4:30am…

I chalk it up to a magnesium deficiency. It’s all those sore muscles

Today isn’t about chocolate, it’s about carrots. So let’s get back on topic…

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Grain-free Carrot Cupcakes

Gluten free, Dairy free, Sugar free, Yeast free, Corn free, Grain free

These paleo, grain-free cupcakes are light and airy, perfectly sweet and mouth-watering good!

Yield: 12 medium-sized cupcakes

Servings: 12

Ingredients

Wet

• 3 eggs
• 6 tbsp non-dairy milk
• 6 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil, melted
• 6 tbsp carrot juice
• 5 1/2 tbsp egg whites
• 30 drops liquid stevia *see note
• 3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Dry

• 6 tbsp coconut flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp Himalayan rock salt
• pinch ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line 12 muffin tins with medium-sized paper liners.
2. Place eggs and egg white in blender and beat well, about 30 seconds. My magic bullet worked great for this!
3. Pour in carrot juice, milk, coconut oil, stevia and vanilla. Blend quickly to mix.
4. Drop in dry ingredients and mix for about 10 seconds. The batter should be slightly thicker than pancake batter.
5. Pour into prepared muffin tins and bake for 25-30 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Mine took 26 minutes.
6. Remove from pan and allow to cool on cooling rack for at least 1 hour before applying buttercream.

note: I have not tried these cupcakes with anything other than stevia and am not exactly sure how it would work with another sugar.

calories: 119 | fat: 10g | carbohydrates: 3g | fiber: 1.5g | sugars: 1g | protein: 3g

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Dairy-free ‘Cream cheese’ Buttercream

Gluten free, Dairy free, Refined sugar free, Yeast free, Corn free, Grain free

It’s so hard to find a dairy-free icing recipe that doesn’t include coconut flour, oil, or some form of coconut. For this, I wanted to make it 100% coconut free for those days (albiet it doesn’t happen much around here) where you just don’t want coconut.

Yield: 3/4 cup buttercream, enough for 12 cupcakes depending on frosting technique (I used a #21 tip)

Servings: 12

Ingredients

Stage 1

• 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight or for at least 4 hours
• 2 tbsp unpasteurized honey
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp non-dairy milk
• 1/4 cup palm sugar, ground
• 3 tbsp arrowroot starch

Stage 2

• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
• 2-4 tbsp non-dairy milk

Directions

1. Place all stage 1 ingredients in the bowl of your processor, or blender and blend on high for 5 minutes, or until really smooth.
2. Transfer to a small sauce pan and bring to a low heat, stirring constantly. Once it turns into a sticky blob mess (it should start to clump together and you’ll get concerned, don’t worry it wont look like icing now, but it will)
3. Transfer back to the same food processor and add stage 2 ingredients: lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and 2 tablespoons of milk. Add additional milk if necessary. The consistency was perfect for me at 3 tablespoons.
4. Blend until smooth and allow to cool for 30 minutes or so before frosting the cupcakes.

If you want to make this in advance it freezes really well. Remove from the freezer 6 hours or so beforehand to allow to defrost on the counter. You may need to add a touch of non-dairy milk to thin out slightly, but the flavor is just as fantastic!

calories: 73 | fat: 3g | carbohydrates: 11g | fiber: 2g | sugars: 7g | protein: 1g

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I feel like being invited to a Birthday party just so I have an excuse to play around with a chocolate version. Anyone have a party coming up that they’d like me to crash? Preferably someplace warm… it’s chilly here today!

Tagged as: buttercream, carrot, carrot cupcake, coconut flour, coconut flour cupcake, cupcake, freezable, frosting, Grain free, icing, paleo