Recipe: carrot cupcakes with lemon frosting

I’m on an adding-healthy-veg-to-lunchbox-treats kick. The Sprogs are wise to this subterfuge and requested carrot cupcakes with no visible carrot. I love a challenge, so I hopped to it (groan). They turned out rather well. Sprog 2, however, refused to eat them. She said the frosting was too lemony (after one teeny tiny nibble). Sprog 1 vehemently disagreed. So Sprog 1 has been enjoying them for morning tea this week, while Sprog 2 has been sticking with her usual environmentally unfriendly, over-packaged selection of Fruit Flakes, Shapes and Cheesestiks.

CARROT CUPCAKES WITH LEMON FROSTING

4 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

2 tsps bottled ginger

1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour

1/2 cup self-raising flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

50g butter, softened

2 eggs

1 tablespoon orange juice

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup skim milk

METHOD

Steam or boil the carrots until soft. Mash with 1 tablespoon orange juice and 2 tsps ginger. Beat butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, beating, one at a time. Add vanilla, skim milk and carrot mixture. Beat together until combined. With a wooden spoon, gently mix in flour. Spoon mixture into a patty-case-lined cupcake tray. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes, until golden.

LEMONY CREAM CHEESE ICING: Mix together 125g of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of icing sugar and a tablespoon of lemon juice and give each cupcake a generous swirl of the stuff.