Gluten-Free Carrot Cake Muffins

Lovely wheat-free carrot cake muffins - gluten-free

Wake up with a warm and lovely carrot muffin.

The snow has turned to rain this week and our Cape Cod winter rental (no cozy fireplace or wood stove) feels chilly and dampish. Which makes yours truly want to crank up the oven and bake. And with skies as gray and thick as old flannel- darling, it has to be muffins. Something bright and light and perfect with tea. Something fun to lo lift our cabin-feverish spirits. Something, perhaps, like these tender little bundles of gluten-free joy. So cute and sunny.

I love the carroty color. The subtly fragrant texture of coconut flour and quinoa flakes. A hint of cinnamon and ginger. A bite of raisin.

Seriously tea worthy.

And more fiber rich than say, a powdered donut. Or your average gluten-free bagel which is nothing but starch (not that I have anything against starch these days; I am rather embracing Doris of late). This a treat you can eat without a heavy helping of self-imposed guilt.

Truth is I don't count calories or worry about dieting.

At my age (or any age?) I think worrying can make you gain weight.

Focusing on all the food you can't have. Thinking about how many bites is too much. Cutting back so drastically on caloric intake or carbs or fat that your blood sugar plunges faster than a carnival ride. You don't want to be around me if I'm on a diet- or a low-carb regimen. I am one wildly cranky be-atch. I lose brain cells. I see flashing lights.

I tip over.

I claw through the refrigerator overwhelmed with the sensation of deprivation.

Until I find the long lost bag of gluten-free pretzels.

Then I'm done.

And done in.

So I don't bother with the details when I need to lose make friends with my yearly winter weight gain. And I may as well confess- ! I don't go sugar-free any more. I eat a brownie cupcake. There I said it.

Then I go for a walk (if it isn't zero degrees).

I try to keep moving. Because the reason I gain a pie roll this time of year has less to do with carbs and fat grams than you think. It's not the morning muffin that gives me my muffin top. It's the hibernation. The paucity of exercise. The bump on the log that I become once the sun sets- at 4:42 PM.

It's hard to burn calories watching reruns of Mad Men and new episodes of Downton Abbey.

Unless you're on a treadmill.

Which, like Betty Draper, or Countess Violet, I am most decidedly not.


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Frosted Carrot Cake Quinoa Bars

Frosted carrot quinoa bars. Gluten-free. Dairy-free.

Gettin' Fancy

My intrepid husband slash sous chef was craving a carrot cake style quinoa bar for a mid-morning snack. To be exact, he said, Hey. I'm craving a carrot cake style quinoa breakfast bar. You know. For breakfast. To which yours truly replied, Look who wants to get fancy. My chocolate chip quinoa breakfast bars aren't good enough for you? Now you need frosting? To which said long suffering husband replied, Frosting makes everything better.

Who am I to argue with that?

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Gluten-Free Carrot Cake

Lovely and classic gluten-free carrot cake 

with coconut, iced with lemon cream cheese frosting.

Karina's Gluten-Free Carrot Cake Recipe with Coconut and Cream Cheese Icing

Recipe posted June 2006.

Once in a blue moon I get a hankering for this old school classic. Lucky for me it translates well to gluten free. This recipe is based on one of my own [pre-gluten free] standbys. I changed it very little, except for the flour.

Please note: This recipe has no added leavening because it is using a leavened baking and pancake mix.

Ingredients:

3 large organic free-range eggs

1/2 cup light vegetable oil or Spectrum Organic Shortening

1 cup organic light brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup plain yogurt or coconut yogurt

2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon honey or agave (for added moisture)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice, or Apple Pie Spice [or a mix of nutmeg, clove, ginger, allspice]

2 cups Pamela's Gluten-Free Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix *see notes

3/4 cup flaked sweetened coconut

1 1/2 cups processed or finely grated carrots (about 4 medium carrots)

1/2 cup golden raisins or currants

1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts or pecans

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9-inch Springform cake pan.

In a mixing bowl beat the eggs; add the oil and beat; add the brown sugar and beat till smooth. Beat in the yogurt, vanilla, honey, cinnamon and spice. Add in the baking mix and beat till combined. The batter should be a bit thicker than wheat flour batter. Add in the coconut, carrots, raisins and nuts; stir with a wooden spoon to combine.

Spread the batter evenly in the cake pan; and place the pan in the center of a preheated oven. Bake until the cake is firm, and a wooden pick inserted into the center emerges clean, about 40 to 45 minutes or longer if necessary - I baked mine at high altitude. Cool on a wire rack.

Frost with your favorite cream cheese icing and sprinkle with coconut, if desired.

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:

4 oz. softened cream cheese
2 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract, to taste
3 cups powdered cane sugar- or more, if needed

A squeeze or two of fresh citrus, to taste- lemon, lime or orange

Instructions:

In a mixing bowl beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the vanilla. Add in the powdered sugar a cup at a time; squeeze a little lemon or other citrus juice into the frosting and beat till smooth. Taste test. Add more sugar, if needed, to thicken; add more juice to thin.

Frost the cake.

Makes one nine inch cake.

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

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Karina's Notes:

For replacing Pamela's Baking Mix, I used to say just try another leavened GF baking mix or GF pancake mix- but I no longer believe all GF mixes/GF flour blends behave the same way. You'll need to experiment.

Gluten free cakes tend to dry out quickly. If you are not serving this cake the day you bake it, I'd advise chilling it to firm up the icing; wrap well and chill. For more than a day ahead, I would wrap and freeze it; thaw the day of serving (remove the wrap so the icing doesn't stick!) and served slightly chilled.

 

Vegan Carrot Soup- Easy + Delicious

Simplicity in a Bowl

Here's a fresh and easy vegan carrot soup recipe for spring. Why soup? Because it rains in spring. It snows in spring. It even does so simultaneously, accompanied by thunder, out here in the wilds of sunny New Mexico. We experienced the gamut of meteorological events over the weekend as we were loading boxes of books into the car. Four seasons in one day. Packing and unpacking. Once again weeding out what is no longer necessary, hunched in our cramped little storage unit, out of the stinging sleet, rummaging through boxes, weeding out for the next move. The migration West. 

To Southern California.

We are boxing and unboxing on faith. Sorting and donating. Our home inspection is on Wednesday and we expect no problems. The sale will progress. So I've been cleaning out drawers. And just where do all the crumbs come from anyway? In a junk drawer. I'm sure you have one. The drawer with twenty year old scissors and three screwdrivers that are never the correct size and rubber bands from asparagus bundles and dry brittle tape. Wine corks. This is a mystery. Do I nibble that many cookies wandering around the house looking for thumb tacks or glue?

I've also been rinsing out my collection of almost empty shampoo bottles (for recycling, yes, don't panic). I think there were five. An inch of shampoo collectively. I was saving this for goddess knows what. If I was more practical I'd simply add water near the end and use up every last drop in my shampoo ritual. But that fresh new bottle is always calling to me, with its powerful allure. Promises of pomegranate and green tea volume and luster. Offering the hope that this might be The One. The long lost key that will transform my flat and inept hair into something fabulous.

You would think, by my age, I would know better.

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