Carrot Cupcakes with Greek Yogurt Cream Cheese Frosting (gluten free! and raisin free)

Kansas City was hit by Snowmageddon the other day and unfortunately I had such a wicked craving for Carrot Cake... usually I just go over to Whole Foods when that predicament happens but since my driveway was covered with 11 inches of fresh snow, I opted to try to whip up a healthy version at home.

Ingredients

Cake (makes 6 cupcakes)

• 3/4 cups Better Batter flour (or regular cake flour if you opt for a gluten cake)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 c granulated sugar
• 2 TBSP brown sugar
• 1 TBSP orange juice (pulp free!)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 TBSP canola oil
• 2 TBSP non-fat greek yogurt
• 3/4 cup carrots

Frosting

• 3 oz neufchatel cheese (lower fat cream cheese)
• 1/4 cup greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Directions

Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. In a small bowl, sift flour, baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon, then add salt and set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine sugars and egg until well mixed and creamy
4. Add vanilla, O.J., Oil and greek yogurt (just the 2 tbsp) to the mixing bowl and set on a low setting.
5. Slowly add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl and mix until wet
6. Fold in the carrots (that you have either sent through the food processor or manually grated)
7. Spoon the mixture into 6 sprayed cupcake tins then bake for 20-25 minutes

Frosting

1. In a mixer, combine all ingredients for the frosting.  Please note that the frosting will be more of a glaze consistency but if you would like to make it thicker, simply add another spoonful of confectioners sugar
2. Spoon on top of cooled cupcakes.

Enjoy (with or without your favorite bubbles)


Nutrition: per cupcake 240 calories/9g fat/25g sugar/5g protein