With a whole box of leftover shredded carrots sitting in the refrigerator, I decided to make carrot muffins for this week’s breakfast. Hanna did most of the work assembling the ingredients, mixing and dividing the batter into the muffin cups. These muffins turned out beautifully. She did a great job dotting the muffins with walnut chips. Top it with cream cheese icing and shredded coconuts, they are irresistible!

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Ingredients

Muffins

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup shredded coconut
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1 cup shredded apple
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 package (4 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup confectioner sugar
• 1/3 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Line a 12-count muffin tins with cupcake liners.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
3. Whisk flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.
4. Whisk eggs, sugar, maple syrup, melted butter, oil, orange zest, orange juice, and vanilla in a large bowl until well combined.
5. Stir in shredded coconut, carrots and apples.
6. Add the dry ingredients from step 3, and fold with a spatula until batter is well combined.
7. Divide batter into cupcake liners.
8. Dot the muffin tops with walnut chips.
9. Bake in 400-degree oven for 5 minutes, the reduce heat to 350-degree and continue baking until toothpicks inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
10. While muffins are baking, whisk together the softened cream cheese, softened butter, icing sugar, and vanilla to make cream cheese frosting.
11. When muffins are ready, remove from oven and let them cool completely.
12. Spread or pipe frosting on the muffin tops.
13. Sprinkle with more shredded coconut.