Planet Veggie

If you’re one of the tens of thousands of people who receive a weekly vegetable box delivery, you probably spend a lot of time wondering what to do with carrots.

I’ve blitzed them in smoothies, dunked them in hummus, and mushroom pate, cooked them in stews and bologneses but most of the time, because they go limp quickly, a lot of them end up in the compost. Last week after yet again receiving a big bunch of carrots, I decided to do something more ‘carroty’ with them and use them as the basis for something, rather than just added to something to simply use them up.

I used to have a cookbook with a recipe that required a lot of grated carrot (I remember this because in 1999 I broke a grater grating all the carrots for it) but I no longer have that cookbook and, apart from carrots, I have no idea what else was in the dish.

Then I thought, ‘Aha! Of course, carrot cake! That must use up a lot of carrots’, and so I set about looking at various carrot cake recipes on the internet and found out that, actually, they don’t use many carrots at all and, as a result, this recipe only uses one carrot. So, these are more flour and other stuff cupcakes, than carrot cupcakes, but they’re sweet and moist and it’s one fewer carrot wasted on worms. (Actually, I have no problem feeding worms. Worms are entitled to eat, just as much as anyone else is.)

These are vegan carrot cupcakes and so I’ve used a flax egg instead of a real egg. If you’re not fussed about keeping it vegan, use a real egg. If you are fussed about keeping it vegan but don’t know what the hell a flax egg is, don’t panic; I’m about to tell you how to make one.

If, after reading how to make a flax egg, you want to make one but either haven’t a clue where to buy flax seed meal or, you don’t know if after buying some you’d ever use it again, you can use applesauce instead (1/4 cup applesauce = 1 egg), which is available in any supermarket (and, as I’ve just looked at the Tesco website and seen they sell milled flaxseed for £5.80 a packet, you’d be better off buying a jar of applesauce for 55p anyway).

For more information on egg substitutes have a look at this vegan baking egg substitutes guide on Connoisseurus Veg.

How to make a flax egg

Mix 1 tbsp flaxseed meal (or grind 1 tbsp flaxseeds into powder) with 3 tbsp water.

Let sit for a few minutes until the mixture has thickened.

Use in any baking that requires an egg. (Obviously increase the quantities of ingredients depending on how many eggs are needed, i.e. for 2 flax eggs, use 2 tbsp flaxseed meal mixed with 6 tbsp water.)

Please note a flax egg isn’t a suitable substitution for any time you see eggs in a recipe but they can be used when making cakes, cookies and brownies, etc. So, don’t try to make an omelette out of a flax egg, it’ll only lead to the culinary equivalent of a one night stand – a tasteless and messy disappointment.

Print

Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Number of servings: 6

Per Serving 182 calories

Fat 10 g

Carbs 21 g

Protein 3 g

6

Ingredients

• 1 flax egg
• 80g wholemeal flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 60g brown sugar
• 1 tbsp soya milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 small carrot (about 40g)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 160C
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, nutmeg and sugar together in a bowl
3. Add the flax egg, olive oil, soya milk, vanilla extract and carrot and mix well
4. Put cupcake/muffin cases in a muffin tin and spoon in the cupcake batter, leaving a gap of about 2cm at the top
5. Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes, until golden
6. Remove from oven and leave to cool

Please note all nutritional info is approximate and will depend on your own ingredients and quantities.