Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Carrot Cake Cheater Muffins

As usual, I had something I wanted to use before it went bad.  Luckily, Safeway had just run a sale on cake mixes, and I happened to be bored last night.

I have to admit that I've never really paid much attention to boxed carrot cake mix before.  Apparently those cute little orange bits in the mix are not actually carrots.  They are "carrot-flavored pieces."  Ew.  Seriously - that will teach me to read a box of cake mix.

But I had some carrots and zucchini I wanted to use up, so I ignored it and pressed on.  Supplies were as follows:

Ingredients

  • 1 (18.5 ounce) package carrot cake mix
  • 1 egg
  • 2/3 cup crushed pineapple, measured right out of the can, juice and all.
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
  • 1 cup shredded/grated carrots
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (pecans okay too)
Here comes the fun part: dump everything in the bowl except the nuts.  Mix until just combined.  Stir in nuts.  Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 22-27 minutes for mini muffins, or 28-32 minutes for regular-sized.


This recipe makes 2 dozen moist, nutty little toddler-proof mini muffins  I took a gamble, leaving out the oil, but these are unbelievably moist.  There is a legendary Diet Coke Cake that I'd like to try with this too.  No egg, just the mix, a can of diet lemon-lime soda, the pineapple and the veggies.  I'm sadly out of carrot cake mix for the moment, but will have to try it some time.

One thing to note: I put extras in quart-sized freezer bags, and defrosted a few this morning for the kidlet.  Perfection.  So make up a full batch and eat them all week.  You'll be glad you did.