Spiced carrot cake muffins

flecked with orange zest and sweetened with honey

This is recipe is one that I created almost three years ago, that I came across buried in my notes the other day. These would be wonderful to prepare for postpartum: freezer friendly and a perfect one hand snack.

With oats to support milk production, fats from almonds, walnuts and coconut oil (coconut oil contains lauric acid which is also found in breast milk!) to nourish the kidneys and stabilise blood sugar, and gently sweetened with honey. If you have collagen or brewers yeast on hand, adding these will also provide some more protein and nutrients to further support lactation.

I always choose to use organic ingredients, pasture raised eggs and milk and local whenever I can for everything that I make but you absolutely don’t need to, to make these.

You’ll need:

• 1/2 cup of ground almonds 

• 1 cup of whole wheat flour 

• 1/2 cup of ground oats (I like to use sprouted oats)

• 1 teaspoon of baking soda 

• 2 teaspoons of baking powder 

• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger

• 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg  

• 1/4 teaspoon of allspice 

• 1/2 cup of honey 

• 6 tablespoons of melted coconut oil 

• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract 

• 1 cup of grated carrot 

• Zest of one orange 

• Juice of half an orange 

• 2 eggs at room temperature

• 3/4 cup of raw milk (or any milk of your choice, also helpful if this is at room temperature so that the liquids don’t solidfy the melted coconut oil when you combine the ingredients)

• A handful of walnut halves, chopped 

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, melt the coconut oil until runny. Add honey, vanilla extract, orange juice and zest, eggs, grated carrot and milk. Mix, mix!

3. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry. Once they’re evenly incorporated, pour the mixture into a greased muffin tin. I don’t usually use muffin cases but you totally can if you’d like. Sprinkle the chopped walnuts on top!

4. Bake on 360 F for 25 minutes or until golden on the edges and a knife comes out clean. Keep an eye on the muffins as each oven is different! Enjoy 🧡