makes 8

When I was a child I was able to eat donuts from the stores, as peanut butter everything was not a thing then. Krispy Kreme’s in Tesco where just jelly, glazed and original (the holy trinity). In California, Safeway had the most amazing original donuts and I use to have one every week (maybe day). I didn’t realise how lucky i was and that one day my original donuts would be sitting next to a Nutella filled and pb &j donuts. Now there are vegan donuts made with almond milk and everything may contains nuts. So what do i do when i want something but cant have it?! I make it myself!

Carrot cake has the best flavours and the cream cheese frosting is what dreams are made of. This recipe calls for a donut pan but i only have one that is for mini donuts and I wanted big filled donuts so I just scooped them on a pan (like you would cookie dough) and they just rose like dough, then i filled them with frosting.

Filled carrot cake donuts with cream cheese frosting

Donut ingredients

• 64g light brown sugar

• 52g caster sugar

• 118ml sunflower oil

• 2 medium eggs

• 65g greek yogurt (Fage)

• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

• 50g shredded carrot (Tesco has ready shredded)

• 192g cups plain flour

• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon

• ¼ tsp ground ginger

• ¼ tsp nutmeg

• 1 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• ½ tsp salt

• 20g sunflower seeds (if you want that nutty taste - blended or whole)

Frosting ingredients

• 3 Tbsp butter, softened

• 3 Tbsp cream cheese, softened

• 192 g icing sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 ½ Tsbp milk

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 425, and lightly spray a donut pan with cooking spray.

• Cream together the sugars and oil. Add in the greek yogurt, eggs, and vanilla, mixing well. Add in the shredded carrot and mix quickly.

• In a large bowl, combine the gluten-free flour, xanthan gum (if necessary), cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing well. Add the ½ cup pecans to the batter, and mix just until evenly dispersed.

• Transfer the dough to a piping bag or a large plastic bag with a corner snipped off, and evenly pip the better into the donut pan cavities.

• Bake the donuts at 425 degrees for 5 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 degrees without opening the oven and bake for another 5-7 minutes, or until slightly golden and cooked through.

• Remove from the oven and transfer the donuts to a cooking rack.

• To make the icing, beat together the softened butter and cream cheese, add in the vanilla, followed by the powdered sugar, and beat until smooth. Add in the milk ½ teaspoon at a time, until the cream cheese frosting is sufficiently thinned out.

• Once the donuts are cool, dip the top side into the cream cheese frosting. Return to the cooling rack and sprinkle the tops of the donuts with the remaining ¼ cup of toasted pecan pieces.

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