B-b-b-baking: C is for B-Carotene

So, my aunt and uncle are coming here from out of town. Possibly just in time to see our first snowfall...Fun stuff. I wanted to bake something for them because I don't spend a whole lot of time at home since I have to juggle school and work.

We had a lot of carrots in the fridge. Maybe my dad is concerned about the amount of time I am spending in front of the computer at work and home? These papers and presentations have been turning me into a bit of a hermit already... That's okay though! I love excuses to use my new toy that I bought this summer from the Daiso in Richmond. My Japanese box grater! It is excellent for grating hard things like turnips, carrots, potatoes, and the like! I decided to go with some sort of carrot cake/muffin, and apparently, ginger goes quite well with carrots. And cinnamon~ I absolutely love cinnamon. Too much sometimes. I hadn't baked with ginger before, so it was something new to try out! I was tempted to go gluten-free for these as well, but I figured it wouldn't be too nice to turn my relatives into guinea pigs during their visit.

They'll be traveling around during their stay, so I turned the cake into muffins for easier consumption and transport.

Things I have learned today about ginger:
- Ginger peels super easily! Sometimes with other fruit and vegetables, peels don't come off that clean and you have to overlap a bit. For ginger, it comes right off!
- Ginger is strong and can burn your eyes like onions :(
- Ginger turns kind of stringy/hairy when you grate it...

Regardless of how it can add to a dish or how it is convenient to use, I still can't understand why some people can eat entire chunks of ginger and enjoy it.

Carrot Ginger Muffins are nice and bright! These will be good for mornings!

Vegan Carrot Ginger Muffins (adapted from Michael Runs On Veg)
*Makes 12 muffins*
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I had to reduce the flour. Sometimes, I forget that it is quite dry here.)
1/2 tsp table salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp freshly ground ginger
1/2 cup golden brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
1 flaxseed egg replacer (i.e. 1 Tbsp ground flaxseeds + 3 Tbsp room temperature water)
1/3 cup corn oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly grated carrots

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F and prepare a muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
2. Add ground flaxseeds, room temperature water, and vanilla into a small bowl. Stir lightly and set aside.
3. Peel and grate carrots and ginger into a small bowl (or your box grater~) and set aside.
Add oil and sugar into a large bowl and mix until combined.
4. Add flax egg and mix until combined.
5. In a medium bowl, add flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon and mix until combined.
6. Fold the dry mixture into the wet mixture until just combined.
7. Add soy milk and fold until just combined.
8. Fold in carrot and ginger mixture. You can also take this time to fold in some walnuts or pecans if you want to.
9. Distribute the batter evenly into the muffin pan.
10. Bake for 20 min.
11. When finished baking, remove from muffin pan and place on cooling rack to cool completely or serve right away.
*Remember to make sure the centres are cooked through by inserting a toothpick and seeing if it comes out clean.*

They make your house smell nice and homey~ It will be comforting for the long winter ahead :)

-M