Carrot Cake Muffins w/ Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

Okay, so now that I have a working oven, I'm totally digging this Paleo/Primal baking thing.  Way faster/easier/tastier than other baking I've done.  Sitting at home the other morning, I decided that I wanted to make carrot cake.  So, googled a few things, looked into a few of my favorite paleo bloggers, and found a couple things to try. 

Let me tell you, I'm loving the initiative of some of these women to test several recipes and tweak as they see fit, in effort to make the best product ever.  This is one of those recipes.  And I tweaked it on my own as well.  

These Paleo Diet Carrot Cupcakes are not only grain free and sugar free, but also dairy free.  And have I mentioned that they are the best carrot cupcakes I have had in my entire life??? My only complaint is that the recipe only makes 12 cupcakes.  They were remarkably fast to make - about 15 minutes of prep time - and I hand grated the carrot, and ground my own cardamom powder.  Instead of dates, I used pureed dried apricots.  Holy yum!   

For frosting, I decided to skip the recomended recipe, because I found another I thought would be amazing.  Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting sounded lovely, and I must admit that I loved that I had found two recipes that day that did not use honey.  Of course there was a little maple syrup in both, but not at all overwhelming.  For the frosting, I cut it in half because I only had 12 cupcakes :(.  But even with half the recipe, I only used about half the frosting.  Super simple and super yummy.  I used whipped cream cheese, and I love the way it turned out!  

P.S. Sorry for the sucky picture.  ;)