Carrot Muffins

Mathematics is difficult. carrots are tricky things to plant,  you have to work the soil well to make sure there are no lumps so the carrots grow straight. Planning for teaching maths is like planning to teach Swahili. carrots originated in Afghanistan. I can never seem to concentrate long enough on one topic and the topics seem all over the place anyway. carrots never used to be orange, they were purple, red, white and yellow. Geometry. Chance & Data. Measurement. Number & Place Value. And what's the other one? the orange carrot we know today was invented to honour the Dutch Royal family, known as "The House of Orange". Patterns and Algebra, that's the one. The most horrible one of all. I think that you either have a maths brain or you don't. There's no halfway with maths like there is with English. beta-Carotene is the substance that gives carrots their orange colour. it is in a lot of different fruits and vegetables and if you eat too much sometimes your skin will start to glow orange....natural tan much. The tricky thing is, maths is exactly like learning a new language. If you don't get the basics you can't do anything else. people used to wear the leafy tops of carrots as hair or hat accessories. Trying to plan to teach something I don't enjoy is very challenging and makes me want to eat. one cup of carrots contain 52 delicious calories. I don't know much about maths. i know a lot about carrots and i know you should make these because they make planning to teach maths a little bit bearable. 

Carrot Muffins
1 3/4 cups wholegrain self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sultanas
1/4 cup walnuts
2 or 3 grated carrots
1 cup of milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons oil

Preheat the oven to 200 Celsius and line a muffin tray.

In a large bowl combine the flour, bicarb soda, sugar, cinnamon, sultanas, walnuts and carrots.

In a small bowl whisk the eggs, milk and oil. Tip the wet mixture into the dry mixture and combine (don't mix the heck out of it, just gently fold it together).

Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tray and bake for 15-20 minutes.  Once they have cooled slightly you might want to top them with cream cheese icing (30g butter, 80g cream cheese, 1.5 cups of icing sugar beaten and dolloped on top), I did this while mine were still warm and so the cream cheese became extra melty and delicious. They are also amazing served with butter and just on their own with a nice glass of iced chai tea.