Sugar and Crumbs review – part 1 Carrot Muffins

I received a selection of Sugar and Crumbs products free to review. Sugar and Crumbs are an online store who sell a range of natural flavoured icing sugar and cocoa powder. I received the following products in a handy reusable shopping bag along with a fridge magnet.
Salted Caramel Icing Sugar
Coffee Icing Sugar
Key Lime Icing Sugar
Chocolate Lime Cocoa Powder

On opening the package and seeing all these goodies inside, my mind was racing with recipe ideas. I was very excited as the only one of these flavours I had even ever made from scratch previously was coffee icing.  Previously I didn’t even know that flavoured icing sugar existed. But since there are several products to review, I’ve decided that I’m going to do a series of posts, featuring a range of recipes using these products. And the final post will also include a giveaway, so keep a look out for details.

So this first post focusses on the Salted Caramel Icing Sugar which I used to ice a batch of Carrot Muffins. Carrot cake or muffins is something I had never tried baking previously, but in January I baked my first batch of butternut squash muffins which were delicious and I thought I could do something similar using carrots. (Sorry still haven’t got round to blogging the butternut squash recipe). Carrot cake is traditionally decorated with cream cheese frosting, but I thought the salted caramel flavour would work well.

Carrot Muffins with Salted Caramel Buttercream Icing

Carrot Muffins

Ingredients (makes 12)

110g sultanas
300ml warm water
175g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
175ml vegetable oil
75g dark brown soft sugar
225g grated carrots

Method

Combine sultanas and water in a small bowl.
Soak sultanas for 15 minutes, then drain, discarding the water.
Peel and grate the carrots.
Preheat oven to 180 degree C / 160 fan / Gas mark 4.
Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.
In a large bowl, sieve together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon.
In a separate bowl, combine eggs, oil and sugar and beat well.
Combine egg mixture and flour mixture and mix just until moistened.
Fold in grated carrots and drained sultanas.
Spoon into prepared muffin tins.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes.
Allow to cool completely before icing.

Salted Caramel Buttercream Icing

Ingredients (to ice 12 muffins)

125g Sugar and Crumbs salted caramel icing sugar
63g butter

Method

Ensure the butter is softened first.
Beat the butter and icing sugar together, either by hand or using an electric mixer.
Spread on the tops of the muffins.
Serve and enjoy.

And the result was absolutely delicious. The salted caramel flavour really complemented the moist carrot muffins. The packet I received was 250g, so I’m tempted to make the same recipe again. Or should I come up with something different?

This product costs £2.99 for 250g or £4.99 for 500g so it is significantly more expensive than standard icing sugar at the supermarket, which is currently about £1 for 500g. But you have saved yourself having to search for a recipe to make your own caramel icing and some of the effort, as I expect any caramel recipe would start with having to melt butter and brown sugar. I leave it to you the reader to decide if this product is right for you? For me personally, I would buy it to use when baking a special treat.

But do take a look at the Sugar and Crumbs website to see all their other flavours of icing sugar and cocoa powder. They have an interesting range, which are all naturally flavoured. They sell cake toppers, sugarpaste and sprinkles too and have some bundle special offers.

And finally don’t forget to watch out for my other posts in this series. Post 2 will be published in about a week and a half’s time.

Disclosure.  This post is a review of products I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.