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Some daycares in Switzerland take place exclusively in the woods. They are known for encouraging an adventurous spirit in even the littlest participant.

My little participant loves going into the forest and playing relentlessly. If it’s a muddy day, she gets so dirty that you can’t tell what colour her jacket is anymore.

There are shovels for digging, small handsaws next to a group of saplings to practice sawing skills, and mallets for opening up walnuts from nearby trees.

I made these carrot muffins decorated like owls for the last class of the season.

As walnuts had been a theme throughout (the kids cracked their own nuts for snacks, and also made cute little boats out of the shells), I wanted to incorporate walnuts into the batter, using walnut flour and oil from a local mill in Münsingen.

The rest of the recipe is a standard carrot muffin one that I’ve cobbled together over the years (shout out to Cook’s Illustrated and Canadian Living), and same with the cream cheese icing. The decoration is not my own—you can find plenty of variations of the Owl muffin/cupcake online.

And how’s this for a compliment, someone commented that they liked them better than the classic Aargauer carot cake. Aw shucks.

Muffins:

150 g flour

50 g ground walnuts

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

120 g sugar

2 tbsp molasses

3 eggs, room temperature

170 ml walnut oil

225 g carrots, grated

Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F / gas mark 4.

Line a muffin tin with muffin liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, walnuts, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and baking powder.

In another large bowl, mix the sugar with the molasses with a fork until you have what looks like brown sugar.

Whisk in the eggs, then pour in the oil in a slow stream, while still whisking.

Fold in the flour mixture, then the carrots, being careful not to overmix.

Fill into your prepared muffin tin.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until you press on the top of the muffin tin and the cake springs back completely.

Let cool completely before decorating.

Icing:

300 g cream cheese

50 g icing sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

Decoration:

M&Ms or Smarties

flaked almonds, lightly toasted

round cookies (here I used small stroop waffels, but Oreos also work well, see here)

Whisk together the cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon juice. Taste for sweetness, and add a little more icing sugar if necessary.

Spread onto the cooled muffins and decorate.

• I would normally use British/North American style dark brown sugar in these muffins, but as this is hard to come by in Switzerland, I use Lone Star Kitchen’s Stacy Streuli’s method. She makes her own brown sugar by mixing regular white sugar with molasses (picture of the molasses I usually use, below).

• If you don’t have walnut flour other ground nuts can be substituted, and neutral oils like canola, can easily take the place of the walnut oil.

Muffins:

150 g Mehl

50 g Baumnussmehl

1 TL Zimt

1 TL Natron

1 TL Salz

½ TL Backpulver

120 g Zucker

2 EL Melasse

3 Eier, Raumtemperatur

170 ml Baumnussöl

225 g Rüebli, gerieben

Mehl, Baumnussmehl, Zimt, Natron, Salz und Backpulver in einer Schüssel mischen.

Zucker und Melasse mit einer Gabel in einer Schüssel mischen. Eier darunterrühren. Unter ständigem Rühren Baumnussöl langsam dazugiessen.

Zuerst die Mehlmischung, dann die Rüebli sorgfältig unter die Zucker-Ei-Mischung ziehen. Teig ins vorbereitete Blech verteilen.

Backen: ca. 25 Min. in der Mitte des auf 180 Grad vorgeheizten Ofens. Nach dem Backen die Muffins aus dem Blech nehmen und auskühlen lassen.

Topping:

200 g Frischkäse (Empfehlung: Philadelphia)

50 g Puderzucker

2 EL Zitronensaft

Verzieren:

M&Ms oder Smarties

Mandelscheiben, leicht geröstet

kleine, runde Cookies (Ich habe hier stroop waffels benutzt, aber Oreos passen auch gut, siehe hier)

Frischkäse, Puderzucker und Zitronensaft verrühren, auf den Muffins verteilen, als Eulen verzieren.

• Das Baumnussmehl kann durch andere gemahlene Nüsss (zB. Mandel) ersetzt werden. Auch das Baumnussöl kann durch Rapsöl ersetzt werden.

• Wer das Topping etwas süsser mag, kann noch 1-2 EL Puderzucker hinzufügen.