Carrot Cake Cupcakes
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Soft, fluffy, and moist carrot cake cupcakes! Made completely from scratch with real grated carrots and the option to add nuts or raisins, these cupcakes are always a hit! Make sure to top them off with the absolute best cream cheese frosting.
Carrot Cake Cupcakes will forever be my favorite way to get my daily serving of vegetables. Give me a cupcake and a zucchini muffin for each hand and I’ve got the bottom of the food pyramid covered.
Alright, maybe carrot cake cupcakes aren’t the best way to get your daily vegetables, but it’s definitely the tastiest, especially when topped off with a very generous swirl of cream cheese frosting. They’re soft, moist, and cheerfully fluffy, these cupcakes taste like springtime and sunny weather (which I could really, really use right now!).
These carrot cake cupcakes are a modified version of my favorite carrot cake. The recipe is almost identical to the cake portion except for a bit more liquid in the batter — the original is perfect for cake but I found it to be too dense in the small space of a cupcake liner and added some milk for a bit of levity.
I use all oil in this recipe (no butter) for the moistest (sorry if you hate that word, if you have a better substitute I’m happy to hear it!) cupcakes, and thanks to the spices you’re not missing anything in terms of flavor, I promise! I found that butter just didn’t give these cupcakes the texture that they really needed.
I have a few tips on how to make your own carrot cake cupcakes turn out perfectly, so let’s get into that!
Tips for Making Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- I recommend using the grate setting on your food processor to prepare your carrots, and then briefly pulsing them in your food processor for fine shreds of carrot. I feel like just grating them leaves carrot pieces that are too big, but don’t overdo it when you pulse or you’ll have carrot juice and it will impart way too much carrot flavor into your cupcakes!
- If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a hand grater to grate your carrots.
- While I didn’t use them for my carrot cake cupcakes, you can add walnuts, pecans, or raisins (why, though!) to this recipe, if you’d like. This batter can hold about 1/2-1 cup of add-ins.
- This recipe can be doubled to make 24 cupcakes.
Enjoy! The full printable recipe is just below the video, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you enjoy watching these videos!!
How Do You Make Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups (157 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar packed
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¾ cups (180 ml) avocado, vegetable, or canola oil
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 1 ½ cups (170 g) grated carrots
- ½ cup (60 g) chopped walnuts or pecans, optional
- 1 batch Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a 12-count muffin pans with paper liners.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl using an electric mixer), whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.1 ¼ cups (157 g) all-purpose flour, ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar, ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar packed, ¾ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- Stir in oil. Add eggs, one at a time, pausing to scrape down sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat until well-combined.¾ cups (180 ml) avocado, vegetable, or canola oil, 2 large eggs
- Stir in vanilla extract and milk.1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract, 2 Tablespoons milk
- Add carrots and nuts (if using). and stir until combined.1 ½ cups (170 g) grated carrots, ½ cup (60 g) chopped walnuts or pecans, optional
- Evenly divide batter into cupcake liners, filling each ⅔-¾ of the way full. Transfer to oven and bake on 350F (175C) for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs.
- Allow to cool in the baking tin for 5 minutes before carefully removing to a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating with cream cheese frosting*.1 batch Cream Cheese Frosting
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
Can I make these in a mini version?
Hi Cyndee! You shouldn’t have any problems baking these as mini cupcakes. 🙂
I love these cupcakes, made them and made the cream cheese frosting also. They were over the top!!!!!! Great job Sam❤️
I made these for my father in laws birthday. He loves carrot cake however, I didn’t have the right pans to make a full on cake so when I found this recipe I decided to try it having never made carrot cake before. I also made her cream cheese frosting as well. Let me tell you my picky about his cake FIL raved about these after trying them. They turned out moist and flavorful and the frosting was just the right amount of sweetness. I will for sure make these again.
Made them for a birthday celebration and everyone raved about them
So first of all, every recipe I’ve tried of yours has turned out perfectly except when i stray from the recipe in some way. With one exception: the last two times i made the carrot cake cupcakes which normally are a dream, they sunk and spread drastically, and i have no clue why. All i can think is that i used walmart brown sugar which is essentially white sugar with the fairest tint of brown. It can’t possibly have molasses in it or enough moisture. But ive used it in other recipes no problem. What do you think this is?
I’m so sorry to hear this is happening! Is your baking soda and baking powder still good? Are they fully baked? Is your oven acting up? I’m sorry I don’t have a better answer, just trying to figure out some things that could help. 🙂
I never have left a review on a recipe before but the cupcakes AND frosting came out beautifully for a going away party. You’re a life saver!
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Kris! I truly appreciate you taking the time to leave a review! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Definitivamente los mejores cupcakes de zanahoria,Son suaves, húmedos y alegremente esponjosos, como los describes, los hice anoche y gustaron mucho hoy los decorare con tu glaseado de queso crema mmmm deliciosos.
Te sigo hace más de un año he probado varias de tus recetas todas muy buenas, pero tengo un problema con las minidonitas, no logro que se me esponjen y queden suaves, aconsejame por favor, gracias
Hi Nelly! Thank you so much for your support and kind words. I’d love to help you, but I’m not sure exactly what recipe you are having trouble with. Can you send me the link?
This is THE BEST CARROT cupcakes in my entire life! I’ve tried a few before and nothing compares to this. I have sent it to everyone I know who baked because it is so easy, it’s well written, it’s hard to mess up and the best part was that it’s single bowl recipe my FAV!!! Thank you so much, I’m excited to try more recipes from you!
I love these cupcakes! I substitute date sugar because I need less sugar. They turned out wonderful!
Wonderful! Thanks for letting us know how that substitution worked for you, Alice 💗
Hi I am about to try this recipe for my husbands birthday. He is however a type 1 diabetic but occasionally eats a carrot cake. In other bakes I have used coconut sugar as he seems to tolerate it more. Can I replace the cane and brown sugar with coconut sugar? Is there also lower sugar recipie for the cream cheese frosting ? Thank you !
Hi Seema! I haven’t tried coconut sugar as a substitute here so I can’t say for sure how it would work. I’m not sure how a sugar substitute would work for the frosting. 🙁
trying the recipe tonight! yum!
I hope you love it! Let me know how they turn out! 🙂
I made them and LOVE this recipe! All my coworkers loved it too! Thank you Sam! Question: Can I use a little less sugar?
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Melanie! I’m so glad it was such a hit! I haven’t tried reducing the sugar. They could potentially turn out, but without having done it I can’t say for sure how good they will be.
These were absolutely delicious… however, I added fresh chopped pineapple… the batter seemed too wet and after baking, the cupcakes were falling apart upon trying to remove from the paper. Can I just add flour to combat this? Or would that change the flavor?
Hi Emily! I’m glad you ultimately enjoyed them! The excess moisture would have been from the pineapple. Honestly without having tried it I can’t say for sure what the best method would be.
Hi, can these be frozen?
Sure thing! 🙂
Regarding Melanie’s question about adding less sugar. Yes, you can. Reduce the white sugar to 50 grams. Add 1 tablespoon of powdered milk to the flour to make up for the sugar.