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 ½-1 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
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
Recommended Equipment
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 canola 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 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
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Kalen Capellan
Can this be made into a regular cake versus cupcakes?
Sam
Hi Kalen! I actually have a carrot cake I would recommend using instead of making this into a cake. 🙂
Hosanna James
Very Nice it was very easy to make and tasted delicious!
KB
My first time making carrot cake. My grandma just told me this was the best cupcake she’s ever had. My new go to recipe and it was super easy. Thank you!
Denise O
Very delicious and moist cupcake. This recipe will definitely be my go to for carrot cake cupcakes.
Oscar
Hi! I’m reading you from Spain. We do have more olive oil or sunflower oil available here. Which one you think could be better instead of the ones you suggested?
Thanks 🙏🏼
Sam
Hi Oscar! I would use sunflower oil. 🙂
Lisa
Hi, can I use almond milk instead of regular milk? Thanks in advance!
Sam
Hi Lisa! I have not tried using almond milk so I can’t say for sure how it would work. You don’t need a lot so I don’t think you will have any issues, but if you do try it, please let me know how it goes. 🙂
Ann I.
I was on a mission to make my husband a homemade carrot cake for his birthday. So of course I looked here, since you have other recipes I’ve tried in the past. Well, I came across this recipe, which was better since he is a bigger fan of cupcakes vs cake.
THANK YOU!! It was so good that he not only ate more than one, but asked me to make them again. This is now my family’s favorite carrot cake recipe. Also, the nurses at work say thank you too (I took some to work as well). They are so good that we didn’t even eat them with frosting.
Sam
You’re welcome, Ann! I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much! Thank you for trusting my recipes. 🙂
Aunt Tam
My family just loves these cupcakes. The cupcakes are so good! With or without the cream cheese icing their to die for!
Druetta F Russell
Can you add pineapple?
Sam
Hi Druetta! I haven’t personally tried adding pineapple, but others have done so with success. 🙂
Ash
The cake tastes great. I ended up not putting any nuts and decreasing the amount of cinnamon. It was perfect. One thing that I will do next time, though, is halve the sugar down. Because the cake is SWEEEETT. Like, really sweet.
Bruce
For Tammy,
I make a lot of mini cupcakes, and a recipe for 12 regular cupcakes usually makes about 48 minis.
Dana Hermann
How long did you bake the mini cupcakes?
Bruce
I’ve never made this recipe as minis, but in general, I think I bake minis about 14 minutes, same temperature.
Janine K Clark
hi, what is the baking temp and time if i do mini cupcakes? thanks! Janine
Sam
Hi Janine! I haven’t personally done them as minis, but the temperature would remain the same. I would guess a good bake time would be somewhere around 11-14 minutes. 🙂
Laura
This is the best carrot cake cupcake recipe! I have made it a dozen or so times and the recipe comes out perfectly. My only edit is to double the cinnamon, use salted butter, and add a sprinkle of cayenne. Thanks for sharing this incredible recipe!