Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Name: Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 12 cupcakes
Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour ((157g)); 1/2 cup granulated sugar ((100g)); 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed ((100g)); 3/4 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg; 3/4 cups canola oil ((180ml)); 2 large eggs (room temperature); 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 2 Tablespoons milk; 1 1/2 cups grated carrots ((170g)); ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans optional; 1 batch Cream Cheese Frosting

February 27, 2018 Updated March 19, 2019 BySam 155 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

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