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.
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How Do You Make Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (157g)
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100g)
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed (100g)
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¾ cups canola oil (180ml)
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 1 ½ cups grated carrots (170g)
- ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional (60g)
- 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.
- 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.
- Stir in vanilla extract and milk.
- Add carrots and nuts (if using). and stir until combined.
- 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*.
Notes
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.
Jenn
These are delicious – the party guests (who LOVE carrot cake) raved about them. Will definitely make again. Wish I would have made myself an extra batch 🙂
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy everyone loved them, Jenn! Thanks for trying our recipe and letting us know how it went. 😊
Valarie Odle
I have tried so many different carrot cake recipes. This is by far the best one I have ever made and made no substitutions. I can’t get my family to stop eating them. Thank you so much for sharing! 5 stars!!!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wow, thanks so much Valarie! We are so happy they were a hit for everyone. Enjoy! 😊
Mel C
My husband’s favorite is carrot cake anything, so my daughter and I made him up a batch of these for his birthday and he devoured three in one sitting lol! The only change I made was I substituted the canola oil for coconut oil and they were the most moist and flavourful cupcakes ever! And don’t get me going on the frosting…the tastiest, easiest frosting….ever! Although, yes you could probably frost 3 dozen with the yield, so if you’re real frosting happy just perfect lol😀 Definately recommend trying this recipe, and I am now going to request an ebook from Sam, because I’m going to try her sugar cookies next, and am looking forward to other recipes!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy he loved the cupcakes, Mel! Thanks so much for trying our recipe and letting us know how it went for you 🙂
Janet
Why would you use Canola oil? Not vegetable oil?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Janet! Any neutral oil will work here, so you can use vegetable if that’s what you have on hand! Enjoy 😊
Heather
My favorite recipe. This is now my go to for company or snack attacks. So moist and the cream cheese frosting recipe is literally the icing on the cake. So. Good.
Chantal
Loved the cupcakes, but I found the creem cheese icing too sugary. Added another brick of cream cheese but could have added a third one.
Terri
Hi,
Just wondering-can you double this recipe and make a 9×13 cake or a 2 layer cake?
Sam
Hi Terri! While it should work, I would recommend using my carrot cake recipe instead. 🙂
TAMARA LINDSEY
If I wanted to make.mini cupcakes how long will I bake for?
Sam
Hi Tamara! Other commenters have reported that they took approximately 11 minutes as mini cupcakes. I hope that helps! 🙂
Cheryl
Are these cupcakes or muffins? U referenced to them as muffins before putting them in oven
Sam
Hi Cheryl! This is a cupcake recipe.
Daniela
My first time baking something from scratch! This recipe was easy and delicious! Thank you for explaining it so simply. My whole family enjoyed it. Excited to try more recipes.
Glory
Hi. I want to try this recipe. Can I include dry fruit instead of nuts? What other frosting can go with this recipe? I don’t have easy access to cream and cheese here.
Sam
Dry fruit should work fine here. You can really use whatever frosting you’d like, my Buttercream frosting, or german buttercream would be really great options. 🙂
Dalicia Nance
OMG! These cupcakes were amazing! So good! I added some finely chopped macadamia nuts. Delicious! Super easy to make. Will definitely be my go to recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sounds delicious, Dalicia! Thanks so much for commenting and reviewing 😊
Bruce
I have now permanently replaced my old carrot cake recipe. The little bit of nutmeg (I used freshly grated) really adds to the flavor of these delicately spiced, amazing tasting cupcakes. Because of the added milk, they hold together beautifully, and I wish I could think of the right adjective to describe their texture. If a person didn’t like them (which I can’t imagine), they’d probably call them spongy, but I can’t think of a positive replacement for that word, because everything about the texture is positive – moist, solid without being dense, and nicely soft (I guess it takes that much description to say “spongy” in a good way). Unlike some carrot cake recipes, this one is delicately spiced, so it isn’t a spice cake with carrots.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sounds like these were a total hit for you, Bruce! We appreciate your lovely review and hope you enjoy the cupcakes–while they last, anyway! 😊