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 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
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.
Ruby
These look delicious Sam! Will definitely be trying the soon ♥️
P.S your blog is beautiful
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much for the positive feedback, Ruby! I am so glad that you have enjoyed my blog. I hope that you enjoy the cupcakes when you try them. 🙂
Joana
I just tried the recipe and it was soooooooo good. It was a hit to my cousins and aunts. Will definitely make this again in the near future. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that everyone enjoyed it, Joana! Thanks for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
T
Thanks for sharing this recipe, it was amazing! I made a few changes since I didn’t have the full amount of carrot but I used one large carrot which was about 1 cup and I used all brown sugar, and coconut oil instead of canola oil. It was easy to make and the cupcakes turned out so moist and paired perfectly with the cream cheese frosting.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Tamera! Thanks for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Yana
Made this last weekend and they were amazing! I only made half of the frosting and it was still so good. Even my husband who doesn’t like carrot cake liked them very much!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you both enjoyed them, Yana! Thank you so much for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Lauren
Seriously amazing recipe I can’t even tell you how many compliments I got on these. Fab wait till name again soon
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoys the cupcakes so much, Lauren! 🙂
Dawn
I made these last week and they were AMAZING. Very easy to follow as well. I’ve been quarantine baking. Thank you so much for this recipe!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them and found this time to try new recipes, Dawn. 🙂
Mel
Omg these look and sound amazing! I would love to make them too, but I have a question. I don’t have brown sugar; would the recipe still work if i substituted the brown sugar for white sugar? Thanks! 🙂
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you, Mel! They will still work, however, the brown sugar really enhances the flavor so the results will not be the same.
Liz
Hello Sam! I wanted to thank you so much for the wonderful recipe- these by far are some of the best carrot cake cupcakes I’ve made. Loved how moist they were! I do have a question- is it possible to turn this into a one or two layer cake? Would you think I’d need to adjust any measurements? Thank you again! Hope you are staying safe and healthy!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the cupcakes, Liz! I have a carrot cake recipe that has the measurements listed for you that you can try next! I hope that you stay safe as well. Thank you for commenting. 🙂
Katrina
These turned out perfect! I followed the recipe exactly except I did not have walnuts so I added raisins instead. Very moist and soft and delicious! I don’t like tons of icing so I followed the suggestion to half the recipe and it produced the perfect amount of delicious fluffy icing. Very glad I tried these!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you tried my recipe too, Katrina, and that you enjoyed the cupcakes. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Alivia Luckcuck
Made the cupcakes and they are addicting!! 480kcal thats an insane conversion to reg Cal are you sure that’s correct?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Alivia! I am really glad that you enjoyed them. According to my calculations, the cupcakes are 219kcal each. 🙂
Laureesa Marnoff
This was delicious! I had made a little extra carrot shredding to add as sprinkles 😍 I was nervous about making because there were so many recipes to choose from and it was my 1st time maiing carrot (cup)cake. My boyfriend loves carrot cake and this recipe is now his favorite. Thank you for sharing it! I’ll be making it more often.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy to hear that the cupcakes were a hit and you know have new favorite, Laureesa! Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Angela
Just finished making these and they are amazing! I only had mini cupcake liners so I just used what I had since I didn’t want to go out to the store. I baked for 15 mins and that was perfect. I also subbed 1/4 c unsweetened applesauce for the oil, and I think the recipe still came out just fine. Thanks for sharing!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the recipe, Angela! I am happy that the applesauce worked well as a substitute. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy! 🙂
Daisy Mata
Love this recipe! Made it twice. However noticed that this recipe has a lot of oil in it! Is there any way I can reduce the amount of oil in this recipe? Or can I sub some of the oil in this recipe for something else.
Sugar Spun Run
I am glad that you have enjoyed the recipe, Daisy! Carrot cake is oil-based, rather than butter-based. This keeps it moist and helps it last for days. You can experiment with substituting some of the oil with unsweetened applesauce, but not certain how it will alter the taste or texture of the cake since I have not tried it myself. Let me know what you end up trying and how it turns out. 🙂
Sama
Followed the recipe to a T and it came out perfect. In-fact, I made a double batch for Easter and most of them are now gone! I thought the amount of carrots might be too much, at the beginning, and overpower the rest of the ingredients but it all came together in the end perfectly. Also followed the recipe for the cream cheese frosting and it came out great too. I received many compliments for them. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Sam
Thank you for the wonderful feedback! I am so glad everyone enjoyed the cupcakes. 🙂
Cynthia
This recipe was so easy and came out amazing! Super moist! I stored them in an airtight container on the counter before frosting them. My first time making anything carrot cake like and my goodness, everyone loved it! Sooo delicious. I used vegetable oil instead of canola.. I also added a tad bit more cinnamon, which gave it a nice cinnamon flavor (reminded me of cinnamon teddy grams).
Yum yum yummmm
I would post a photo but it doesn’t look like i can here.. Thank you for the recipe!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the cupcakes so much, Cynthia! Unfortunately there isn’t an easy way to post pictures here, but if you have a facebook account I have a facebook group you can join. I’d love to see them! 🙂