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.
Madhurima basu
Made these carrot cupcakes.. Simply awesome… Soft, moist and not overtly sweet.. Unfortunately it’s hot where is stay so the frosting is not firm and melt… But the taste was very good
.. Love all your recipies Sam.. Thanks for sharing
Sam
I’m glad you still enjoyed them! 🙂
Maddy
Just made these with the frosting, they are perfect! This was the first time I ever made a carrot cake recipe and it came out so *moist* and flavorful! I substituted lactose-free milk for regular and it came out great. Thanks so much!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Maddy! Thank you for the feedback on your substitution. 🙂
Stephanie
Thank you for the recipe!! I first made these a few years ago and I always come back to your recipe whenever I make carrot cupcakes. So good and so moist!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy them so much, Stephanie! 🙂
S
can I substitue sunflower oil for the canola oil?
Sam
I think that should work fine if it’s a neutral oil. 🙂
Jennifer
Best Carrot muffins ever. I cut both sugars to 100g each
Sonali Crouch
We made these today and they were awesome! It’s the best carrot cupcakes we’ve ever had. We just added some food coloring to the frosting to make it Christmassy because my daughter wanted to make these for Christmas. Thank you for the recipe!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Sonali! 🙂
Chaya
Do these need to be refrigerated?
Sam
Hi Chaya! They can stay at room temperature for up to 2 days, beyond that I would refrigerate them. 🙂
Mona Z
Hello! I put less sugar for these, and they’re in the oven right now. I’ve been baking for almost a year now, so I am pretty confident in putting everything in correctly. I think these need 20-26 minutes (5 min more than instructed) in the oven because I put a knife through and it came with lots of batter. Otherwise, amazing recipe!! I love carrot cake and cream cheese frosting!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Mona! Are you using normal sized cupcake tins? Or is your oven not quite as hot as it says it is? It’s not carrot cake without cream cheese frosting right?! 🙂
Nicole
Can I use self rising flour? I have made these cupcakes 3x already, and they are the best! But I am all out for flour today. I have 1/4 cup all purpose flour as well as lots of self rising flour, coconut flour, gluten free flour and almond flour. Are any a good substitute or should I just wait until I get more all purpose??
Sam
Hi Nicole! You can sometimes successfully substitute self rising flour by making other substitutions as well to the baking powder and salt, but without having done it myself I can’t make any recommendations.
Janice Jenks
Do these cupcakes freeze well? Maybe frost after thawing?
Sam
Hi Janice! They should freeze just fine. Frosting after thawing would be great too. 🙂
Betsy
I made these cupcakes and they received a huge reviews!
Can this be made into a 6′ cake recipe? If so, would I double or triple the recipe?
Sam
Hi Betsy! I would recommend using my carrot cake recipe to make a cake. It recipe will make 3 6 inch cakes with a little batter left over. Be sure to not overfill your pans. 🙂
Betsy
Thank you. I will let you know how it turns out!
Janet
My carrots turned green is the ratio of baking soda wrong
Sam
Hi Janet, the ratio is definitely correct. The batter may not have been properly mixed before you added the carrots, that may have done it, or if you accidentally mis-measured the baking soda that could possibly do it, too, but as you can see in the video, in the photos, and from other people’s comments green carrots aren’t really an issue with this recipe 🙂
ly pham
I follow your red velvet recipe which is hands down the best so decided to try the carrot cupcakes today. Soo yummy and super moist! Definitely going to make some more 😄
Sam
I am so glad you have enjoyed everything! 🙂
Detrial S.
Sam thanks for your lovely recipe, I’m about to try your recipe and I’m sure it’ll be divinely enjoying!!!
I’m adding just a little applesauce with cinnamon into this recipe so I will give you my feedback. Thanks
Sugar Spun Run
I can’t wait to hear how it turns out for you, Detrial. 🙂
Deborah
Best carrot cake I’ve ever had! I didn’t make the icing tho because I don’t like icing sugar
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Deborah! 🙂