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 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.
Bruce
It’s a year later, and I’m making them again for my friend Diane’s birthday. You can actually make 13 cupcakes from this recipe, if you want the tops to be level with the papers. If you make 12, as I did today, filling the papers nearly full (more than 3/4), they ran over a little, but, of course, those edges are the best part. They just came out of the oven, and my house smells amazing!
Heidi
Wow this recipes. I followed it exactly with a scale and everything. Was so dense… zero fluff.
Sam
I would check to make sure your baking powder and baking soda are still good. Also be sure to not over-bake them. 🙁
Sarah
I googled “best carrot cupcakes” and stumbled upon this recipe. Baked them for my sisters baby shower and they were a total hit! Everyone loved how moist and delicious they were. Followed the recipe exactly and turned out amazing! Thank you!
Laurie
This recipe is delicious. Made these for a family event and everyone loved them!
Christina
Moist, freeze well. I added both 1/2 cup raisins and nuts. Making more now to freeze
Ana
Look like a wonderful recipe, please would you tell me how adjust the time or anything else to bake mini cupcakes ?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Ana! Other commenters have reported that they took approximately 11 minutes as mini cupcakes. Hope that helps! 🙂
Andreya
Absolutely delicious!! So light and fluffy! I didn’t include the nuts on the inside, but decorated with walnuts on the outside! I also used grapeseed oil instead of canola oil. So happy with this recipe – definitely going to make it a staple.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much for your review, Andreya! We’re so happy you enjoyed the cupcakes 😊
Diana
Absolute perfection. That 4.96 star review oughta be a 5.
Brenda Reginelli
I just made this recipe today and OMG, these cupcakes are DELICIOUS! My hubby never like carrot on anything but he devour three of these cupcakes at once. He really loved them and wants me to make a whole batch to take to his job. Thank you so much for a wonderful recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Carrots never tasted so good, right?! We’re so happy to hear that our recipe was a hit, especially for your husband. Thanks for giving it a try! 🧡
August
Cupcakes were beyond perfect 🤍 i made these as a gift and everybody loved them, so moist and fluffy, just heavenly! Thank you for this amazing recipe! ❤️
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful! Thanks so much for coming back to leave a review, August 🧡
Jules Carter
Hi Sam, Can this recipe be halved?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sure! Enjoy, Jules 🙂
Mehjabeen
Thanks sooo much, i wil definitely try because i like cakes without creaming method an also its simple, u never added coconut, fruit, applesauce, u never used all these so il try it out
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yay! We hope you love them! 🧡
Mehjabeen
Hi I want 4 dozen so how will I do that:so 1 an quarter cup flour × 3 an 6 egg ,etc so everything × 3 ?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
If you want 4 dozen you’ll need to quadruple every ingredient (multiply everything by 4). Hope that helps!
Mehjabeen
Hi is this onli tasty with topping or its tasty without as well
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Mehjabeen! They’re great with or without frosting 😊
Sara
I followed the recipe exactly as described, using a scale to ensure correct amounts of all of the ingredients, and I ended up with so much oil pooling at the top of the batter that it’s completely not usable! Really disappointed and unsure of what went wrong. I bake all the time and have never had this happen before.
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened, Sara! I have never heard of this happening before. Is it possible there was a bit too much oil added into the batter?
Sara
That was my thought too, but I triple checked the weight… I was also wondering if the carrots got too finely grated and were making the mix too wet. Perhaps I’ll try it again next time I need a cake and see if I can get better results!
Alika
First time baker & tried these for my birthday yesterday- THEY WERE INCREDIBLE! My husband requested I bake them again today so we’re on our way to the store now lol. Thank you so much for this recipe! 🧡🥕
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sounds like you baked them perfectly, Alika! Thanks so much for your review–enjoy! ❤️