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.
Jade
I usually don’t do carrot “muffin” cause they either end up dry or to moist. But these are delicious! My boyfriend doesn’t even like carrot cupcakes and now he can’t stop eating them!!! The cream frosting is totally worth it, it adds so much flavour and makes them even more delicious:)
(used only egg whites and it was still good!)
Lina
I made them with gluten free flour and they were amazing! I just had to put in more milk.
Andromeda LeTourneau
Will these work with frozen carrots (thawed out)?
Sam
That should work just fine. 🙂
Susan
delicious!
Helen
Best carrot cupcakes I’ve ever had!
I subbed 1/4 of the oil for EVOO to make it a bit healthier and not a single cupcake was left.
Jill Ellis
Can these be made with gluten free flour?
Sam
Hi Jill! Unfortunately I have not tried it so I can’t say for sure how they would turn out. Let me know how it goes if you do try it. 🙂
Radhika J Shah
Hi! So I just made these for my husband using gluten free flour. and they turned out wonderful! Still delicious 😋!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much! Thank you for the feedback using the gluten free flour. 🙂
Bruce
Light, moist, fluffy (which is rare in carrot cake), and carroty. As usual with spices, you use them as a complement, rather than as a full-fledged flavor. There is a hint of cinnamon, and just the warmth supplied by the nutmeg (I used freshly grated, as I’ve told you before. It makes a big difference in things). These things are perfection in a paper wrapper. I’m glad that I got 15 by filling them 2/3 full, because 12 are for a friend’s birthday, and I get three. I ate one unfrosted already, and it was great. When the other two are frosted, they’ll be even better.
Daniel
I didn’t have cupcake liners so instead I made these in a loaf pan (banana cake style), baked them for 45 minutes and it was a fantastic breakfast snacking cake! No frosting needed! I added some shredded coconut flakes to the batter for extra texture and it came out amazing! Will make this again for sure!
Bruce
Sam has a video on how to make your own liners with parchment paper.
Meghan Chambers
Can I use olive oil instead of canola oil?
Sam
Sure thing! 🙂
JaNae
This recipe was flawless! Difficult to only eat one cupcake at a time. It yields more batter than 12 typical sized cupcakes but I just rolled with it and filled the cupcake liners for bigger cupcakes and added about 5 minutes to the time. Turned out perfectly baked and fluffy.
Kris
Hi! My sister and i really love this recipe. I was wondering if i can turn it into an 8” cake?
Sam
Hi Kris! I would recommend using my carrot cake recipe instead. 🙂
t
Hello!, I had an idea.. do you think it would work to swap out the carrots for apples..?, I’m not sure if the extra water would be a problem or if I could add a bit extra flour?, if you see this Please lmk what you think! Thank you.
Sam
To be honest, I can’t say for sure how it would work. You could run into issues with the extra moisture from the apples and you’d probably need a little more tweaking other than just some flour, but it could be an interesting experiment. Let me know how it goes if you try it. 🙂
Yousra Khalidi
Hey, can I use normal sugar instead of brown sugar as I don’t have it and I need to make these now.
thanks
Sam
You can use granulated sugar, but you will lose some flavor.
Terri
You can make your own brown sugar. Just add a bit of molasses to your granulated sugar. The more you add, the darker it becomes (light vs dark brown sugar). Use a stand mixer if you have one. Store in airtight container and you’ll have it whenever needed 😊☺️
Rose
I’ve made this recipe a few times now and I love it. But two of the times I made this I must’ve done something wrong: The cupcakes collapsed and looked like a volcano crater and was crispy on the top. What could I have done wrong? Is there something I did when I converted to european measurements? The batter did look very thick compared to the ones on the picture. Hope to hear from you!
Sam
Hi Rose! All of the ingredients are listed in grams in parentheses so you shouldn’t have to do any conversions. It sounds like something was potentially mismeasured or miscalculated when converted. 🙁 I’m glad you have enjoyed it though! 🙂
Joanne B
Absolutely the BEST recipe! I’ve made these several times and everyone raves about them. I get more than a dozen cupcakes. I fill about 1/2 way and they yield about 16-18 and bake one tray at a time.
Malou
Hi, any chance I could use xylitol instead of sugar? I can’t use sugar. Thanks
Sam
Hi Malou! Unfortunately, I am not familiar with using xylitol so I can’t say for sure how it would work. If you do try it, I would love to know how it goes. 🙂
Hailey
Hi there…. Plan on making these soon. They sound great! Just was curious as to how long they can stay fresh for if unfrosted? Have a busy schedule and want to try and save some time for the day of. Thanks!
Sam
Hi Hailey! The cupcakes without the frosting will keep just fine in an air tight container at room temperature for 4 days. 🙂
Marilyn S Borbas
Hello.
I’ve read the recent reviews and want to make these as mini cupcakes.
What would you suggest as baking time?
Thanks!
Sam
Hi Marilyn! Unfortunately I haven’t baked them as mini cupcakes so I can’t say for sure. 🙁
Cici
I did 13 minutes for mini cupcakes.
Rose
I tried these out, but they were much sweeter than expected. The cinnamon is also a little overpowering, but im wondering if maybe my cupcake pan size had anything to do with it?
They’re very moist and otherwise turned out well, but I’ll probably lessen the sugar next time I make these