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.
Christine
Can I use apple sauce instead of the oil?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Christine! Others have done this with success, but they report a more dense cupcake. 🙂
Char
This recipe is amazing! I have made 3 batches in 2 days. Some for the freezer, some for now and some to share with family. I was also asked to share recipe. I followed this recipe exact except I was able to frost all 36 with half the frosting. I don’t like lots of frosting and wasn’t trying to frost fancy.
Cherry
Can I use this recipe to make a cake instead of cupcakes? I’ve tried this recipe for a few times and everyone loved it. 🙃
Sam
Hi Cherry! I would really just recommend following my carrot cake recipe. 🙂
Pat
Can these be frozen- obviously without the icing?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Definitely! We’d recommend wrapping each cupcake tightly in plastic wrap and freezing in a ziploc bag. 😊
Cail
Adding the wet ingredients to the dry one at a time (instead of mixing all wet ingredients together first) led to over-mixing and dense/gummy cupcakes on my end. Do you have success with the method shown here?
Sam
Hmm, it actually sounds like the cupcakes may have been under-baked, unfortunately. The technique here is deliberate, specifically used to reduce the risk of over-mixing (it’s a riff on reverse creaming, and hard to over-mix the batter when done this way). If everything was measured properly then I think it may just be a matter of needing a bit more time in the oven. I hope that helps!
Sam
I should also note that if the ingredients weren’t well-mixed as indicated that could also leave you with an undesirable final texture.
Jennie
Really fantastic, delicious, moist and easy to make. I added a mix of walnuts and raisins to the same weight. Highly recommend this recipe! Thanks
Kristin
Fantastic recipe. Family loved them.
CJ
These cupcakes do taste great BUT both batches sunk in the middle of the cupcakes! All ingredients were fresh, oven works perfectly.
Very disappointing
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened! There are a few things that can cause a sunken cupcake. If your oven temperature was accurate that one is checked off. The cupcake liners may have been overfilled, the batter could have been over-mixed or your baking soda/powder may have been bad. 🙁 I’m glad you still enjoyed them! 🙂
Brittany
Just finished making these for Easter tomorrow. Go ahead and do yourself a favor and stop searching for the best recipe – THIS IS IT! They are so yummy and moist and the cream cheese frosting recipe listed is divine!! I left out the nuts and the nutmeg and they are perfect.
Isabella Seay
I love this recipe I am going to use it for Easter Sunday!!!
Ashley Kelly
Just made these cupcakes! They are sooo good. Could they be made in advance? How should they be stored?
Sam
Hi Ashley! They can be made in advance. They will store for a few days in an air tight container. You may want to hold off on adding the icing just because it has cream cheese in it and it’s best if that stays refrigerated. 🙂
Darcie
Would this recipe work if I added crushed pineapple? I’ve heard that helps keep it moist but I wouldn’t want to mess up the balance of the other ingredients
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Darcie! Others have added crushed pineapple with success, but we haven’t tried it ourselves. If you do, let us know how they turn out for you 🙂
Brittany
These look good! Could I leave out the nutmeg? I’ve noticed some recipes don’t have it.
Sam
Absolutely, enjoy! 🙂
Cathy
Can I bake these in a jumbo cupcake pan and if so, how long to bake?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Cathy! That should work fine, but we aren’t sure on the bake time. Just keep an eye on them! Enjoy 😊
Maggie
How did you get 219k cal?? I copied and pasted it into a recipe calculator and got 389!!! And that’s without walnuts and the frosting cut in half!
Sam
Hi Maggie! The calories are calculated without the frosting here. 🙂
Nayy
Hi Sam, I plan on doubling this recipe do I also double the time or do I bake the 24 cupcakes at 20 mins?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Nayy! You just want to double the ingredients when doubling the recipe, not the bake time. Hope that helps 😊
Leta
What would be the baking time for mini cupcakes?
This recipe is crazy good!
Sam
Hi Leta! I haven’t tried it so I don’t have an exact time for you. I would just keep an eye on them. 🙂
Linda Mays
Love this recipe. Soft and moist. I also used the cream cheese frosting. Posted pictures on Instagram.