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.
Amanda Pehi
OMG If I could rate you 10 stars right now, I would! I omitted the nuts as I don’t like them in my carrot cake and I just used raw sugar but beat it a little bit longer until I couldn’t feel it in the mixture. But let me just say I used to say Carlos Bakery in Hoboken had the best carrot cake I have ever tasted and I am from Australia lol. Carlos did have the best carrot cake recipe until tonight. I put in Google moist carrot cake cupcakes and your recipe came up and it did not disappoint. I could just eat these with the topping they are that good. The flavour is amazing the texture is so light and fluffy, they just literally melt in your mouth. Do not bake them while you are by yourself, that could be dangerous as you won’t be able to stop at one lol. Thank you so much for an amazing recipe.
Jenn
Hi! These look amazing! Could I substitute with olive oil?
Sam
Hi Jenn! Olive oil will work. It will add a little bit of different flavor to the cupcakes. You could also use avocado oil, which is a bit more neutral. Enjoy! 🙂
Oakley
These are THE BEST cupcakes I have ever tasted! Definitely reccomend
Lucy
Can this be baked as a regular single layer snack cake? What size pan would work?
Sam
Hi Lucy! I would recommend my carrot cake recipe for a cake. 🙂
Stacey
These are lovely! The crumb is moist and tender, and the spices, for us, were perfect. I added a little shredded coconut to suit our carrot cake preferences 🙂 but otherwise made no adjustments to the recipe, and they came out perfectly! I paired them with the cream cheese frosting, and the combination was lip-smacking GOOOOD! Thank you Sam, for this yummy yummy recipe! It has gone into the written book, and we will enjoy it for many years to come!
lucie
Amazing recipe
erika
i had a barbecue in honor of my high school graduation recently, and in the mess of having all of my family over, we forgot to grill all 20 of our carrots! while this recipe only uses around three, the demand is enough that i think we can get rid of all of them. my mom brought these to her coworkers, and they were gone in minutes! today i’m making them again, and i’m doubling the recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sounds like these cupcakes were the perfect solution to your carrot problem, Erika! Thanks for using our recipe and congrats on graduating! ❤️
JM
Can I use melted butter instead of oil?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
That will work fine here. Enjoy 😊
Kianna Wilson
Hi! Would vegetable oil be ok here instead of canola?
Sam
Absolutely, enjoy!
Kelly
I have been using the same carrot cake recipe for years, but this will be my new go-to! Delishious! As I have always done in my former recipe, I added a pinch of allspice. The frosting recipe was perfect too!
Annie
Love this recipe, makes the moistest cake. I also use it to make a full size cake as well rather than cupcakes.
Lady Di
This is so good and fluffy you are a great baker I always go on your site for the baking
Thank you for sharing 👏♥️
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for being such a fan, Lady Di! We are so happy you love our recipes 🥰
Jean
Can this recipe be used for muffin sized cupcakes?
Morgan Ingari
These are excellent! Though I did find it didn’t quite make 24 cupcakes, more like 19 if you truly fill them 2/3 of the way. I also added 1/4 teaspoon of Chinese 5 Spice, and a 1/4 cup of apple butter I had leftover. This is my new go-to recipe for carrot cake!
Francesca Zeiss
Can I substitute for the cows milk?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Francesca! Any type of milk will work here. Enjoy 😊
Caroline
These were incredible – but they’re all gone now!! I made them in mini loaf pans and gave them as gifts.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Those sound adorable, Caroline! Love that idea 😊
Angelina
Can I use vegetable oil instead of canola oil?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes! Enjoy ❤️
Betsy Brooke Parson
Can you put pineapple in these? I always think your recipes are the best. I have been baking a long time. Thank you so much 😊
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Betsy! We haven’t tried adding crushed pineapple, but others have reported doing so with success. 🙂
Robyn
The recipe says it makes 12 cupcakes. I followed the recipe and it made 12 of the largest muffin shaped cupcakes. There was enough batter to fill each hole to the top. I guess the recipe is really supposed to make 24 cupcakes and the serving size of 12 is an error.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Robyn! That is so strange! Did you use a standard size cupcake tin? The serving size is correct, and out of hundreds of other reviewers, no one has commented with this issue. We’re not quite sure what could have happened here 😕
Sharon
Excellent
Gemma
Hi! I absolutely love this recipe I use it for both cupcakes and mini loaves! I was wondering if I could use it to make a bundt cake as well? 🙂
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Gemma! We’re so happy you love the recipe. We would actually recommend our carrot cake recipe for this, since that recipe makes a little more batter and will fit in a bundt pan. Others have reported a 55 minute bake time in a bundt pan with that recipe 🙂