Carrot Cake Cupcakes — These soft, moist, tender cupcakes are the BEST carrot cake cupcakes I’ve ever had!! They’re fast and easy to make, and come together in minutes!
Easy Carrot Cake Cupcakes Recipe
These carrot cupcakes have been months in the making. They were well worth the wait though, because they’re the best carrot cake cupcakes I’ve ever had. I love carrot cake and wanted to turn one of my favorite cakes into cupcakes, but the road was paved with snags.
I love this Carrot Cake Loaf, but the recipe was written to be made as a loaf cake rather than as cupcakes. The cake is incredibly moist and I knew it would produce dense, heavy cupcakes. I wouldn’t mind because I think good carrot cake should be on the denser and heavier side, but others may prefer their cupcakes a bit lighter.
I also have this Carrot Pineapple Banana Bread, a tropical spin on carrot cake. And Cinnamon and Spice Sweet Potato Bread, which uses similar spices to carrot cake, but neither are cupcakes.
A couple months ago, I tried to make carrot cake cupcakes and accidentally overfilled my muffin pan. I wound up with splooging mushrooms rather than cupcakes. Instead I made Soft and Chewy Spiced Carrot Cake Cookies. They turned out to be some of my favorite cookies, so all was not lost.
And there’s a recipe in my cookbook for Carrot Cake and Cream Cheese Cookies, which have cream cheese baked in and they’re great cookies, but they’re not cupcakes.
Now I finally have my carrot cake cupcakes and I love them. They’re fast and easy to make, and ready from start to finish in under 30 minutes. The batter comes together in one bowl without a mixer.
They’re soft, the perfect balance of dense yet light, and so moist. There’s nothing worse than dry cake, and cupcakes tend to dry out even more so than cake, and these are anything but dry.
They’re oil-based rather than butter-based. Oil keeps cakes, breads, and quickbreads softer, springier, and more tender than butter. The carrots themselves add moisture and texture, as do the raisins.
Bland carrot cake isn’t worth eating and the cupcakes are pleasantly spiced in a way that’s robust enough to complement the natural flavor of the carrots. They’re sweet, but not overly so.
The tangy vanilla cream cheese frosting, which is a must-have, balances the sweetness and rounds out the flavors.
All my trials and tribulations of perfecting these carrot cake cupcakes were so worth it!
What’s in Carrot Cake Cupcakes?
To make this carrot cupcake recipe, you’ll need:
- Eggs
- Canola oil
- Granulated sugar
- Brown sugar
- Sour cream
- Vanilla extract
- Spices
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder and baking soda
- Grated carrots
- Raisins
- Cream cheese
- Unsalted butter
- Confectioners’ sugar
How to Make Carrot Cake Cupcakes
This carrot cake cupcake recipe is as easy as it gets! Simply stir together the eggs, oil, yogurt, spices, sugars, and vanilla. Then, stir in the dry ingredients before folding in the grated carrots and raisins.
Fill 12 greased muffin cups with the cupcake batter and bake until the cupcakes are domed, set, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
Let the carrot cake cupcakes cool completely before whipping up the vanilla carrot cake frosting. If you frost the cupcakes while warm, the frosting will slide right off.
Can I Double This Recipe?
I’ve only made this carrot cupcake recipe as written, but readers have reported success with doubling this recipe.
Can I Bake This Recipe as a Carrot Cake?
I’m not sure! I’ve only ever made this recipe as cupcakes, which are lighter and fluffier than traditional carrot cake. If you’re craving carrot cake, I recommend baking my Salted Caramel Carrot Cake, Pumpkin Carrot Cake, or Carrot Apple Cream Cheese Tunnel Cake instead.
Can I Freeze Carrot Cake Cupcakes?
Yes, you can freeze unfrosted carrot cake cupcakes for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to enjoy the frozen cupcakes, place on your counter to thaw and make a fresh batch of carrot cake frosting.
Should I Refrigerate Carrot Cake Cupcakes?
Because these carrot cake cupcakes are topped with a vanilla cream cheese frosting, they need to be stored in the fridge. However, refrigerating baked goods makes them dry out faster so be sure to store these cupcakes in an airtight container.
Tips for Making Carrot Cake Cupcakes
If you don’t like raisins, you can omit them. I’m a raisin lover and they’re a must. Or, if you like nuts, add some, but I prefer to keep those little pebbles out of my soft, tender cupcakes.
And a quick note about the carrots – I use a box grater on the coarsest blade and it takes less than 2 minutes to grate them. I prefer the consistency of doing it by hand rather than using a food processor. Don’t use bagged, pre-shredded carrots from the grocery store either, as they’re often quite dry and too large for my liking.
I just spooned on the vanilla cream cheese frosting, but pipe if you prefer. I don’t pipe unless I absolutely have to because so much precious frosting sticks to the bag and is wasted!
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Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup sour cream or thick Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ cups coarsely grated carrots, 2 to 3 medium/large carrots, peeled
- ½ cup raisins, optional
- ½ cup nuts, optional
Frosting
- ½ cup 4 ounces cream cheese (light is okay), softened
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, more or less as desired
Instructions
For the Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 12-count muffin pan very well with floured cooking spray or use liners (Cosmetically, I prefer avoiding the ripples and ridges that liners produce).
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the first 11 ingredients (through optional salt) until combined.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and stir until just combined, don’t overmix.
- Fold in the carrots, optional raisins and nuts.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan. Fill each muffin cavity between 2/3 and 3/4-full. Do not exceed 3/4-full because they will overflow. You may have batter remaining for a 13th (or 14th) cupcake and it’s better to either discard it or bake it in another pan even though it’s a pain for just 1 cupcake. I have overfilled, and then overflown, trying to make it all work in one pan.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, or until cupcakes are domed, set, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
- Allow cupcakes to cool in pan for about 15 minutes before removing and turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- While cupcakes cool, make the frosting.
For the Frosting:
- With an electric mixer, beat together first three ingredients on high power until combined and light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Slowly add the confectioners’ sugar and beat to incorporate. Play with sugar ratio based on desired frosting consistency. If you accidentally add too much sugar, add a bit more cream cheese to thin it out.
- Frost the cooled cupcakes. I spoon on about 2 tablespoons frosting per cupcake. Pipe it with a piping bag if desired. If you have extra frosting, it will keep airtight in the refrigerator for many weeks.
Notes
- Note about the carrots – I use a box grater on the coarsest blade and it takes less than 2 minutes to grate them. I prefer the consistency of doing it by hand rather than using a food processor. Don’t use bagged, pre-shredded carrots from the grocery store; grate them yourself.
- Frosted cupcakes will keep airtight in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Unfrosted cupcakes will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or frozen for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Easter Desserts:
ALL OF MY CARROT CAKE DESSERTS.
Carrot Cake Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting — This is my favorite recipe for carrot cake because it turns out ridiculously moist, soft, tender, and is full of cinnamon-and-spice-and-everything-nice, including an abundance of carrots and sweet, juicy raisins.
Soft and Chewy Spiced Carrot Cake Cookies — All the flavors of richly spiced carrot cake, in cookie form. Soft, chewy, extremely moist, and not at all cakey!
Salted Caramel Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting – Soft, tender carrot cake infused with salted caramel sauce and topped with tangy cream cheese frosting is the ULTIMATE in decadence!!
Soft Carrot Cake Bars with Cream Cheese Glaze — The bars are super soft, moist, dense, and not at all cakey. They aren’t like traditional carrot ‘cake’ and are like carrot cake blondies because of how buttery and rich they are.
The Best Pumpkin Carrot Cake — I married two of my favorite cakes into one soft, moist, and tender cake that’s topped with tangy cream cheese frosting. It’s one of the best cakes I’ve ever made!
Carrot Banana Bread — This super moist, springy, tender carrot banana bread is bread that reminds me of cake and I’m not complaining. It’s an easy, no mixer recipe that goes from bowl to oven in minutes.
Carrot Apple Cream Cheese Tunnel Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting – If you like carrot cake, you’re going to LOVE this version that includes apples and a tunnel of cream cheese that runs through the center!! EASY, amazing, and a MUST-MAKE!!
Carrot cake is one of my guilty pleasures…especially the icing. I’ve had the same difficulty when using my cake batter for cupcakes, so thank you for doing the dirty work for us all. They look spectacular!
After all the other carrot cake snags, I wanted to start from scratch and create a new batter recipe b/c you know how it is…sometimes cake/cupcake/quickbread batters are interchangeable and other times, well, not really!
Girl, you’re killing me lately with your cakey recipes. You are just banging out the best recipes lately! John is a HUGE carrot cake fan and he would love these and want to hoard them like your hubby. I wish I saw this post before Father’s day as this would have been the perfect treat for him.
I’m right there with you on loving raisins in carrot cake but not a fan of the nuts either. Nuts in my sweets, don’t do it for me. :) xoxo, Jackie
This is SUCH an easy little recipe, too. No mixer, comes together super fast, so you can surprise him :)
First off, gorgeous photos (as always!). The dark and light colors must have been awful to try to properly photograph, but the pictures really turned out lovely! I want to grab a cupcake through my screen and taste taste! They really need to work on e-sharing technology!
Second, I never realized how good carrot cake is until a few months ago. I made your carrot cake loaf and was hooked! (That would be one of my fav recipes, no brown nosing intended :) ) Anyways, I love how you made these into adorable little cupcakes! For some reason a cupcake seems so much more manageable than a slice of normal cake!
The dark and light colors must have been awful to try to properly photograph <-- YES!!!! I told someone else that in the comments. Nightmare, actually. I am not really in love with the photos but just getting anything passable was a major feat :) So thanks for saying you like them. And thanks for telling me you made my carrot cake loaf and love it! I love that cake too. So much! One of my fave cakes ever. I was just worried that it wouldn't translate into fluffy cupcakes b/c you know how moist that sucker is :)
I love carrot cake (it’s my absolute favorite, actually) and these look like little bites of heaven! That cream cheese frosting is to die for… A must-try in my kitchen! Thanks, Averie.
These look great, Averie! Making the perfect carrot cake is quite an art, as I learned this weekend as I went through several trials trying to make my boyfriend the perfect birthday treat. The vanilla cream cheese frosting sounds just divine!
Oh you know then that it’s not as easy as you’d think! So many variables from amt of carrots to sugar(s) to flour to baking soda/powder. Just trying to nail it all. And not have it explode or overflow. I think I went thru it all :) You have a lucky boyf. Bet he loved them!
I know I would love your carrot cupcakes because of all the spice you used in them. They look delicious.
Thanks – and yes. I cannot stand bland carrot cake (or pumpkin or sweet potato recipes)!
Carrot cake is one of my faves! I agree about the oil – I know some people will only use butter, but oil creates a really wonderful texture!
It’s way superior to butter in cakes like this I think!
These look so moist and delicious! Carrot cake is one of my all time faves.
I love carrot cake, but what I really want to take a spoon to is that frosting. Fab!
I am digging the deep orange of these cupcakes! All those spices with yogurt and oil must make these over the top good. Mmm, these are telling me “make, make me!” through the screen! . . . how do you do that?!
I can see why these were hard to classify as muffins or cupcakes. I really think you could pass them as muffins without the frosting, too. A double-duty recipe!
I am a HUGE carrot cake fan. It is my preferred cake these days and one of the only kinds of cake that I eat without the frosting. The carrot cake flavor is robust and delicious enough on its own!
They would have been fine as muffins, too. Yes, you understand my dilemma now. But with the frosting, clearly, they go into cupcake realm :) You would love these things! They’re not too sweet (until the frosting goes on…lol) but even that isn’t super sweet; it’s got that classic cream cheese frosting tang! And robust is the only way to eat carrot/pumpkin/sweet potato recipes!
Mmmm those cupcakes look soooo good! Feel free to stop by my link party and share your Facebook Page :)
Carrot cake is my favorite!! Even had it as our wedding cake. :) Are any of your recipes for carrot cake-type items gluten-free? Or do you have a suggestion on making this (or your carrot cake cookies) gluten-free?
Wow, three months to developing this recipe? That’s dedication! I would have given up after the first few tries! These look incredible; the three months was worth it!
Longer than that. I’ve been tinkering with it on and off for a few years :)
Whoo hoo for another one-bowl recipe! I also love carrot cake and would definitely enjoy this in cupcake form.
How GORGEOUS are these?! OMG. I love em’. And my carrot cake loving mama would flip for some! I may have to make them for her birthday next month.