Carrot Cake Cupcakes

This is our favorite recipe for Carrot Cake Cupcakes! They are completely made from scratch, easy to make, versatile and utterly delicious.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 21

Total Time 46

Servings cupcakes

Calories 467kcal

Author Mara

Ingredients

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

1 cup brown sugar packed
2 eggs, large room temperature
¾ cup canola or vegetable oil (or other flavorless oil)
1 & ¼ cups all purpose flour (150 grams)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups carrots, grated about 4 medium carrots

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces full fat block-style cream cheese room temperature
½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

Decorations (optional)

chopped walnuts
12 sugar paste carrots or royal icing carrot sprinkles

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners. Set aside. Put the brown sugar, eggs and oil into a large mixing bowl. Beat until all the ingredients are fully combined and look pale and voluminous.
Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, salt and vanilla extract to the bowl. Beat on a slow speed for about a minute or until all the ingredients have been fully incorporated.
Add in the grated carrots and use a wooden spoon or spatula to fold them evenly through the cupcake batter.
Divide the cupcake batter between the 12 cupcake liners (they should only be ¾ full) DO NOT OVERFILL.
Put the the muffin pan in the center of the preheated oven and bake for 21-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in to the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from the oven, leave to cool briefly in the muffin pan then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the cream cheese frosting put the softened cream cheese and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on a medium speed for 2-3 minutes. You will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times.
Switch the paddle attachment for the whisk attachment. Add half of the powdered sugar and the vanilla and beat on the slowest speed for 30 seconds. Add the remaining powdered sugar and beat on a slow speed for 30 seconds then increase the speed to medium and beat for 1-2 minutes or until the frosting is light and fluffy.
Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with an open round nozzle (like a 1A). Pipe a double swirl of frosting on top of each cupcake then use an offset spatula to make a well in the center. Optionally, scatter over the chopped walnuts and add a carrot decoration to each cupcake.

Notes

We recommend using fresh carrots and grating them yourself. The ones you can buy pre-grated tend to be dry. We want to get as much moisture into the cupcakes as we can. To easily grate carrots, you can use a rotary grater/shredder or some food processors have grating attachments. Or, you can use a box grater and some good old fashion elbow grease.

Properly Measure Flour: If you just dip your measuring cup into a bag of flour, chances are you have way too much flour due to packing. I keep a small digital scale to accurately measure flour BUT you can also you the spoon and level method too if you don't have a scale. To do this, use a spoon to fluff up the flour within your flour bag or container. Then use a spoon to scoop the flour into the measuring cup and finally us the straight edge of a knife to level the flour across the measuring cup.

Delicious Add-Ins: We kept these cupcakes pretty simple but feel free to experiment by adding ¾ cup of any additional ingredients like nuts, raisins or pineapple chunks.

Cool Cupcakes Completely Before Frosting: If your cupcakes are even a tiny bit warm, the frosting will melt right off.

Use Room Temperature/ Softened Ingredients: this will create a consistent batter, uniform cupcakes and creamy frosting.

Nutritional information for this recipe is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. Please calculate your own nutritional information if you want it exact to what you make and use my calculations as a guide only.

Nutrition