Springtime favorite carrot cake in cupcake form! Perfectly spiced carrot cake with a creamy, delicious cream cheese frosting. Perfect for Easter dessert.
I love carrot cake in all forms, which is why I decided this past week to rework my favorite carrot cake recipe into these delicious carrot cake muffins! Not only are muffins a little bit faster and easier to make, but I can totally pass them off as breakfast despite that sweet cream cheese-y dollop of frosting on top! (Kidding, maybe!)
Why I love this recipe
These muffins are perfectly spiced, and oh my goodness that cream cheese frosting is the best ever. My kids devoured these guys in all of one day-for both breakfast and dessert!
The key to making a moist, flavorful carrot cake is to use high-quality ingredients. I use unsalted real butter and either low fat or full fat cream cheese.
Ingredients
- sugar
- vegetable oil
- eggs
- all-purpose flour
- cinnamon
- baking soda
- baking powder
- nutmeg
- carrots
- cream cheese
- butter
- vanilla extract
- powdered sugar
- walnuts
Step by step
- Preheat oven and place paper liners in a muffin tin.
- Shred carrots and set aside.
- Blend together wet ingredients.
- Mix dry ingredients and slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing until just blended.
- Fold carrots into the batter.
- Pour into muffin tin and bake.
- Allow muffins to cool completely before mixing up the cream cheese frosting and topping.
Variations
- omit the nuts
- add raisins to the batter
- drizzle the top with maple syrup
- adapt for gluten-free with a gluten free flour baking mixture
- make dairy free by omitting the cream cheese frosting
FAQs
I actually recommend making it ahead of time! The flavors will intensify and the frosting will soak slightly into the cake so I prefer to make it the day before I’ll be serving it.
Wrap loosely and keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
I have substituted half of the oil with applesauce with good results. I have not tried to use all applesauce.
If you try this recipe, please comment and rate it below, I love hearing from you!
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Carrot Cake Muffins
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 10-12 1x
- Category: dessert
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Springtime favorite carrot cake in cupcake form! Perfectly spiced carrot cake with a creamy, delicious cream cheese frosting. Perfect for Easter dessert.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 medium carrots
For the frosting:
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- ½ stick butter, softened (4 tablespoons)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- In a food processor (or I use my Ninja Blender) shred carrots finely, set aside.
- In a large bowl combine sugar, oil, and eggs and mix until combined.
- In a separate bowl combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and nutmeg. Whisk to combine.
- Slowly add dry mix into wet mixture while mixing on medium speed.
- Mix until just combined-do not over stir.
- Fold in carrots and pour into muffin pan, filling each almost full.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Cool on a wire rack until room temperature.
- For the frosting combine cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl and mix on medium speed until creamy and uniform.
- Add vanilla and then slowly add powdered sugar.
- Frost muffins once completely cooled.
- Top with chopped walnuts if desired.
- Serve immediately or store covered and refrigerate up to 3 days.
Keywords: carrot cake muffins
So what do you think? Can I get away with these for breakfast? Let me know in the comments!
Rachel says
these were delicious, thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
Jack says
tasted great, made them for my mom's birthday and she loved them
★★★★★
Melissa says
So good!