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Home Cupcakes & Muffins

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

By:Nagi
Published:19 Feb '21Updated:4 Mar '21
197 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

Carrot Cake Cupcakes – Everybody’s favourite Carrot Cake, in cupcake form! Topped with fluffy cream cheese frosting, they’re ultra-moist and beautifully spiced. These little friends are completely irresistible, but a total breeze to make.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting on a rack, ready to be served

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Let’s firstly get one thing out of the way: The presence of carrot in these cupcakes is not so much about shoe-horning in virtuous vegetables or even flavour. It’s not carrot-y (is that a word?) at all. It doesn’t even contribute to colour.

So then, why add carrot?

The answer is it gives the crumb that signature tenderness without crumbling all over the place because it softens as it bakes. It’s similar to the way zucchini is used in Chocolate Zucchini Bread. You can’t see or taste the zucchini at all. But it will be the most chocolate-y, ultra-moist bread of your life.

Carrots are just another way to achieve that.

Plus, we can pretend: Look ma! Getting my veg fix!

Close up of Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

What goes in Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Here’s what you need to make Carrot Cake Cupcakes:

What goes in Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients in Carrot Cake Cupcakes. *Vinegar activates the baking soda.
  • Carrot – I know, you almost fell off your chair. But yes, we need carrot for Carrot Cake Cupcakes!

  • Canned crushed pineapple in juice (not syrup, it’s too sweet). We drain the pineapple well then measure out 3/4 cup of the pineapple and 2 tablespoons of juice;

  • Coconut, walnuts or pecans – Stir-ins, for interest. Some people also include raisins. I do not. I feel like there’s enough going on here already!

  • Cinnamon – The spicing. We never tire of the stuff!

  • Milk – Full-fat is best, though low-fat works fine. I haven’t tried with non-dairy but I’m confident it will work;

  • Baking soda – The rising agent. It can be substituted with baking powder but it won’t rise as well. Baking soda is more powerful (it’s about 3x stronger than baking powder) and because this is quite a dense batter, the it benefits from that extra boost to yield a better crumb;

  • Vinegar – This reacts with and activates the baking soda, giving it a kick-start on the rise. You don’t need much, just half a teaspoon, and you can’t taste it. I simply use plain white vinegar because it’s the most neutral in flavour. Lemon juice also works;

  • Oil rather than butter for the fat. Oil makes cakes more moist than butter, whereas butter adds flavour. In this recipe, there’s loads of other flavour from the add-ins and cinnamon, so we can use oil instead of butter;

  • Eggs – Use standard “large eggs”, labelled as such on the cartons at supermarkets. They are 55 – 60g / 2oz per egg. Make sure they’re at room temperature, not fridge-cold, so they incorporate more easily into the batter;

  • Brown sugar rather than white, which makes the crumb more moist as well as adding a lovely caramel flavour; and

  • Flour – Just plain / all-purpose flour.

Overhead photo of Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients in Cream Cheese Frosting

And here’s what you need for the Cream Cheese Frosting:

Cream Cheese Frosting ingredients
  • Cream cheese – Philadelphia brand all the way for me – there is no substitute!! (And they aren’t paying me to say that, either!). It must be the brick type, as opposed to the stuff in the tubs which is softer because it’s formulated to be easily spreadable. If you use the tub form, the frosting will be far too sloppy;

  • Icing sugar / powdered sugar – Heads up Australians: use soft icing sugar not pure icing sugar. Soft icing sugar is used to make fluffy, creamy frostings like this cream cheese one and buttercream frosting. Pure icing sugar sets hard and is used for things like Royal Icing;

  • Butter – Softened to “room temperature” which is 17°C/63°F. At this temperature, the butter should be pliable so it can be creamed when beaten. But not so soft that it leaves a shiny slick of grease on your finger. If it’s too soft, your frosting will be too sloppy;

  • Vanilla for flavour; and

  • Salt – Just a pinch.

Cream Cheese Frosting on a paddle beater standmixer

How to make Carrot Cake Cupcakes

1. Carrot and pineapple

First, grate the carrot and measure out the canned pineapple.

How to make Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
  1. Grate carrot using a standard box grater. Hold the carrot perpendicular so you get short strands, rather than on an angle which would leave you with long strands;

  2. Drain canned pineapple, pressing out excess liquid;

  3. Pineapple juice – Measure out 2 tablespoons of the pineapple juice; and

  4. Pineapple – Measure out 3/4 cup of the crushed pineapple.

2. Cupcake batter

No electric mixer required – just a wooden spoon!

How to make Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
  1. Whisk the Dry ingredients in a bowl;

  2. Whisk Wet ingredients in a separate bowl, then add the stir-ins – carrot, coconut, nuts and pineapple;

  3. Combine Wet and Dry mixes, then mix just until you can no longer see flour;

  4. Fill muffin tin using whatever scooping device you prefer. Pro tip: Ice cream scoops with a lever are super handy!

  5. Bake for 20 minutes in a 180°C/350°F oven (all oven types) or until a toothpick comes out clean. Ordinarily, the oven temperature equivalent for fan ovens would be 20°C lower, but in this case the dense batter needs a higher temperature to get the rise so we use 180°C for fan too; and

  6. Voila! Done – ready for cooling then frosting.

Close up of freshly baked Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Hand sprinkling chopped pecans onto Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Close up showing the inside of Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Despite the close-up of the inside, it’s hard to illustrate clearly how moist the crumb of this Carrot Cake Cupcake is in a photo. Just take my word for it, OK? 😂

Oh – but actually, you don’t need to do even that! The batter for these cupcakes are just a scaled-down version of Carrot Cake, so you can browse feedback from people who have made that recipe if you want evidence, before trying this! – Nagi x


Watch how to make it

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Close up photo of Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats
Prep: 30 mins
Cook: 20 mins
Cooling: 1 hr
Total: 45 mins
Cupcakes, Sweet
Western
5 from 44 votes
Servings12 cupcakes
Tap or hover to scale
Print
Recipe video above. Carrot cake, but in cupcake form! These little beauties are ultra-moist, spiked with cinnamon and dotted through with nuts. Crowned with a creamy and fluffy cream cheese frosting, they're perfect as little treats or served for dessert.
While carrot seems like a bizarre thing to add to a cake, the reason for it is very simple: It results in a moist and tender crumb quite unlike any other type of cake. It doesn't taste like carrot at all, and were it not in the name nobody would be the wiser!

Ingredients

  • 440g / 14 oz (1 can) crushed pineapple in juice , drained but RESERVE juice (Note 1)

Wet Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup milk , at room temperature (full fat best, low fat ok)
  • 1/2 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice or other clear vinegar, (Note 2)
  • 2 large eggs , at room temperature
  • 1 cup brown sugar (loosely packed)
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil (or canola)

Dry Ingredients

  • 1 1/3 cups flour , plain / all-purpose
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking soda (aka bicarb soda, Note 3) (NOT BAKING POWDER!)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

Stir-ins

  • 1 1/3 cups shredded carrot , 1 medium carrot peeled (Note 4)
  • 2 tbsp coconut , shredded or desiccated (unsweetened)
  • 1/3 cup walnuts or pecans , roughly chopped (ie. measure after chopping)

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 180g / 6oz cream cheese , at room temperature (Note 5)
  • 90g / 6 tbsp unsalted butter , softened (17°C/62°F)
  • 3 1/2 cups soft icing sugar / powdered sugar , sifted (Note 6)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/8 tsp salt

Decorating (optional)

  • 1/4 cup walnuts or pecans , moderately finely chopped

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (all oven types). Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake liners.
  • Canned pineapple: Drain crushed pineapple well, reserving the juice. Measure out 3/4 cup pineapple and 2 tbsp pineapple juice.
  • Whisk Dry Ingredients: Whisk Dry ingredients in a large bowl.
  • Whisk Wet Ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, vinegar, eggs, sugar, oil and the 2 tbsp pineapple juice from Step 2.
  • Add-ins: Stir in carrot, crushed pineapple, coconut and pecans into the Wet ingredients bowl.
  • Combine Wet & Dry: Pour Wet into Dry ingredients, stir only until flour is no longer visible. Batter will be lumpy (from the stir-ins) and thick, but runny.
  • Fill muffin tin: Divide batter between 12 holes. (A 3-tbsp levered ice cream scoop makes life super-easy here.)
  • Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and fully cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Cream butter: Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer (or whisk attachments for hand mixer), beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.
  • Cream cheese: Add cream cheese then beat for 1 minute until smooth.
  • Icing sugar: Add 1/3 of the icing sugar, then starting on the lowest speed (to avoid a powdery explosion!), beat until mostly incorporated. Add half the remaining icing sugar, beat it in, then the remaining icing sugar.
  • Fluff it! Beat on high for 2 minutes until fluffy. Add vanilla and salt, beat briefly to incorporate.
  • Pipe: Transfer to piping bag fitted with a round tip (or ziplock bag with snipper corner). Pipe on to cupcake, sprinkle with chopped walnuts or pecans if desired.

Recipe Notes:

Note about different measures: Cups and other cooking measures differ slightly from country to country. This cake has been tested to ensure it works using both metric (Australia, UK, Europe) and US measures.
1. Crushed pineapple – 20oz = 565g, not 440g. However, in Australia, crushed pineapple comes in 440g so I just use 1 x 440g can. The first time I made it, I measured 565g out accurately, but the 2nd time I just used 1 x 440g can and did not notice a difference.
2. Vinegar (sub lemon juice) – This gives baking soda/bi-carb a rapid activation boost to give this cake rise. Required in this recipe because it’s such a moist cake.
3. Baking soda / bicarb – This is about 3x stronger than baking powder. You can sub 6 tsp baking powder but cake will have slightly less rise.
4. Carrot – Grate first then measure using cups (packed firmly). Avoid long strands of carrot in cake by holding the carrot perpendicular to grating face, ie. 90 degrees against the grater, rather than on an angle.
5. Cream cheese – Use block, not the soft spreadable cream cheese that comes in tubs.
UK cream cheese – only tub spreadable is available still, to my knowledge. So use HALF the amount of spreadable cream cheese ie 90g/3oz for one batch, AND add about 1/2 tsp lemon zest (to up the tang slightly).
6. Icing sugar – Called powdered sugar in the United States. Use soft icing sugar, not pure icing sugar.
7. Cake pan: DO NOT try this in a single round cake pan. The weight of the batter is too great and the cake comes out too dense. It must be split at least two pans, or 1 rectangular pan (Note 1 for size). This recipe makes plenty of frosting for either. The cake is so moist, it’s terrific as a single-level cake without needing extra frosting sandwiched in between – and goes further too. 
8. Storage – The cake is so moist, the crumb actually gets semi “wet” if not stored in the fridge when it’s super hot and humid (like Sydney summer!). Also, the frosting gets too soft. Let it come to room temp before serving (~ 10 min).
9. Nutrition per serving, including all frosting.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 458cal (23%)Carbohydrates: 65g (22%)Protein: 4g (8%)Fat: 21g (32%)Saturated Fat: 13g (81%)Trans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 62mg (21%)Sodium: 268mg (12%)Potassium: 179mg (5%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 52g (58%)Vitamin A: 2856IU (57%)Vitamin C: 3mg (4%)Calcium: 65mg (7%)Iron: 1mg (6%)
Keywords: carrot cake, carrot cake cupcakes, cream cheese frosting
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @RecipeTinEats.

Life of Dozer

Practicing the art of Mind Control: trying to make the Carrot Cake Cupcakes jump onto the floor.

Dozer carrot cake cupcakes
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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative!

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197 Comments

  1. lesley wee says

    March 13, 2023 at 12:42 pm

    5 stars
    so tasty
    so moist
    thanks again Nagi 🙂

    Reply
  2. Lisa says

    September 5, 2022 at 3:58 pm

    Hi Nagi. I have made your carrot cake and we loved it! Now I was going to make these cupcakes and I noticed that the cream cheese frosting for it is different than the one for the cake. Just wondering why…? (Pure curiosity) I like to know the ‘why’ of what I am trying to create. Sixty one and still learning! Thanks for all your great recipes, inspiring and my usual go-to these days!

    Reply
  3. Carly says

    August 26, 2022 at 6:46 pm

    Delicious! Definitely a family favourite

    Reply
  4. Kim says

    August 21, 2022 at 5:28 pm

    5 stars
    Unbelievable, I thought these were quite complicated for my first try at cupcakes and buttercream icing. Everything worked perfectly and they taste amazing. I think 2/3 icing would have been plenty. Would the butter and cream cheese need to be reduced accordingly or just the icing sugar please?

    Reply
  5. Terence McBride says

    August 16, 2022 at 12:47 am

    Help. I want to make 4 dozen of the carrot cake cupcakes. How many 8 oz cans of crushed pineapple do I use? I adjust the amount but the directions don’t seem to change when you have stated “measure out 3/4 cup and 2 tbsp pineapple juice”.

    Reply
  6. Tracey James says

    August 8, 2022 at 7:39 am

    Hi Nagi, in the nutrition values for these gold gorgeousness the saturated fat values are very high. Does that include the frosting as well as the batter?

    Reply
  7. Emmie says

    August 6, 2022 at 11:54 am

    5 stars
    Made these a couple months ago and they were the best carrot cake cups cakes I’ve ever had! Leaving a review today because I searched up the recipe again to make today!! Sooooo yummmmm!!

    Reply
  8. Stephen says

    August 2, 2022 at 1:58 pm

    5 stars
    These are best carrot cake full stop. Icing is great but i reduced the sugar amount by 70g for less sweet, could probably go 100g less. Cakes are even better after being frozen and thawed over 1 day.

    Reply
  9. Veena says

    July 29, 2022 at 2:30 pm

    Hi Nagi, we i were to bake these in a friand pan how long will the baking time be? thanks

    Reply
  10. Billie says

    July 27, 2022 at 3:45 pm

    Hello Nagi,
    I was wondering if you could swap the butter in the ermine frosting for cream cheese to make a (slightly) healthier icing…. Would this work?
    Thanks.

    Reply
  11. Billie says

    July 27, 2022 at 1:29 pm

    5 stars
    Hello,
    I do food technology and I was wondering if I could make the cream cheese icing healthier by using it instead of butter in the ermine frosting recipe? Would this work?
    Billie

    Reply
  12. Olivia says

    July 22, 2022 at 3:36 pm

    5 stars
    Everything is great, cupcakes are
    moist except the frosting is too sweet to my liking. Will definitely rebake but with half amount of sugar for the frosting. Thanks for the recipe! It’s a better alternative than making a whole carrot cake

    Reply
  13. Jane says

    July 3, 2022 at 4:04 pm

    5 stars
    Absolutely LOVE this recipe! My kids made this and had so much fun. Will be on high rotation. 😍

    Reply
  14. Tay says

    July 3, 2022 at 2:35 pm

    5 stars
    Wow. Made these today and were the best cupcake I have had! So fluffy and moist.obsessed!

    Reply
  15. Hannah Megennis says

    April 20, 2022 at 5:42 pm

    These are amazing! I added pumpkin seeds instead of nuts and they worked out great. Stayed moist all week and were delicious

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      April 21, 2022 at 4:48 pm

      Great idea Hannah! N x

      Reply
  16. Elissa says

    April 18, 2022 at 12:11 pm

    5 stars
    Made these today without the coconut and walnut and the results were still amazing! We live in the States in a high altitude spot, so upped the flour by a tablespoon and used the 565g can of crushed pineapple. Super flavor, moist and delicious! Family couldn’t get enough!

    It did make a bit more than a dozen for us (cause of my small changes) so i scooped what was left in the nearest pan – which happened to be a donut tray! Kids are stoked for carrotcake donuts for breakfast tomorrow!

    Thanks for another winner, Nagi!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      April 18, 2022 at 10:26 pm

      OOOOHH!! Carrot cake donuts sound like something I would want to eat!! I’m glad you enjoyed them and thanks for the high altitude baking tips! N x

      Reply
      • Elissa says

        April 18, 2022 at 11:32 pm

        You’re so welcome! We’ve only been living at HA for a couple years so its been an adjustment and I’m still learning! Adding that little extra flour or sugar and baking 25° higher (I baked these at 375° instead of 350°) has really helped save me from baking disasters — our first year left me cleaning the oven a lot XD

        Reply
  17. Holly says

    April 17, 2022 at 6:54 am

    5 stars
    Hi Nagi!

    These are perfection. Such a tender crumb and the right amount of sweetness and spice. Added some little bunny ear picks and pastel sprinkles for some fun for my kiddos.

    Thank you!

    Holly

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      April 19, 2022 at 4:02 pm

      Soooo cute!!! N x

      Reply
  18. Julia says

    April 11, 2022 at 8:40 pm

    Hi Nagi,
    I’m making these for Easter Sunday and am wondering if they are suitable to freeze (without icing) so I can get my baking in early?

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      April 12, 2022 at 2:24 pm

      Hi Julia – yes they should freeze well. N x

      Reply
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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

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