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
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!
What goes in Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Here’s what you need to make Carrot Cake Cupcakes:
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.
Ingredients in Cream Cheese Frosting
And here’s what you need for the Cream Cheese Frosting:
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.
How to make Carrot Cake Cupcakes
1. Carrot and pineapple
First, grate the carrot and measure out the canned pineapple.
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;
Drain canned pineapple, pressing out excess liquid;
Pineapple juice – Measure out 2 tablespoons of the pineapple juice; and
Pineapple – Measure out 3/4 cup of the crushed pineapple.
2. Cupcake batter
No electric mixer required – just a wooden spoon!
Whisk the Dry ingredients in a bowl;
Whisk Wet ingredients in a separate bowl, then add the stir-ins – carrot, coconut, nuts and pineapple;
Combine Wet and Dry mixes, then mix just until you can no longer see flour;
Fill muffin tin using whatever scooping device you prefer. Pro tip: Ice cream scoops with a lever are super handy!
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
Voila! Done – ready for cooling then 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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Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
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:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Practicing the art of Mind Control: trying to make the Carrot Cake Cupcakes jump onto the floor.
Could this be done as mini cupcakes and just reduce the cooking time?
I love baking
I wish to have a bakery one day
Thank you
That’s a great dream to have Bulelwa! Good luck!! N x
We have nut and milk allergies in my family could Oatmilk be used in place of milk?
I would like to replace the walnuts with something, but I’m not sure what would be the same delicious consistency? Any suggestions?
Hi Cynthia,
Just wanted to say that in my experience nut/oat milk usually works well in baking. I sometimes will add a dash more of oil/butter to compensate for it being low fat. (But I haven’t tried it for this recipe) I think pepitas would work well in place of nuts for a nut free option (if you like them) they would totally give a little bit of that “nutty” crunch. (or just omit the nuts!).
Cheers 🙂
Love your site, and I love how you explain everything to a novice like me. Much appreciated, thank you 🙂
Another absoute winner NAGI
My family all look at me when eating and lots of mmmms and say “Thats a Nagis”
100/10
We have a nut allergy. Would we need to change/add anything if we wanted to omit the coconut and walnut? It’s been so long since I’ve had carrot cake so excited to try this recipe!
Hi Nagi,
This looks really yummy. However, I have a serious health issue in which I have to pretty much avoid all canned food. Is it possible to substitute canned pineapple with fresh ones? How can I adjust to get the same result as your original recipe? Thank you 🙂
Dear Nagi, Can I half the sugar and use evo in this recipe? Thanks
Hi Nagi, I love all your recipes! I want to try the carrot cupcakes recipe. My husband is diabetic, so can you please let me know if the cupcakes will still taste fine if I half the brown sugar??
You can try a Stevia + molasses combination for a good sugar free brown sugar substitute (it does still have carbs, but obviously not as many). Just search those two words – there are a lot of recipes for it.
Dear Nagi,
I am planning to try this recipe, but I realized that they do not sell crushed pineapple in Singapore. I will appreciate if you can give tips for substitute.
Can I just say this recipe
Is so good and so moist!!!even my two year old love it. We froze them. I made two batches previously and will make more today for our neighbours, as we’re out of lockdown. Thank you!
Can you be my neighbour?!! N x
I’m wondering why it’s important on the size of the can of pineapple as you’re only using 3/4 cup? Why not just say that. When I read your notes it sounds like you’re putting the whole can in but the instructions says 3/4 cup (plus the 2 tbl juice). Do you put the whole can in (either 14 oz or 20 oz) or just the 3/4? Thanks-looking forward to making it. I love your recipes (and your Dozer)
Hey Brenda
There are two sizes of canned crushed pineapples sold. I’m pretty certain that Nagi’s instructions to purchase the larger can is so you don’t buy the smaller can and find out that you can’t get 3/4 cups of pineapple when you get home.
The smaller can gives about 1/2 cup while the larger is about 1 cup. Recipe says you need 3/4 cups. Duh!!!
I made these today as per the recipe, and oh my goodness how soft and more-ish are these… I got 16 medium muffins out of my batch that probably won’t last the weekend in our household. I’m not going to make the icing this time because I personally don’t think they need it, they are that good. As a non baker I salute you for the easy and gloriously yum recipe.
Perfectly moist! Yummy!!
So yummy and easy
Hi Nagi! What size cupcake liners did you use? Will the cream cheese frosting recipe be easy to pipe too? It won’t be runny? Thank you so much!
Sorry, could I make this recipe into jumbo muffins instead of 12 small muffins? If, yes, how long would I bake them for?
Could I make 12 jumbo muffins out of this recipe? And if yes, how long would the baking time be?
I made these after seeing the link from the Pastitsio recipe (which was amazing by the way!). I only made a half batch as I didn’t have enough pineapple for a full batch, but they were divine- so delicious and a welcome afternoon distraction from Melbourne lockdown! Thanks Nagi 😀
Amazing as usual Nagi!
These little carrot cakes are perfection. Thanks so much for your fantastic recipes – I rarely look anywhere else these days 😍
I made these cupcakes for my husbands birthday. I made a double batch and took some into my work for morning tea. Everyone loved them! Thank you for another great recipe
Has anyone tried gf flour with this recipe ?
I haven’t cooked with gf flour but would like to try a gf version for a friend. Any tips ?