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.
Hi Nagi, can we freeze these cupcakes? Thank you 😊
I’m a little lost on the pineapple. It said 20 oz or 440 g is fine so I opened two 14 oz cans to get that much, then it says to only use 3/4 cup? I had more than enough with one can! But am I reading that right that I only need 3/4 cup of drained crushed pineapple? Thanks!
Hi Linda, thank you for picking that up – that should be 14oz. SO you measure out 3/4 cup of the crushed pineapple from the 440g/14oz tin. N x
Great! I made them today for a friend’s birthday and they are fabulous! Thank you.
I made these in mini tall cylindrical tins, with a removable base.
They were fantastic, moist and light and kept very well for a couple of days
Hi ..I made these but they were a bit on the rubbery/wet texture. I am allergic to nuts and I omitted the coconut (we dont like it)…is this the reason my cupcakes came out different texture?..and they did not rise….I noticed the recipe did not ask for baking powder…
Hi Willie, sounds like you may of mismeasured here – there is baking soda in the recipe too – did you add this in? N x
I will definitely make this Carrot cake cupcakes recipe again. Very Very Good!
Thank you Nagi
You’re so welcome Cheryl, I’m so happy you loved them! N x
Domo again Nagi 🎈
Just baked the carrot cake cupcakes. So moist and not too sweet. They are to give to my son and his dog tomoro for their birthdays. I dont have instagram or FB..otherwise i ‘de send a foto🧁.
Oh how lovely Lesley!! N x
Hi Nagi, could you use mashed banana in place of the pineapple?
Hi Kerry, the water content is different so will affect the texture unfortunately – N x
Tried your recipe for the first time today and it was well received. Somehow my batch made 16! Thanks for sharing
Hi Jo – you must have a smaller cupcake tin – I’m so glad you loved them though! N x
Hey Nagi, I have now made these 4 times since you posted the recipe. My workmates and family love them and can’t get enough!
Hi Nagi,
The comments I read so far make me excited to bake these! I was scrolling through to find an answer to my question but you have so many that I just decided to ask it myself.
I only have mini muffin tins at home. How long and in what temp should I bake these for?
Thank you!
I love your recipes! i didn’t have any pineapple, so I just grated apple, added a bit of dark brown sugar and lemon juice and it was perfect!
I love your recipes!
I made this and it was amazing! Thank you. I really love to have a good recipe for the coconut pineapple cake… Any chance you can suggest one?!
Any chance that as well as the measurements in cups, you could also add them in millilitres or milligrams to your recipes? It is a bit of a pain having to keep looking them up and will just make life so much easier. Other than that, pretty much love everything you do!
GREAT RECIPE. Ready for a laugh?
I got everything out and getting to room temp. I grated the carrots and covered them while I prepared the rest. When I dumped it all together it was quite a lot. I dutifully filled the paper cupcake liners and put it in the oven. I turned around and there on the counter was a covered dish. Hmmm… what’s in that? THE CARROTS!!!!! So, since I had just put the pan in the oven, I took it out, scraped all the stuff out of the liners and threw the liners out, remixed the batter (of course now there was a bit less), and added the carrots. Repapered the muffin tin and refilled the cups. Of course, in the process I had globs of batter all over the place because emptying the muffin tin was not easy. End result: DELICIOUS!!!! I even made the cream cheese frosting which I never do (although next time I would not make the whole frosting recipe as I had quite a bit left over). But, what a mess to clean up. As if it isn’t challenging enough making it gluten free and wondering what it will taste like with the recipe changes for gluten free. But – a tasty result. Lesson learned – sort of like I now put binder clips to hold the parchment paper on a cookie sheet after sliding the whole tray of warm (as in not set yet) cookies into my oven drawer (a gooey mess). That elicited tears. The carrot cake episode elicited something else.
Have been loving your recipes for a long time and these look great!
I’m in the UK and can’t find cream cheese blocks. Should I adjust the icing recipe if I can only find spreadable philadelphia cream cheese?
Hi Lauren! I’ve had a play, and the cream cheese needs to be halved if you only have spreadable 🙂 I’e updated the recipe notes with this tip! N x
Amazing, thanks!
Hi Nagi
I made these on Saturday and everyone in the house loved them.
That’s great to hear Theresa!! N x
I can’t wait to make these….Quick question, did you try with coconut flour by chance? Any tips on ratio?
Hi PJ – it would change the texture unfortunately and they would be crumbly. N x
Oh Nagi
I made these today.
Followed the recipe exactly and omg….sensational!
Thank you so much for sharing 👏😊
WOOT!! Thanks so much Jo! N x
I’m not Australian. It’s winter here in Canada. Soft icing sugar? Also, Dozer is so well-behaved. Well trained. He could easily reach those cupcakes, but he doesn’t. Such a good boi. 🐕
Yes, soft icing sugar has an anti caking agent in it – generally cornflour or tapioca starch mixed through. It doesn’t set hard like pure icing sugar. N x
Thank you.
Absolutely delicious! added the walnuts and maybe a little more carrots and ended up with 16! Good to the last crumb
I’m so glad you loved them Marilyn!! N x
Hi Nagi, I’ve made a few of your recipes. Delicious everytime. Your descriptions are detailed, fantastic, helpful, and funny. I can’t wait to try the carrot cake muffins. My question is: is it possible to make the cream cheese icing with less sugar? Thank you!
Hi Regina, the icing helps to stabilise it as well, a little less will work fine but I wouldn’t reduce it too much. N x