This carrot cake cupcakes recipe is easy, perfectly moist, and topped with an unbelievably good cream cheese frosting.
These carrot cake cupcakes are simple and use basic pantry ingredients. If you have a couple of bowls and can stir, you can make them!
Our favorite carrot cake recipe inspires these easy carrot cake cupcakes. It’s been made and loved by thousands of bakers! Many of you asked for a cupcake version, and here it is!
Key Ingredients
- Flour: I use all-purpose flour, but you can replace part of it with whole wheat or white whole wheat flour. For gluten-free cupcakes, use your favorite 1:1 gluten-free blend.
- Baking soda: Helps the cupcakes rise. Check that your baking soda is fresh (it loses its strength after about six months once opened).
- Spices: Salt, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, and vanilla extract combine to give these cupcakes an incredible flavor. They’re a little more spiced than our original carrot cake, which I love.
- Oil: Keeps the cupcakes soft and moist. Any neutral-flavored oil works. Melted coconut oil is great, too.
- Sugar: Adds moisture and sweetness. I like using both white and brown sugar for the best texture and flavor. If you use just one, go with brown sugar since its natural acidity reacts with the baking soda.
- Eggs: Provide structure and stability to the cupcakes.
- Carrots: The star ingredient! A generous amount of freshly grated carrots makes these cupcakes moist and flavorful. I prefer hand-grating for the best texture, but a food processor or store-bought grated carrots work, too.
- Pecans and Raisins (optional): These are entirely optional, so go with what you love. I love the extra texture, though.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Tip 1: Mix the dry ingredients well. I always start with the dry ingredients, giving them a really good whisk. Be extra careful when mixing in the baking soda. Any clumps might cause spots of your carrots to turn green (still edible, just not as pretty).
Tip 2: Mix wet ingredients separately. The batter for these cupcakes comes together similarly to muffins or pancakes. Whisk the dry ingredients in one bowl, then whisk the wet ingredients in another bowl. When you are happy with both mixtures, gently fold them together. Then, finish by folding in the grated carrots and any optional add-ins, such as nuts or raisins.
Tip 3: Top with our cream cheese frosting. This recipe makes 12 perfect cupcakes. Bake them in a standard cupcake pan at 350°F for 20 to 30 minutes, then let them cool completely before topping with our classic cream cheese frosting. For a lighter, creamier frosting, use the frosting for our carrot cake.
More Favorite Cupcake Recipes
Easy Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
These carrot cake cupcakes are so simple to make. This recipe is forgiving. You can make this with or without the nuts and raisins. We like using granulated and brown sugar in this recipe. If you only want to use one, choose brown sugar since it has the necessary acid to react with the baking soda.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
For Cupcakes1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled (160g)
1 teaspoon baking soda, important to level the teaspoon, see tips
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt, see tips
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground ginger, optional
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom, optional
⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, optional
½ cup canola or other vegetable oil (118ml)
½ cup granulated sugar (100g)
½ cup light or dark brown sugar, lightly packed (105g)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ cups grated peeled carrots, 2 to 3 medium carrots (150g)
¼ cup coarsely chopped pecans, optional (35g)
¼ cup raisins, optional (35g)
For Cream Cheese Frosting4 ounces full-fat block cream cheese, softened to room temperature (115g)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (28g)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch fine sea salt
1 ½ cups powdered sugar or confectioners sugar, plus more as needed (165g)
Pinch ground cinnamon or ground cardamom, optional
¼ cup coarsely chopped pecans, optional (35g)
Directions
1Prep: Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2Whisk dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and the nutmeg until well blended.
3Whisk wet ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, sugars, and vanilla. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, until combined.
4Make the batter: Switch to a large rubber spatula. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, then add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, gently stirring until they disappear and the batter is smooth. Stir in the carrots, nuts, and raisins.
5Bake: Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups, filling about ¾ of the way to the top. Bake until the tops of the cupcakes are springy when touched and when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool cupcakes in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack and cool them completely before frosting.
- Frost Cupcakes
1Beat cream cheese and butter: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and salt with a handheld electric mixer on medium speed until very creamy, about 2 minutes.
2Add the sugar: For the creamiest frosting, sift the powdered sugar or whisk until most large lumps are gone. Beat in the powdered sugar, a ¼ cup at a time, until fluffy. Add an additional ¼ cup to ½ cup of powdered sugar for a thicker frosting.
3Add spices: For a spiced frosting, beat in a pinch of ground cinnamon or cardamom.
4Frost: Frost the cooled cupcakes and, if you’d like, top with coarsely chopped pecans.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Measuring the flour: Either weigh it or fluff the flour, spoon it into the measuring cup, then level off the top with a flat edge.
- Baking soda: When measuring, dip your spoon into the container, then level it off using the straight edge of one of your other spoons. For the best results, use fresh baking soda (it loses its potency after being opened for 6 months).
- Salt: I use a rounded ¼ teaspoon of salt, which means the salt should be slightly domed past the measuring spoon rim instead of leveled off.
- Piped frosting: If you plan to pipe a lot of frosting onto each cupcake, you may need to double the frosting recipe above. If you have any leftovers, the frosting can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days or in the freezer for a few months.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
This recipe is delicious. I make mini cupcakes with it, and doubled the frosting because I love cream cheese frosting, but the spices, nuts, and raisins, are so tasty I will definitely be coming back to make this again.
Baked this is a loaf pan for 40 minutes. It was so moist and tasted so good. Used brown sugar and also just the cinnamon and nutmeg. I didn’t frost mine and it was still so good.
Made them twice now and they are very popular. I was just wonder how you store them, fridge or not? 😊
So happy you loved the recipe 🙂 Once frosted they last in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Made these today. My husband and I both loved them. I’m trying them out on my Mah Jongg group tonight. They’ll wonder why I didn’t make a double batch! Thanks for the recipe.
I love this recipe!! I have used grated sweet potatoes instead of carrots. I’ve made it for 60 years. Never a piece left.
These came out great, just added the cinnamon and my toddler loved them without the icing. Thank you very much for the awesome recipe.
Sounds delic! Could this be baked in a loaf pan? Thank you
Hi Peggy, It should work! Try baking it in a loaf pan at the same temperature, but start checking around 45–55 minutes. I’d also place the pan on a baking sheet, just in case it overflows a little. If the top starts browning too quickly, loosely cover it with foil toward the end.
can i put pineapple in your carrot cake mixture not sure if it will turn out too wet
Hi Jenny, I like fresh chopped pineapple or drained canned pineapple. Do not add more than 1/2 cup.
Recipe turned out well. I wish there was a stronger carrot taste to them though.
I agree with you Julianna. Carrot flavor is weak. I redid it, but added the bowl of dry ingredients last. So I added the carrots, nuts and raisin to the wet. Then fold in the dry ingredients in 2 parts. It brought up the flavor!!
I can’t seem to get the consistency right for the frosting, mine always turns out too runny and glazed look. Can you give me a tip for this. Thanks
Hi Mary, Hmm, that’s strange. It could be that your measuring cup is not as packed as ours for the powdered sugar? Maybe try weighing the ingredients next time to see if that makes a difference.
Use the same, but add another chunk of butter with 1 3/4 cup powdered sugar lower side of that mix it wit sum brown suga. Add crushed pecans in with the glaze they keep rubbing on. Lol
This is a great recipie, it is so so so moist and juicy and an absolut pleasure to eat. I definitely recommend this for all people to bake in their spare time
Thanks who ever made this
Callum
Lovely recipe! I didn’t have any ground cardamom so soaked the raisins in boiling water with some bashed up cardamom for half an hour or so before adding which was lovely. I’d recommend increasing the amount of raisins as I didn’t actually find the cake all that sweet with the amount of sugar in it!
This has been my go-to recipe. This and the cake! Thank you so much!
I love carrot cake and these were amazing. For the flour I used half wheat and half all purpose. I added 1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves. Didn’t use nuts in either cake or frosting. I like cream cheese frosting that is more on the cream cheese side and only used 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and it came out just the way I like it.
Hi, can I use a hand mixer to combine wet and dry ingredients. I am not able to mix by hand, due to arthritis.
Absolutely!
Made these today. My husband and I both loved them. I’m trying them out on my Mah Jongg group tonight. They’ll wonder why I didn’t make a double batch! Thanks for the recipe.
Great recipe! I doubled the frosting recipe since I used a piping bag it worked perfectly. Thank you!
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing, Mackenzie!
I tried this with half white whole wheat and half all purpose by weight. I also reduced the sugar to 1/4c brown sugar and 2 TBsp white sugar. Cake was very moist but made only 11 cupcakes; it might be because of my minor changes. A great recipe to keep in your toolbox.
That’s great Lisa. You are correct, by reducing the sugar, there would have been slightly less batter. Glad everything worked out!
Was really good! Cut down the sugar in the cupcakes, adding 1/4 maple syrup and 1/4 brown sugar and lessened the white sugar. For the frosting, I used double the cream cheese and a splash of milk until it reached the desired consistency. Also used less sugar in the frosting.
I am so glad that the maple syrup/brown sugar combo worked for you. Thanks for sharing.