If you're a fan of carrot cake, then you'll absolutely love these bite-sized carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting! These moist cupcakes are perfect for sharing or just whipping up a delicious sweet treat.
Ingredients in Carrot Cupcake
To make these delicious carrot cupcakes, you'll need:
- Plain / all-purpose flour
- Baking powder: NOT baking soda. Make sure your baking powder is within its use by date.
- Ground cinnamon
- Caster sugar (or white sugar): also known as superfine sugar. This will dissolve more easily into your batter. You can substitute with white sugar.
- Brown sugar: helps make the cupcakes moist and full of flavour. Substitute with additional caster sugar or white sugar if required.
- Salt: finely ground table salt is best.
- Whole milk: substitute with any dairy-free equivalent e.g. soy, oat, almond.
- Vinegar (any kind) or lemon juice: helps the cupcakes stay fluffy. Avoid flavoured vinegars (e.g. balsamic).
- Canola oil: or any flavourless vegetable oil.
- Eggs: fresh and at room temperature is best.
- Vanilla
- Carrots: no need to peel them.
For the cream cheese frosting, you'll also need:
- Unsalted butter
- Cream cheese: full fat is best.
- Icing sugar / powdered sugar: you can make your own by blitzing white sugar in a powerful blender like a NutriBullet.
- Lemon juice: fresh or bottled.
- Vanilla
Tips for making Carrot Cupcakes
Do not overfill your cupcake containers! The cupcake batter will rise significantly in the cupcake cases once baked. Don't fill the batter more than half way up the cupcake case. This also gives you room to pipe on beautiful cream cheese frosting! Depending on your cupcake case and tin size, you make have enough batter for a few extra cupcakes.
Mix your milk and vinegar together first before adding other dry ingredients. This helpful trick lets the milk curdle and thicken - sort of like a buttermilk - and gives you a moister cupcake.
Don't overmix your batter! When you mix together the wet and dry ingredients, just mix until combined. This means that there's no large visible clumps or streaks of flour. The batter may still be a bit lumpy and that's okay. When adding the carrot, carefully fold it in until evenly mixed through.
Make sure your cream cheese frosting ingredients are at room temperature, especially the butter and cream cheese! Cream cheese frosting is very picky. If your kitchen is too warm, you may also have trouble stabilising the frosting. See more detailed tips at my Cream Cheese Frosting recipe page.
Troubleshooting
- Why are my carrot cupcakes chewy or dense?
- Your baking powder is expired: make sure your baking powder is in date! This is a very common cause of dense or sunken cupcakes.
- You overmixed the cupcake batter: this is a very forgiving batter, but still try not to overmix the wet and dry ingredients. Small lumps are okay - you do not need to beat the batter until it is completely smooth.
- You left the batter out on the bench too long before baking: rising agents such as baking powder as most effective within 1 hour of being added to cake batters. Leaving the cake batter out for more than 1 hour can affect how well the cake rises.
- You weighed your dry ingredients incorrectly: when measuring dry ingredients such as flour, spoon the flour into the measuring cup until it is overflowing (do not pack down), then use a flat-bladed butter knife to level off the excess flour.
- Butter vs oil in carrot cupcakes.
- Oil will make a the cupcakes very moist and rich. Using melted butter gives you a spongier, lighter cupcake closer to a white or vanilla cake. I highly recommend using oil for this recipe.
Storing Carrot Cake Cupcakes
You can keep the iced cupcakes un-refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
To freeze the cooled (un-iced) cupcakes, wrap each or together tightly in clingwrap and place in a zip-loc or freezer bag. Keep frozen for up to 6 months. Allow to defrost at room temperature for 6 hours or overnight then top with frosting and serve as normal.
Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
These easy and delicious carrot cupcakes are moist, flavourful and topped with a rich cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 1 ¼ cups (188 g) plain / all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoon (12 g) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (4 g) ground cinnamon
- ½ cup (120 g) caster sugar (or white sugar)
- ½ cup (110 g) brown sugar, packed
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) salt
- ½ cup (125 mL) whole milk
- 1 tablespoon (20 mL) vinegar (any kind) OR lemon juice
- ½ cup (125 mL) canola oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon (5 mL) vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (165 g) grated carrots (approx. 2-3 medium carrots)
For the cream cheese frosting
- 60 g (2 oz / ¼ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 125 g (4.5 oz / ½ cup) full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 cups (280 g) icing sugar / powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon (20 mL) lemon juice -- fresh or bottled is fine
- ½ teaspoon (3 g) vanilla extract
Instructions
For the cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 160°C / 320°F (fan-forced/convection) or 180°C / 355°F (standard). Line a 12-hole standard muffin tin with paper cases.
- Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. Whisk in caster sugar, brown sugar and salt until well combined.
- In a separate medium mixing bowl, whisk together milk and vinegar. Stand for 5-10 minutes or until thick and curdled. Whisk in canola oil, eggs and vanilla until well combined.
- Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir together until just combined. Add the grated carrots and stir until evenly mixed in.
- Distribute the batter evenly among the paper cases. Do not fill more than half-full. Overfilling the cases will cause the batter to spill over when baking. Depending on how you measured your ingredients, you may have enough batter for an extra 1-2 cupcakes.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of one of the cupcakes comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the cream cheese frosting
- In the bowl of an electric mixer (or using a hand mixer), beat together the butter and cream cheese on high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add the sifted icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating well in between additions.
- Add lemon juice and vanilla essence. Beat for another 3-4 minutes on high speed until fluffy, thick and pale. If your frosting is too thick, add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice at a time until the desired consistency is reached.
- Spread or pipe evenly over the top of the cooled cupcakes. The frosting will continue to firm up over the next couple of hours.
Notes
Measurements
- Please note that my recipes are measured in metric cups and spoons which are larger than US cups and spoons. Most recipes will be fine if measured in US cups and spoons, but please use the weight (grams) measurement for the most accurate result.
Storage
- You can keep the iced cupcakes un-refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- To freeze the cooled (un-iced) cupcakes, wrap each tightly in clingwrap and place in a zip-loc or freezer bag. Keep frozen for up to 6 months. Allow to defrost at room temperature for 6 hours or overnight then top with frosting and serve as normal.
Substitutions
- Canola oil: you can substitute canola oil for any type of vegetable oil. Please note that using a rich olive oil may change the flavour of the cake.
- Brown sugar: you can substitute the ½ cup of brown sugar for an additional ½ cup of caster sugar, if necessary. This will make the cake a bit fluffier and less dense and moist.
- Milk: replace with any neutral flavour milk alternative (soy, oat, almond etc.)
- Additions: you can try adding 1 cup of sultanas, raisins, currants, or chopped roasted nuts.
- Frosting: use your favourite frosting or a simple glaze.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 cupcake with frostingAmount Per Serving: Calories: 562Total Fat: 26.8gSaturated Fat: 10.7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11.9gCholesterol: 82.8mgSodium: 228.3mgCarbohydrates: 75.7gNet Carbohydrates: 74.7gFiber: 1gSugar: 60.6gProtein: 4.7g
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