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The Best Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

April 2, 2021

These carrot cake cupcakes? THE BEST.

Carrot cake cupcakes with frosting on a white surface.

Though carrot cake can, AND SHOULD, be celebrated at all times of the year, it feels especially wonderful in the spring for some reason. The tender crumb, the super moist (sorry if you need us to be sorry 😬) texture, the hints of cinnamon spice. Also we’d be lying if we said we weren’t in it for the cream cheese frosting. Cuz we are. Always. With any occasion. If there’s smooth swoopy cream cheese frosting involved, we’re there.

And these little cupcakes are the best. Just the best. The perfect little bringable treat for all the spring things. Easter brunch? Yup. Mother’s Day? You bet. Those plants that you were sure you killed last year are starting to bloom again? GO GRAB YOURSELF A CARROT CAKE CUPCAKE, FRIEND! You earned it.

In This Post: Everything You Need For Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Watch How to Make These Cupcakes
Ingredients for Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Let’s Make Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Variations on These Cupcakes
Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting: Frequently Asked Questions

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Ingredients You’Ll Need For These Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Pretty standard baking lineup for these guys, so hopefully your pantry is already mostly holding the keys to the kingdom, but here’s what you’ll need:

flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt
cinnamon
grated carrots
oil (any neutral-tasting kind will do)
eggs
cream cheese
butter
powdered sugar
vanilla

We love a relatively short ingredient list, especially when we’re talking cake AND frosting so this recipe is a real winner. Carrot cake nirvana is almost yours!

Let’s Make Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

You’ve got your ingredients and your love of cupcakes at the ready, so let’s get carrot caking, shall we? Here’s how you do it:

Batter. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then combine the grated carrots and the oil and slowly add the dry mixture until incorporated. In go your beaten eggs and stir just a few times. Seriously! The less stirring the better.
Bake. Grease a muffin tin or use paper liners and then scoop the batter, filling about ⅔ of the way up. Bake for about 13 mins but ovens can vary a bunch so keep an eye until they are golden brown and have springy tops. Allow the cupcakes to cool.
Frost. And now for the reason we’re here. Blend all ingredients except powdered sugar and then slowly add that in, keepin’ things real smooth. Now, you could just frost butter knife-style, but if you wanna get fancy, transfer it to a plastic bag or similar tool for piping the frosting in even little swirls on top.

Then, hooray! It’s carrot cake cupcake time! Spread them out on the party table. Stack ‘em up on those cutesie cupcake towers. Plop one down on the plate of your kiddo just to celebrate any old Wednesday.

Variations On These Incredible Cupcakes

Whether you’re making these for a party or shower or brunch or dessert, you can doll ‘em up anyway you like! Are you a raisin person? Don’t be shy! Some juicy plump golden raisins would be great in here. (Or regular too, of course. We see you, nature’s candy!) Maybe you want to chop up some walnuts and toss them in the batter or sprinkle them on top of those frosting coils.

Some of you like to get wild and put pineapple and coconut in your carrot cake. Go get it, friends! Do you really love frosting? Listen, double that batch then with reckless abandon.

However you do it, just make sure you cupcake. Because, CUPCAKES. Always A+.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes: FAQs

What kind of flour do you recommend for these cupcakes?

All-purpose flour is perfect here.

Can I add nuts on top?

That’s a great idea! Chopped walnuts would be delicious!

What type of oil is best here?

A neutral-tasting oil works best in this case, something like canola oil.

Do I need to use muffin liners?

Baking directly in the muffin tin without the liners is my favorite way to bake these, but it’s harder to get the perfect light brown color on the sides because they often get too dark brown. The ones pictured here turned out perfectly, but if you’re unsure, just use paper liners.