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Home Cupcakes & Muffins

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

By:Nagi
Published:19 Feb '21Updated:4 Mar '21
218 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

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 with Cream Cheese Frosting on a rack, ready to be served

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!

Close up of Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

What goes in Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Here’s what you need to make Carrot Cake Cupcakes:

What goes in Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients in Carrot Cake Cupcakes. *Vinegar activates the baking soda.
  • 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.

Overhead photo of Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients in Cream Cheese Frosting

And here’s what you need for the Cream Cheese Frosting:

Cream Cheese Frosting ingredients
  • 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.

Cream Cheese Frosting on a paddle beater standmixer

How to make Carrot Cake Cupcakes

1. Carrot and pineapple

First, grate the carrot and measure out the canned pineapple.

How to make Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
  1. 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;

  2. Drain canned pineapple, pressing out excess liquid;

  3. Pineapple juice – Measure out 2 tablespoons of the pineapple juice; and

  4. Pineapple – Measure out 3/4 cup of the crushed pineapple.

2. Cupcake batter

No electric mixer required – just a wooden spoon!

How to make Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
  1. Whisk the Dry ingredients in a bowl;

  2. Whisk Wet ingredients in a separate bowl, then add the stir-ins – carrot, coconut, nuts and pineapple;

  3. Combine Wet and Dry mixes, then mix just until you can no longer see flour;

  4. Fill muffin tin using whatever scooping device you prefer. Pro tip: Ice cream scoops with a lever are super handy!

  5. 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

  6. Voila! Done – ready for cooling then frosting.

Close up of freshly baked Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Hand sprinkling chopped pecans onto Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Close up showing the inside of Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese 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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Close up photo of Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats
Prep: 30 minutes mins
Cook: 20 minutes mins
Cooling: 1 hour hr
Total: 45 minutes mins
Cupcakes, Sweet
Western
5 from 54 votes
Servings12 cupcakes
Tap or hover to scale
Print
Recipe video above. Carrot cake, but in cupcake form! These little beauties are ultra-moist, spiked with cinnamon and dotted through with nuts. Crowned with a creamy and fluffy cream cheese frosting, they're perfect as little treats or served for dessert.
While carrot seems like a bizarre thing to add to a cake, the reason for it is very simple: It results in a moist and tender crumb quite unlike any other type of cake. It doesn't taste like carrot at all, and were it not in the name nobody would be the wiser!

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:

Note about different measures: Cups and other cooking measures differ slightly from country to country. This cake has been tested to ensure it works using both metric (Australia, UK, Europe) and US measures.
1. Crushed pineapple – 20oz = 565g, not 440g. However, in Australia, crushed pineapple comes in 440g so I just use 1 x 440g can. The first time I made it, I measured 565g out accurately, but the 2nd time I just used 1 x 440g can and did not notice a difference.
2. Vinegar (sub lemon juice) – This gives baking soda/bi-carb a rapid activation boost to give this cake rise. Required in this recipe because it’s such a moist cake.
3. Baking soda / bicarb – This is about 3x stronger than baking powder. You can sub 6 tsp baking powder but cake will have slightly less rise.
4. Carrot – Grate first then measure using cups (packed firmly). Avoid long strands of carrot in cake by holding the carrot perpendicular to grating face, ie. 90 degrees against the grater, rather than on an angle.
5. Cream cheese – Use block, not the soft spreadable cream cheese that comes in tubs.
UK cream cheese – only tub spreadable is available still, to my knowledge. So use HALF the amount of spreadable cream cheese ie 90g/3oz for one batch, AND add about 1/2 tsp lemon zest (to up the tang slightly).
6. Icing sugar – Called powdered sugar in the United States. Use soft icing sugar, not pure icing sugar.
7. Cake pan: DO NOT try this in a single round cake pan. The weight of the batter is too great and the cake comes out too dense. It must be split at least two pans, or 1 rectangular pan (Note 1 for size). This recipe makes plenty of frosting for either. The cake is so moist, it’s terrific as a single-level cake without needing extra frosting sandwiched in between – and goes further too. 
8. Storage – The cake is so moist, the crumb actually gets semi “wet” if not stored in the fridge when it’s super hot and humid (like Sydney summer!). Also, the frosting gets too soft. Let it come to room temp before serving (~ 10 min).
9. Nutrition per serving, including all frosting.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 458cal (23%)Carbohydrates: 65g (22%)Protein: 4g (8%)Fat: 21g (32%)Saturated Fat: 13g (81%)Trans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 62mg (21%)Sodium: 268mg (12%)Potassium: 179mg (5%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 52g (58%)Vitamin A: 2856IU (57%)Vitamin C: 3mg (4%)Calcium: 65mg (7%)Iron: 1mg (6%)
Keywords: carrot cake, carrot cake cupcakes, cream cheese frosting
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

Life of Dozer

Practicing the art of Mind Control: trying to make the Carrot Cake Cupcakes jump onto the floor.

Dozer carrot cake cupcakes
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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative!

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218 Comments

  1. Cheryl Fox says

    November 20, 2023 at 11:02 am

    5 stars
    Turned out great! Love the juicy pineapple in them. I didn’t have the ingredients to make the frosting but were delicious as they are, especially still warm out the oven with a fresh cup of coffee.

    Reply
  2. Denise says

    October 28, 2023 at 3:09 am

    These cupcakes were delicious! I made them for a co-worker’s birthday since carrot cake is her favorite. She loved them and so did the other co-workers! I will definitely use this recipe again.

    Reply
  3. Denise says

    October 27, 2023 at 8:47 am

    5 stars
    These cupcakes are delicious! I just made them for a co-worker’s birthday since carrot cake is her favorite. She loved them and so did my other co-workers.The crumb as stated in the description is perfect. I added 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg,1/8 dried ginger and 1 teaspoon vanilla to the cake. I will definitely make theses again.

    Reply
  4. Melinda says

    October 15, 2023 at 3:29 am

    Hi Nagi, I love your recipes and would like to bake the carrot cake cupcakes. However, my husband don’t like coconut at all. Can it be replaced with something else, but I’m not sure what would be a good replacement?

    Reply
  5. Michelle Day-Nolan says

    September 18, 2023 at 11:49 pm

    5 stars
    My daughter and I just made these and they turned out so well! Absolutely delicious and the frosting is so good! This was my first attempt at carrot cake and so pleased with it. I don’t think I’ll ever buy carrot cake again now as this was better than any I’ve ever had.

    Reply
  6. Kris says

    September 3, 2023 at 7:09 pm

    Yes! A complete disaster! Stodgy little oily fritters I don’t know what went wrong! I’ve scrolled through all the comments I must have done something wrong. Unfortunately I would go so far as to say inedible (except the icing!)

    Reply
  7. Claire Duvenage says

    August 5, 2023 at 10:28 pm

    I’m not sure what went wrong but these were a disaster! Stodgy tasteless oily mess. I have always relied on recipe tin eats but this recipe did not work for me.

    Reply
  8. Ani says

    July 28, 2023 at 8:53 pm

    5 stars
    Hey Nagi,
    Is it possible to sub raw or caster sugar for the brown sugar? I’ve run out!!

    Reply
  9. Niya says

    July 13, 2023 at 3:31 pm

    We only get pineapple pieces in juice here, can we pulse that in a blender and use?

    Reply
  10. Rachel says

    July 11, 2023 at 9:57 am

    Hi I was just wondering if i can leave out the pineapple?

    Reply
  11. Jonique says

    June 23, 2023 at 1:51 pm

    These cupcakes are to die for. They are also easy to whip up when the urge for carrot cake hits. Would highly recommend trying this recipe.

    Reply
    • Jonique says

      June 23, 2023 at 1:52 pm

      5 stars
      Forgot to rate. Five starts for sure

      Reply
  12. Shanno says

    May 15, 2023 at 5:14 pm

    Ha would this be ok without the nuts?

    Reply
  13. Deb Rogowski says

    April 23, 2023 at 12:47 pm

    5 stars
    Loved these little cakes. Pineapple is delicious but I had to check over the drained pineapple as there was quite a lot of the core of the pineapple in it.
    Definitely a do again recipe.

    Reply
  14. Tayler says

    April 11, 2023 at 9:33 am

    5 stars
    I have made these multiple times and I always regret it…because we can’t stop eating them!!! Best carrot cake cupcake recipe ever

    Reply
    • Bettina says

      May 12, 2023 at 5:02 am

      I love your recipes. Just an FYI: I don’t think the amount of pineapple cans adjusts when you change the servings. (it doesn’t change from 1 can to 2 cans). Keep on cooking/baking. You are my go-to source for recipes.

      Reply
  15. Phoebe says

    April 9, 2023 at 7:31 pm

    5 stars
    So perfect! Lovely and moist days after baking too. I topped a couple of mine with tiny Lindt bunnies for Easter. Agree with some of the comments about how much icing this recipe makes, (but definitely no complaints – it is so delicious!)
    Thanks Nagi!

    Reply
  16. lesley wee says

    March 13, 2023 at 12:42 pm

    5 stars
    so tasty
    so moist
    thanks again Nagi 🙂

    Reply
  17. Donna says

    March 12, 2023 at 6:37 pm

    5 stars
    Great easy to follow recipe, with a fabulous result! Delicious tasty cupcakes. Only made half the amount of frosting which was ample for us. Definitely my go to recipe for carrot cake cupcakes.

    Reply
  18. Nora says

    January 26, 2023 at 10:43 am

    Thanks a lot for the recipe!
    I always follow your recipes blindly but for this one I’m not sure where I went wrong.
    The ingredients were too moist and got stuck to the muffin cases. It’s like the cupcake had no base to ‘seal’ the ingredients. Not sure if I explained it well T.T and I got a total of 17 cupcakes following the recipe

    Reply
  19. A says

    September 30, 2022 at 1:26 pm

    Can these be frozen?

    Reply
  20. Lisa says

    September 5, 2022 at 3:58 pm

    Hi Nagi. I have made your carrot cake and we loved it! Now I was going to make these cupcakes and I noticed that the cream cheese frosting for it is different than the one for the cake. Just wondering why…? (Pure curiosity) I like to know the ‘why’ of what I am trying to create. Sixty one and still learning! Thanks for all your great recipes, inspiring and my usual go-to these days!

    Reply
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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

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