These moist flavorful Carrot Cake Cupcakes are baked with grated carrots, warm spices, and pineapple then topped with brown butter cream cheese frosting making them the BEST dessert ever! Serve these tender and flavorful cakes at your next Easter celebration or year round!
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
How to Make Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Step 1: Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and baking soda and set aside. Next line the bottoms of 2-3 muffin pans with cupcake liners. In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat sugar, oil and vanilla together at medium speed. Next add eggs, one at a time, blending after each incorporation. Next slow down the mixer to lowest speed and add flour mixture in increments. Then fold in carrots.
Step 2: Once carrots are folded in, add crushed pineapple if desired and walnuts if desired.
Step 3: Using an ice cream scooper, evenly add batter to cupcake liners about 3/4s full. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes until completely room temperature before adding frosting.
Step 4: In a small saucepan, add butter and melt over medium heat. Once the butter has fully melted, a white foam will begin to appear over the top of the butter. Watch carefully as the butter’s color changes to brown and the smell of the butter becomes somewhat nutty. As soon as the butter is an amber brown color, remove from heat and cool in the refrigerator until it the butter has become solid again (can take about an hour or so).
Step 5: Add cooled brown butter and cream cheese to the bowl of your mixer and beat on high speed until it begins to thicken and fluff. Next slow down mixer and carefully add in confectioner’s sugar. Once all sugar has incorporated, turn mixer back to high to continue whipping.
Add salt and vanilla extract and continue whipping until it is smooth.
Add frosting to a piping bag and frost completely cooled cupcakes. Top with homemade caramel and nuts if deserved and serve.
Want to Save This Recipe, Boo?
I'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
Carrot Cake Cupcakes Recipe
Want to Save This Recipe, Boo?
I’ll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 2 1/2 cups self rising flour self rising flour usually has salt in it which is why it was omitted here but if you want a bit more you can add 1/4 tsp of salt as well
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- 4 large eggs
- 3 cups grated carrots
- 1/2 cup crushed pineapple you can omit this if you want but I think it is essential/ I ONLY DRAIN PARTIALLY
- 1 cup chopped roasted walnuts optional
For the Frosting
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 16 oz cream cheese somewhat softened but still a little stiff/ 16 oz is 2 (8 oz) packages
- 3 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar if you want the frosting more stiff, add another 1/2 cup going up to 4 cups total
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Homemade caramel sauce found here
Instructions
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and baking soda and set aside.
- Next line the bottoms of 2-3 muffin pans with cupcake liners.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat sugar, oil and vanilla together at medium speed. Next add eggs, one at a time, blending after each incorporation.
- Next slow down the mixer to lowest speed and add flour mixture in increments.
- Fold in carrots, crushed pineapple if desired and walnuts if desired.
- Using an ice cream scooper, evenly add batter to cupcake liners about 3/4s full.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool cupcakes until completely room temperature before adding frosting.
For the Frosting
- In a small saucepan, add butter and melt over medium heat. Once the butter has fully melted, a white foam will begin to appear over the top of the butter.
- Watch carefully as the butter’s color changes to brown and the smell of the butter becomes somewhat nutty.
- As soon as the butter is an amber brown color, remove from heat and cool in the refrigerator until it the butter has become solid again (can take about an hour or so).
- Add cooled brown butter and cream cheese to the bowl of your mixer and beat on high speed until it begins to thicken and fluff.
- Next slow down mixer and carefully add in confectioner’s sugar. Once all sugar has incorporated, turn mixer back to high to continue whipping.
- Add salt and vanilla extract and continue whipping until it is smooth.
- Add frosting to a piping bag and frost completely cooled cupcakes. Top with homemade caramel and nuts if deserved and serve.
Notes
What to do with leftover cupcakes
As a general rule, freshly baked cupcakes will last for 1-2 days at room temperature. Cupcakes that contain frosting or filling made with dairy products or eggs, such as buttercream, meringue, whipped cream, or custard, should be immediately refrigerated. I’d recommend bringing the cupcakes back to room temperature before serving.
TIP: Leftover carrot cupcakes make for great cake pops! All you’ll need to do is mash the leftovers into a dough-like mass, scoop out individual portions using your hand or a cookie scoop, and roll each one into a round. Refrigerate the rounds for a couple hours, pop in the lollipop sticks, and dip them into pre prepared candy melts of your choice!
Can you Freeze them?
Unfrosted cupcakes can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 2 months. Defrost in the fridge overnight. Frosted cupcakes can also be frozen but it will depend on the frosting and toppings used. Whipped cream, cookie pieces, and sugar sprinkles are just a few examples of things that won’t freeze well. To freeze Carrot Cake Cupcakes, place them into an airtight container and freeze for 2 hours. Wrap each cupcake in two layers of plastic wrap and place them back in the container or in a freezer-safe bag. Freeze for 4-6 weeks. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator.Nutrition
Recipe Tips
- Do not overfill the liners. Each well should only be about ¾ of the way full. Any more and you’ll end up with muffins not cupcakes.
Shred fresh carrots, no pre-shredded packaged ones. Freshly grated carrots are more flavorful and moist! One large carrot will produce about 1 cup of shredded carrots. I’d definitely recommend buying extra just in case though! - Walnuts add crunch and complexity. You can leave them out if you’d prefer, or use them as garnish. Pecans are also a great option!
- Cream cheese frosting is smooth and tangy, adding browned butter takes it up a nutty notch. If you’d like to use a classic version instead, check out my recipe here.
- Decorating carrot cupcakes is easy! Kick it old school and spread the frosting by hand or use a piping bag fitted with a frosting tip. Alternatively, a zip top bag with one of the corner tips cut will work.
My Fave Carrot Recipes
If you love these Carrot Cupcakes, you will also love my Classic Carrot Cake, Carrot Bundt Cake and Swirled Carrot Cake Bars.
pinterest 
facebook 
twitter 
email
This is my go-to carrot cake recipe! There’s nothing i’D change about this recipe. I follow the recipe entirely – even making the caramel sauce! It’s always raved over. I’ll be quite honest, from start to finish (for me) it takes a couple hours. Roasting the nuts, making the caramel sauce, browning the butter and allowing it to cool (i put it in the freezer for fast cooling), and cleaning up all of that. leave yourself a day to get through this recipe. It’s worth it. They store beautifully in the refrigerator with the icing and caramel sauce, and taste fantastic cool from the fridge. Hands down, my favorite carrot cake recipe made with extra love.
I am so happy to hear that you enjoy my carrot cake! Thank you so much for making it!
I Look forward to making this for Easter. I do have an unrelated question…….can I bake the blueberry cobbler that you have as a crockpot cobbler and if so what do I do different. Thanks
I actually am not sure as I didn’t test it that way. That recipe is quite different since it uses a cake mix and fewer ingredients. If you tried it out, let me know how it turned out so we can share with our other readers.
Hi Jocelyn! I’ve been making this carrot cake for my mom for the past few years now, the family absolutely loves it. How can I add raisins to this without overdoing it? Ive tried different measurements of it but I end up adding too much or not enough.
I would take the middle measurement from testing it out. For example if you made it with 1 cup and it was too much, and then you tried 1/2 cup and it was too little, then 3/4 cup is probably just right! Hope that helps!
Hi! I can’t wait to try this recipe. Could I substitute the pineapple juice with applesauce? If so, what would be the amount in grams for this? Thank you
Hi Katy, I have not tried that with this recipe so I am hesitant to say yes you can or no you can’t.
Thanks for this really great recipe. I made these for my son’s first birthday, and he absolutely LOVED them. Perfect first cake experience!! So light and fluffy, and not overly sweet. Plus very quick and easy to make, which is a must for sleep deprived and time starved new mom! I found that the frosting was enough for a thinner layer on a double batch of cupcakes.
So glad he liked them! Happy belated birthday to him!
I made these carrot cake cupcakes for my own birthday because it is my favorite. I was a bit skeptical because I hate one that tastes like a spice cake. The one thing I guess I just didn’t read was how many it makes… so I thought what the heck let’s double the recipe! Oh my gosh 62 cupcakes later and only my son and I like them, we definitely like the freezer. Idea! I had so much batter I had to use a large plastic punch/candy bowl.
Tips: Another reader suggested more carrots so I added an extra cup and I think it was well worth it, I used crushed pecans instead of walnuts, and rehydrated raisins. Thank you for emphasizing adding some of the juice from the crushed pineapple or the mix is too stiff. Next time I might try half crushed half tid bits because I’d like to taste the pineapple. Try his is the MOST FABULOUS recipe and trust me I have eaten alot of carrot cakes over the years. So much so my Great Dane in the night climbed the counter and ate 13 of them!!!! He has never ever done that for food before. This is a definite must do recipe again!!! Thank you! I’m now curious to try some of your others.
Thank you so much, Allison! I am so glad you enjoyed the cupcakes. They do freeze well so that is a bonus!