I absolutely love carrot cake, and the best bit of course is the cream cheese frosting! These Carrot Cake Cupcakes are perfectly sized portions of deliciously spiced and moist carrot cake, topped with the most divine cream cheese frosting that's also super thick and pipeable.
It can be hard in the UK to get cream cheese frosting to work, but this recipe is the sure fire way to make it work. I love to put raisins and pecans in my carrot cake, but this part of the recipe is very flexible so if you don't like them or prefer walnuts instead, it's easy to adapt it.
How to make Carrot Cake Cupcakes...
To make the cupcakes I started by soaking the raisins in the orange juice whilst I prepared the other ingredients. Then I mixed together the eggs, vegetable oil and light brown sugar. Next I mixed in the grated carrot and the raisin and orange juice mixture.
I added self raising flour, wholemeal flour, mixed spice, cinnamon, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, and mixed them in. Finally I stirred in the chopped pecans.
I divided the mixture between the cupcake cases and baked them for 25 minutes.
For the cream cheese frosting I beat the butter with an electric mixer until smooth, then I mixed in the icing sugar. Once that was smooth, I mixed in the cream cheese and vanilla extract.
Tips for making the Carrot Cake Cupcakes:
- The pecans and raisins are optional, you don't have to include them if you don't want. You can also swap them for walnuts or sultanas.
- If you can't get hold of the fondant carrots, you could decorate with a sprinkle of chopped pecans, leave them plain, or some candied carrot curls - check my Autumn Vegetable Cake for instructions on how to make them!
- I love the mix of spices in these cupcakes, but you can experiment a bit with the spices if you like. For example using a more cinnamon and less mixed spice, or adding some ground ginger.
- Mixed spice is a British spice blend containing Cinnamon, Coriander Seed, Nutmeg, Clove, Pimento, Ginger. If you can't get hold of it, you can use a Pumpkin Spice mix instead.
- Carrot cake batter can be quite "wet" and hard to spoon into the cupcake cases. I like to put it in a jug and pour it into the cases, or put it in a piping bag and pipe it in them. It makes it so much easier and reduces the mess!
Recommended equipment & ingredients*
| Cupcake tin | Mixing bowls | Cooling rack |
| Kitchen scales | Piping bags | Electric hand mixer |
| Brown cupcake cases | Fondant carrots | Ateco 829 piping nozzle |
*I earn a small amount of money if you buy the products after clicking on the links. You will not be charged anything extra for this. Thank you for supporting The Baking Explorer!
More Carrot Cake recipes...
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| Carrot Cake Cookies | Autumn Vegetable Cake | Carrot Cake Baked Donuts (Vegan) |
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| Carrot Cake |
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 2 tbsp Orange juice (or water)
- 45 g Raisins or sultanas
- 2 Eggs large
- 135 ml Vegetable oil
- 135 g Light brown sugar
- 165 g Carrot grated
- 100 g Self raising flour
- 65 g Wholemeal plain flour
- ½ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
- A pinch of Baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp Mixed spice
- ½ tsp Cinnamon
- 45 g Pecans chopped
For the cream cheese frosting
- 135 g Butter
- 135 g Icing sugar
- 270 g Full fat cream cheese
- ½ tsp Vanilla extract
For decoration
- 12 Fondant carrots optional
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 160C Fan/180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, and line a cupcake tin with cupcake cases
- Put the raisins into a bowl and pour the orange juice over them. Leave them to soak while you prepare the rest of the ingredients
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, eggs and light brown sugar
- Add the grated carrot and the raisins, including the orange juice, and mix in
- Add the self raising flour, wholemeal flour, baking powder, mixed spice, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda. Mix them in
- Add the chopped pecans and stir them in
- Divide the mixture between the 12 cupcake cases. As carrot cake batter is quite 'wet' I find it easier to either pour the mixture into the cases with a jug or put it into a piping bag and pipe it into the cases
- Bake them for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean. Leave to cool completely
- To make the cream cheese frosting, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until smooth. Then mix in the icing sugar until the mixture is smooth
- Next, add the cream cheese and the vanilla extract and mix in until the frosting is thick and smooth
- Pipe the cream cheese frosting onto each cupcake using a piping bag fitted with your chosen nozzle. Or spread on with a spoon
- Decorate with the fondant carrots, or decorations of your choice
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge, eat leftovers within 3 days
Notes
If you like this, check out more of my Cupcake recipes!
Pin it for later!
I'm linking this recipe up with Cook Blog Share hosted by Cooking With My Kids.
Rebecca Smith
Never thought to make carrot cake into individual cupcakes. I love this idea and am going to tweak this to be gluten free. Can't wait.
The Happy Whisk (Ivy)
Oh my gosh. I love, love, carrot cupcakes and that little carrot on top is too stinkin' cute! Love it.
Eb Gargano | Easy Peasy Foodie
Carrot cake in cupcake form??? YES PLEASE! Eb x
Helen - Cooking with my kids
These look great. I used to be like you and assumed I wouldn't like carrot cake. How wrong I was!
Amber
Hi! What nozzle did you use to achieve the piping please? They look amazing. X
Ash
Delicious and easy! Thanks 😁
Kolaylezzet
Thanks for these impressive cupcakes.
Elizabeth Wabara
Well I made these yesterday and OMG they were a huge hit absolutely delicious I'm making them again next week! X
Ruby
Made a batch of these last night as a test before a party this weekend, told my partner he could take some to work as I'd made twelve... unfortunately for his colleagues these were so good we've eaten them all already !!!
I swapped pecans for walnuts, and skipped the raisins, cooked in a microwave oven for 22 min and were perfect.
thebakingexplorer
I'm so glad you both enjoyed them so much they never left the house! Thanks so much for your lovely feedback 🙂
Nicole
Tried this recipe and can't for the life of me get the buttercream icing to the right consistency, I'm following the correct measurements but it always seems to go too runny and I have to try and thicken it in the fridge! What am I doing wrong!?
thebakingexplorer
Hi Nicole, once it goes runny you will struggle to bring it back unfortunately. Check you are mixing in in the right order, so butter first, then icing sugar, then cream cheese. Don't over mix, once it's combined and thick you can stop mixing, I'd say it takes no longer than 1-2 minutes. I recommend using Philadelphia as it is the thickest cream cheese available in the UK and has the lowest water content. Use real proper butter, not margarine or a baking spread. I hope that helps!
Melissa
Hi can I replace the oil with unsalted butter!
thebakingexplorer
Hi Melissa, I've never used butter in carrot cake I always use oil, the general advice is that they can be substituted. I would suggest melting the butter, letting it cool then adding in the same way as the oil. Please do let me know how it goes!
Katy
Another perfectly delicious recipe, went down a treat with adults and kids!
thebakingexplorer
Thank you Katy!
Paula
If I dont use the icing can the cake part be stored at room temp in an airtight container?
thebakingexplorer
Hi Paula, yes that's right, it can be stored at room temp in an airtight container if it's just the cake 🙂