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Carrot Cake Muffins have all the flavors of carrot cake that you love, but in muffin size. Sweet, ultra-moist, with a hint of cinnamon and perfectly fluffy texture. Great for breakfast, snack time, or grab-and-go meals on the fly!
Carrot cake is one of those things that I fought liking for so long. I don’t know, the idea of carrots AND cake? I was super skeptical. I mean, it took me a while to come around to zucchini in my breads and sweets too. (Like this Zucchini Sheet Cake.) But, not quite as long though I guess because my mom used to make zucchini breads and cakes in the summer so I had come around to that idea a lot sooner.
It wasn’t until I was basically tricked into eating carrot cake that I realized I liked it so much. I was at a friend’s wedding and there were four options of cake from which to choose. My husband (being the amazing human he is) brought over all four kinds for us to try. As I had spent the night dancing and talking to everyone and generally having just a magical time, I wasn’t really paying attention to the cake I was diving into. I didn’t even ask which flavor was which. I assumed you know, there would be chocolate, vanilla, and a couple fancy ones.
I bit into the carrot cake, marveled at how delicious it was, and then asked what I was eating. Imagine my surprise when I was told it was carrot cake! I had no idea how delicious it could be. Sweet, and a little earthy, but also perfectly moist and cakey like a cake should be. Plus, it was topped with cream cheese frosting, so, needless to say I was won completely over and the rest is history!
Here’s How You Make It
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with paper or silicone cupcake liners. No liners? No problem — grease the muffin tin thoroughly.
Next, in a medium bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl, add together the oil, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla and mix well. Stir in the freshly grated carrots.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until they are all completely incorporated.
Fill each muffin liner with batter about ⅔ full. You want to leave room for them to rise. Pop them in the oven and cook for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow them to cool for 5 minutes before putting on a cooling rack to finish cooling all the way.
In this recipe, I suggest you use eggs at room temperature. Why? Well, because eggs that are at room temperature are less viscous than cold eggs. Meaning, they are thinner. When the eggs are thinner, they mix into the batter better and they also allow the baked goods to rise more. It also keeps the batter from being too cold, and thus allowing them to cook faster.
How to Bring Eggs to Room Temperature
I almost always forget to get my eggs out before I start baking to bring them to room temperature. If you can remember, then take them about 30 minutes to an hour before beginning this recipe. If you don’t remember, then there are some tricks to bringing the eggs up to room temperature safely:
Fill a bowl with warm water and add the eggs to the water. It shouldn’t be too hot, just warm water is fine. Let them sit for 5-10 minutes to warm up. You might need to change the water once or twice.
If you’re in a real hurry, put your eggs in a bowl and let warm water continuously run over the eggs until they are room temperature. Don’t let the water get too hot or you’ll end up with hard-boiled eggs.
How to Shred Carrots for Cake
I mention that you should use freshly ground carrots in these muffins. Avoid buying pre-shredded carrots, they will not be moist enough and you’ll end up with hard matchsticks of carrots in your muffins, which you don’t want. Shredding carrots is easy though. Use the regular, large-size carrots for best results though (and to save your fingers from the grater while trying to grate up baby carrots!). Here are a few options for getting the job done:
Use a vegetable peeler. This will take a little longer, but allows you to control the peeling a bit better. Though you’ll need to make shorter peels to bake with, not really long, carrot-length peels.
Use a box grater on the finest grating option.
Use a food processor or blender if you want the carrots to be really good and incorporated. It depends on how you feel about bits of carrot in your muffins. Some like them more than others.
Use a grating attachment on your food processor. This should attach to the top of the bowl, then you feed the carrot to the shredder via the tube at the top. Follow your instruction manual for exact directions.
These are amazing right out of the oven (cooled a little, of course), smeared in butter and drizzled in honey! Mmmm…be right back off to make another batch!
Carrot Cake Muffins have all the flavors of carrot cake that you love, but in muffin size. Sweet, cinnamony, moist, and with just a hint of that carrot taste and texture you love. Great for breakfast, snack time, or grab-and-go meals on the fly!
2cupsfinely grated carrots, not pre-shredded carrots, they should be freshly grated
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with paper or silicone cupcake liners (or grease well with cooking spray).
In a medium bowl whisk together flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In a large bowl combine oil, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla and mix well. Stir in grated carrots.
Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until completely incorporated.
Fill muffin liners 2/3 full.
Bake in preheated oven for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to continue cooling.
Serve fresh or store in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days, or in the fridge up to 2 weeks. Optional: reheat them in the microwave for about 15 seconds and spread a little butter on top for the ultimate breakfast treat.
Notes
For cinnamon lovers: Double the cinnamon!These can be made in mini muffin tins, simply reduce the time and pull them out when an inserted toothpick comes out clean besides a few moist crumbs.
Hey there, I’m Tiffany – chef, photographer, mother, and avid taco eater. I am passionate about turning simple flavors and ingredients into tasty meals the whole family will love, with minimal prep and cleanup so there’s more time to spend eating and enjoying. Stay awhile, and help yourself to a taco or two!
I haven’t personally tested this for this recipe but I think it could work. I would squeeze out the excess liquid and use the same amount as called for in the recipe.
Most delicious muffins I’ve ever made and I made enough to judge. Very quick to make and they are not at all cakey. They are amazing without any need of adding frosting. Would reduce amount of sugar by a bit, I replaced the brown sugar with a tablespoon of vanilla sugar and it was sweet enough.
I’m sorry that happened. My first thought is they need to be baked longer. You can also double check on the oven temperature and ensure that when it is heated, the oven door isn’t open any longer than the time you put the muffins in the oven to not lose too much heat. Other reasons could be making sure you have enough sugar to help the muffins brown, overtaxing the batter can result in the discolored muffins, you can also use a darker colored pan to help it heat up faster to help get that color you want. Hope this helps!
Absolutely delicious recipe. I made it twice! The second time I doubled the recipe (lesson learned!), and I reduced the sugar by about 20% – it was amazing. I’m sure it’s amazing with the sugar, but we enjoyed it just the same with a little less.
Can I give it more than 5 stars?
These are basically the only muffins I bake any more. I always try to have a few in the freezer. As a little added extra I submerge a few cream cheese Chipits into the center of the batter of each baking cup before baking.
Can you use leftover carrot pulp from juicing? If so, how much?
I haven’t personally tested this for this recipe but I think it could work. I would squeeze out the excess liquid and use the same amount as called for in the recipe.
These are to die for, followed the recipe to a T!
Thank you!
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thank you for your review! 🙂
Can i replace the oil with butter?
Yes, you can! I would recommend melting the butter.
I used half the white sugar added pineapple and pecans and they are delicious! Love the moistness too!
Most delicious muffins I’ve ever made and I made enough to judge. Very quick to make and they are not at all cakey. They are amazing without any need of adding frosting. Would reduce amount of sugar by a bit, I replaced the brown sugar with a tablespoon of vanilla sugar and it was sweet enough.
Delicious muffins! I only used 1 cup of sugar and thought they were perfect! Thanks for the recipe, will be trying more!
I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe and hope you enjoy others you try! 🙂
Very tasty but mine turned out very pale and not golden brown. How do I fix that?
I’m sorry that happened. My first thought is they need to be baked longer. You can also double check on the oven temperature and ensure that when it is heated, the oven door isn’t open any longer than the time you put the muffins in the oven to not lose too much heat. Other reasons could be making sure you have enough sugar to help the muffins brown, overtaxing the batter can result in the discolored muffins, you can also use a darker colored pan to help it heat up faster to help get that color you want. Hope this helps!
Absolutely delicious recipe. I made it twice! The second time I doubled the recipe (lesson learned!), and I reduced the sugar by about 20% – it was amazing. I’m sure it’s amazing with the sugar, but we enjoyed it just the same with a little less.
Can I give it more than 5 stars?
Holy moly these are addictive. And I’m typically not the biggest fan of carrot cake! They taste more like cinnamon rolls to me
These are basically the only muffins I bake any more. I always try to have a few in the freezer. As a little added extra I submerge a few cream cheese Chipits into the center of the batter of each baking cup before baking.