These carrot cake cupcakes are moist, soft, perfectly spiced, and every carrot cake and fall lover’s dream. These carrot cake cupcakes are made with grated carrots, brown sugar, fall spices, topped with a creamy cream cheese frosting.
Preheat an oven to 180c (350f) and prep a cupcake pan with liners.
Into a big mixing bowl, add the oil, eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, and kosher salt. mix with a whisk until combined.
Peel and grate the carrots. Add the grated carrots into the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
Add the flour, baking powder, and baking soda, and mix until just combined. Don’t overmix the batter!
Pour the batter ¾ into the cupcake tins and bake in a 180c (350f) preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
For the cream cheese frosting:
Make the cream cheese frosting: into a large bowl add room temperature butter and mix with a hand mixer or a stand mixer until the butter is light and fluffy.
Transfer the cream cheese frosting into a piping bag with a round tip and frost the cupcakes. We like to top the cupcakes with ground cinnamon or crushed nuts like walnuts or pecans (roasted).
Add ½ of the powder sugar at a time (you don’t want to be in a powder sugar cloud).
Add a pinch of salt, and the vanilla extract and mix well until smooth.
Notes
Use room temperature ingredients.
Don’t overmix the batter, you don’t want to develop the gluten in the flour. This step ensures you have moist cupcakes and not dense and dry cupcakes.
Use room temperature butter and cream cheese.
Use full-fat cream cheese, this step makes sure that your frosting is stable.
Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before adding the frosting.
Mesure you flour correctly! When measuring your flour, avoid scooping it with a measuring cup. Instead, stir the flour with a spoon to create as many air pockets as possible, and spoon it into your measuring cup. Finally, level it with a back of a knife.
Do not overfill the cupcake liners! don't fill the cupcake liners with more than ¾ of the way full. These cupcakes will puff up and expand. It doesn't seem like much but it truly puffs up beautifully.
Double or triple the batter for more cupcakes! this cupcake recipe makes 12 cupcakes. So double or triple the batter for more cupcakes!
Use fresh carrots for this recipe, not canned carrots and not pre-shredded carrots, this step ensures that you have moist cupcakes.