Carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting are the perfect sweet start to the new year.
Happy 2021, friends! We made it! Hopefully you didn’t give up dessert as your resolution because we have no plans to give them up on our end over here. Balance, people. Balance. Dessert makes us happy. Therefore, dessert shall stay!
We really hope you all had a lovely holiday season. It sure did go by fast, but we are ready for the new year and everything it may, or may not..bring! Our first blog post recipe of the year is for these delicious and oh so cute carrot cake cupcakes!
We love cupcakes so much.
Cupcakes are technically where our baking journey began. Hence our name “The Cupcake Chronicles”. We pretty much baked them all the time. It was our thing, and we would like to argue that it is still our thing. Fortunately, we have branched out and started making other things like cakes, donuts, cookies, etc. But cupcakes will always have a special place in our little twin hearts.
What’s so great about carrot cake?
Carrot cake is a classic. It’s dare we say..moist, full of all the cozy spices, and topped with tangy cream cheese frosting. MMMM. Need we also mention that carrots are a vegetable sooooooo we will support you if you say these are “healthy”.
Ok. So maybe you don’t want to make an entire cake. And grate 2378 carrots. We understand. Sometimes you just need a sweet. But you don’t NEEED an entire 3 layer cake. We will never say no to one…but we don’t always need one. Ya know?
That’s why we love cupcakes. They are super easy to make and much more serving size friendly if you just want a little somethin’ somethin’ to satisfy your sweet tooth. And we cannooooot forget the cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese frosting and carrot cake go together like peanut butter and jelly. You gotta have it.
“You complete me” – said the carrot cake to the cream cheese frosting
Aww. So cute.
What do you need to make these carrot cake cupcakes?
Carrots. That’s it.
Kidding. You need some other stuff like flour, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla etc. Good news is everything you need you probably already have in your pantry!
If you are looking for more cupcake ideas, check out some of our favorites!
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground all spice
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups carrots grated
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 4 tbsp butter room temp
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a muffin tin with 12 liners.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment slowly mix together the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda and spices.
- Add in vegetable oil, vanilla.
- Add eggs one at at time. Scrape the sides of the bowl after each addition.
- Beat until well combined
- Stir in the carrots until combined.
- Divide the batter between the liners and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool before taking out of the tin.
for the frosting
- Beat together the cream cheese and butter until fluffy
- Add in the vanilla extract
- Slowly add in the powdered sugar and beat until combined and smooth
Assembly
- Once cupcakes are cool pipe frosting on top and garnish with walnuts if desired