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These are the moistest, most delicious Carrot Cake Cupcakes that I have ever had! They have a little crunch from toasted walnuts and the perfect hint of cinnamon! Topped with an impossibly creamy cream cheese frosting they are irresistible!
This is the most tender, moist carrot cake you’ve ever had with a little crunch from the toasted walnuts and a prominent carrot cinnamon flavor.
The cake is the same as The Best Carrot Cake Recipe but transformed into cupcakes! I topped them with a traditional cream cheese frosting but you could also use this bourbon cream cheese buttercream from the best red velvet cake.
And adorned with a little marzipan carrot. As can be seen, they are adorable. Plus who doesn’t love marzipan?
So truth be told, this isn’t my first time around the carrot cake block…
This carrot cake recipe is actually shockingly similar in texture and taste to one I made last year from one of my vintage cookbooks. It tasted divine and the frosting was to.die.for. Why didn’t I post it?
Because as I cut into my magnificent 3-tiered cake, I realized my carrots had turned green.
GREEN!!!!
Apparently if carrots come in contact with baking soda, they will transform like a Teenage Mutant Nina Turtle into a horrible, sickening shade of green.
In essence, think shamrock.
If you’re really nice to me, I may just post a picture of the green cake in all its glory. Maybe.
In culinary school we weigh all our ingredients, because it is 1000x more accurate and at least 234x easier. I converted this recipe to volumetric measurements because I love you, but I suggest you dust off that scale in the back of your cupboard and weigh your ingredients.
When someone gives you weighted measurements it’s like a gift from the Goddess of Precision herself, and you don’t turn down gifts. Or at least I don’t! 😉
If you aren’t into kneading gel coloring into marzipan and meticulously shaping carrots (even though it is so easy!), you can do like my friend David and pipe adorable little carrots on top with frosting.
If you tried this recipe and loved it please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments below. I love hearing from you; your comments make my day!
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Carrot Cake:
- 1½ cups all purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 ⅔ cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup carrots shredded and squeezed
- ½ cup walnuts toasted and chopped
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 20 oz cream cheese not light, not whipped, room temperature
- ½ cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- toasted walnuts chopped, for garnish, optional
For the Marzipan Carrots (optional):
- 3 ½ tablespoons marzipan
- food coloring orange and green
Instructions
For the Carrot Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350˚F and line 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Add the lemon juice to the vegetable oil and set aside.
- Squeeze out the excess juice from your carrot; discard or drink it! So healthy!
- In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip together the eggs and sugar to the ribbon stage. This is when the batter will hold a ribbon on its surface before slowly disappearing.
- With the mixer running on high, slowly pour in the vegetable oil mixture and whisk until completely emulsified (i.e. you can’t see any oil).
- Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and fold in the dry ingredients all at once just until streaky.
- Fold in the walnuts and carrots until there are no more lumps of flour and the batter is just combined. Please don’t over mix. If you think it’s done, it is.
- Scoop into prepared tins no higher than ¾ full. You will have just enough batter to fill 24 cups.
- Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes back clean.
- Cool 5 minutes in pan then turn out onto wire rack and cool upside-down. Yes, upside-down! Let cool completely before frosting.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together the cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar on medium low speed until soft and smooth, 10-12 minutes. It is very important your ingredients are at room temperature or you will have lumps of butter and you will have to soften over a water bath and your frosting will be runnier (Like mine. Don’t let impatience happen to you.)
- Add the lemon juice and vanilla and stir to combine.
- Pipe frosting onto cupcakes using your favorite tip. I used a Wilton 1A.
- Gently scoop some toasted, chopped walnuts into the palm of one hand and pat them around the edges of each cupcake.
For the Marzipan Carrots:
- Color ¾ of the marzipan orange and ¼ green, by kneading in gel coloring into the marzipan.
- Shape little carrots from the orange marzipan and mark them with the back of a knife to resemble the lines on real carrots. Make a divot in the top of each carrot.
- Roll out the green marzipan into long, thin ropes and cut into small pieces. Group several pieces together and press into the divot in each carrot.
- Top each cupcake with a small carrot. Adorable.
These cupcakes look incredible, Lindsey!! I love the cute marzipan carrot with the toasted walnut rim! And oh my green carrots??? Wow, I had no idea that could happen and would love to see a photo 🙂 My husband is a huge carrot cake fan so I can’t wait to try making these!
Thank you, Kelly! I didn’t either and I seriously couldn’t believe it when I cut the cake. It was craziness!
Yum! This cupcake looks amazing! I know that this would be love at first bite for me. Pinning.
Thanks for the pin!
I can’t believe I wasn’t following you yet! Now I can keep up to date with all the delicious goings-on 🙂
I love, love, love carrot cake – and it definitely has to have walnuts and cream cheese frosting or the deal is off!
I always bake in grams because I am gluten free and converting recipes using grams makes for 1000000x better results than using volumetric measurements. Thanks for making this recipe conversion friendly so I can enjoy some cute cupcakes very soon!
What is it about carrot cake?! Any other veggie in a cake would turn be off but I love carrot cake! It’s probably the cream cheese frosting, lets be honest! Good luck converting this recipe to gluten free! You must work some magic!
LOVE carrot cake – these cupcakes look perfect, Lindsey! That cream cheese frosting is divine! 😀 I’ve always baked in grams (definitely a European thing!) so it’s really helpful having the conversions! 😀
Thank you!!! It’s sooooo much easier and more accurate! Wish it had caught on here 🙂
These look like the best carrot cake cupcakes I have ever seen. I can’t wait to try them, I need a go-to carrot cake recipe. Meanwhile green carrots?! I had no idea! You must show us a photo sometime! This recipe is a winner!!! 🙂
Everyone needs a go to carrot cake recipe right?! I’ve eaten way too many dry carrot cakes in my 30 years 🙂 I hope you try it!
I’m so excited for your all of your knowledge! I’ve been storing up questions for you like a chipmunk with acorns. #truth
These cupcakes sound delicious and the carrots are super cute! Also, I want to see the green. That is NUTS!
Lol! What are you hoarding your questions for?! You could just ask! But I’m pretty sure you know everything there it already, love! Xo
Oh good golly, am dripping in drool over here!
That velvety frosting …ooh…that…crunchy carrot cupcake….good GAWSH!!!
Btw, I had no clue carrots turned green when exposed to baking soda – pretty puh-leeze post a picture of that green carrot cake…
Haha! Thanks!! I was so beyond disappointed when I cut that cake! I tried to salvage it which is why I took any photos at all….but no. 🙂
I think we need to have a Carrot Cake fest! I’ll bring my version, you bring these amazing cupcakes…and we’ll have a taste test! (I fully expect that you will win this one, but I just need an excuse to get some amazing cupcakes out of you…haha!) Also, I couldn’t agree more about weight measurements. I know it’s popular in Europe, but it just never caught on here in the States. Clearly, we just need to move to Europe and bake, right? 🙂
First of all – I am down for a cupcake face off any time. #bringit 😉
Second- we clearly do need to just go bake in Europe! Done & done!
When I actually do bake, I try to measure by weight… it’s crazy how different the measurements sometimes turn out! I wish I had your and David’s crafty “cute” carrot talents… mine would totally come out like a certified pinterest fail! And if I were you, I would have totally held onto those green carrot cake photos and posted it for St Patrick’s Day! People would have probably loved it lol!
I am certain that your carrots would be perfectly adorable and Pinterest worthy! It definitely occurred to me to recreate the cake for St Pattys day but it is just so creepy!!