Ultimate Carrot Cupcakes
The ultimate carrot cupcakes are not simply a carrot cake recipe poured into cupcake liners. It’s much more sensitive and complex than that for several reasons.
When you use a regular carrot cake recipe to bake cupcakes, the texture typically ends up being too dense for a cupcake.
Another problem is that cupcakes bake for a shorter period of time than a large cake, so that deep caramelization flavour is lost. Which is definitely not okay! That caramelised, slightly chewy top is the BEST part.
Flavour Comes First
When I speak of Carrot Cake, I’m NOT talking about those “carrot cakes” that are basically just a vanilla sponge with shredded carrot inside. That is not proper Carrot Cake. It is carrot flavoured Vanilla Cake. If it were a song, it would be “itsy bitsy spider”.
Proper Carrot Cake is much deeper and darker, with such a dynamic flavour and texture. If it were a song, it would be “O sole Mio”. EPIC. Unique. Gutsy. Excellence. (And yes, I’m listening to O sole mio as I write this post 🙂 There’s an AMAZING version where Pavarotti sings it with Bryan Adams – so stunning!)
This ultimate carrot cupcakes recipe is made with golden syrup, dark brown sugar and molasses, so it is absolutely brimming with caramel-ly depth!
The Texture
When I eat carrot cake as a slice of cake, the texture should absolutely be a bit denser than a sponge cake.
However, when I eat carrot cake in cupcake form it has to be just as moist and flavourful, BUT also LIGHT. Heavy cupcakes are just not pleasant…
So this recipe perfectly captures ALL the stunning texture of regular carrot cake, but also with a light, tender and super moist crumb – as a cupcake should be.
The way you prepare the carrots for your ultimate carrot cupcakes is key. Do not shred/grate them too finely. If you grate them too fine, they will just disappear into the batter and be less prominent in the final flavour experience.
Another reason to not grate the carrots too fine is because it leaves more surface area for the batter to react with the carrots. The batter contains sugar and salt which draws the moisture out of the carrots.
So IF you grate the carrots too fine, they react with the batter much faster, drawing moisture out of the carrots much faster and leaving you with a very runny batter in a matter of minutes.
This makes all your lovely raisins, pineapple etc. sink to the bottom when baking. So to avoid this, rather grate your carrots coarser.
As for all the extras beyond carrots, I like to use raisins, crushed pineapple plus toasted pecans.
I know that walnuts are more traditional in carrot cake, but the toasted pecans completely outshine walnuts in this instance.
The Frosting
As you may know by now, I make no secret of my disdain for traditional buttercream and even cream cheese frosting as well, because they are TOO SWEET.
Frosting is supposed to CONTRIBUTE to the flavour experience, not just round off the visual presentation of cupcakes.
Philosophy of Yum Cream Cheese Frosting is balanced and DELICIOUS and it pairs perfectly with these ultimate carrot cupcakes 🙂
These are seriously the Ultimate Carrot Cupcakes. Deep, gutsy, EPIC flavour, but with a light, moist and tender crumb. Topped with the best cream cheese frosting ever and toasted pecan nuts. SO YUM!
So here we go – my recipe for the Ultimate Carrot Cupcakes!
- 230 g Flour
- ¾ tsp Baking powder
- 1 ¼ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
- ½ Tbsp Cinnamon
- ¼ tsp Ginger
- 1 tsp Salt
- 130 g Eggs
- ½ T Vanilla Extract
- 65 g White Granulated Sugar
- 100 g Demerara Sugar
- 130 g Canola Oil
- 70 g Golden Syrup
- 15 g Molasses
- 40 g raisins
- 270 g grated Carrots
- 100 g Crushed Pineapple, scooped with juice
- 100 g Toasted Pecans
- Preheat oven to 180°C/356°F.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, place the eggs, oil, vanilla, white sugar, demerara sugar, golden syrup and molasses. Whisk together with a hand mixer on high speed for 90 seconds. It should be pale and almost doubled in volume.
- Fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients using a large metal spoon.
- Add the grated carrot, raisins and crushed pineapple to the bowl and fold in. Be sure to mix everything together thoroughly as the fresh carrot can often hide together in little huddles in the batter.
- Proceed to fill the lined cupcake tins immediately. Do not let the batter stand. Divide the batter evenly between 15 lined cupcake tin holes. I like to first fill each liner halfway, stir the remaining batter again, and then fill the liners the rest of the way so that the first 5 cupcakes don't get all the extra bits and the last few cupcakes just get batter with no raisins, pineapple, etc.
- Bake at 180ᵒC/356°F for about 25 mins, rotating the tins halfway through baking. The cupcakes should be a deep golden brown. Also test the cupcakes with a toothpick – if the toothpick comes out clean, the cupcakes are done.
- Leave to cool in the tins. Once completely cold, remove from tins.
- Make Philosophy of Yum Cream Cheese Frosting. Pipe onto cupcakes as desired and sprinkle the remainder of the chopped pecans generously on top. Enjoy!
If you give this recipe a go, tag me on Facebook, twitter or Instagram @philosophyofyum because I would LOVE to see!
Chat soon
Aurelia 🙂
My secret weapon for flat, moist cakes – no more domes to trim off! TOTAL Game changer! 😀
Got a question? Something to add? Let’s chat in the comments section down below! (I respond to every single comment)
Hi Aurelia
Thank you for sharing your recipes and caring about us new bakers! For this carrot cupcake recipe, can I exchange sunflower oil for the canola oil and black treacle for the molasses?
Hey Rajula, thanks for your sweet comment 🙂 You can exchange the oils yes. Just be careful with the black treacle – make sure you don’t use “black strap molasses” because than stuff has a very unpleasant flavour! Normal black treacle is 100% fine 🙂 Happy baking!
Hi Aurelia
I’m very happy I find this recipe, but I need to use gluten-free flour. So do you think is possible just swab flours?
Hey Aneta! Yes, go for it 🙂 you can use this gluten free flour recipe >> https://philosophyofyum.com/gluten-free-flour/
Aurelia! I’m so glad I found your carrot cake cupcake recipe! It was moist and fluffy. I loved taking bites with small chunks of pineapple.
I made it for Thanksgiving and paired it with my Cream Cheese Frosting and it was so delightful! My whole family and extended family raved about it and kept the leftover cupcakes. Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe. I’m going to try your other cupcake recipes too.
Hey Aprille, so glad you & your family enjoyed the recipe! Thanks so much for letting me know 🙂
Carrot cake is my favorite! I love making little cupcakes sometimes, because a whole cake can be quite hard to finish! Your recipe sounds delightful!
Hey, thanks for your comment 🙂 A good carrot cake never goes out of fashion! And YES, cupcakes are definitely easier to make. I hope you try out the recipe – I’m sure you’ll love it!
Hi Aurelia,
I love your website. Your baking philosophy is much like mine.
Just wondered about these carrot cakes – what’s the expected lifespan? If I need to make them a couple of days before we eat them will they keep in the fridge?
Hey Rachael, thank you so much for your kind words! So glad your philosophy is also about yumminess and flavour 🙂 I wouldn’t make these cupcakes more than 2 days in advance – and always make the frosting on the day you plan to serve them! The frosting contains cream and cream cheese so it does go off a lot faster than buttercream.
Hi there I’m new to your site & so excited to try you recipes. My dear friend is turning 60 in January and I’m the cake baker for all. She has requested a Carrot Cake, I see cupcakes can you share your cake recipe so I can make it for her please💕
Hey Katherine! Thanks for your comment 🙂 You can find my secret, Ultimate Carrot Cake recipe in my free resource library. This recipe is very dear to my heart and only available to my subscribers. I’m sure you’ll LOVE the recipe!
Hi Aurelia. The recipe looks amazing. Will definitely give it a try.
About the amount of eggs required, since you recommend weighing, should the egg be whisked before being weighed? So, say if my eggs weigh 50g, I will need 2 eggs and a little more. Would I need to whisk all three or say the last one so one does not end up getting too much yolk or too much white?
Also, do you have video tutorials or picture tutorials of your recipe? How coarse the carrot should be grated is a bit subjective and I see you emphasized on the carrot texture, a picture would do, if possible. Thanks.
Hi Evado – thanks for your comment! Definitely whisk the eggs before weighing out the required amount, yes. You can grate your carrots on the larger holes which are about 6mm in diameter 🙂
130g egg is how many eggs please
Hi Zainab! Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately baking with cup measurements will not give you the same results, because an egg can weigh anywhere from 40 g – 70 g. Every gram of egg makes a significant difference in the end results. I encourage you to buy a digital kitchen scale. They are really inexpensive and will give you great precision and results in your baking 🙂
Can you translate the recipe ingredients to cups,ect.?
Hi Vicky, thanks for your comment. Unfortunately baking with cup measurements will not give you the same results, because a cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 150 g – 180 g. Every 10 g of flour makes a significant difference in the end results. I encourage you to buy a digital kitchen scale. They are really inexpensive and will give you great precision and results in your baking 🙂
Thank you so much Aurelia – definitely making this for Easter!
Just a question – what is Moirs Vanilla? Is that the instant pudding?
Regards
Marie
Hi Marie! Sorry for the late reply! Nope I meant vanilla extract. So sorry – will fix the typo!