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Who doesn’t like carrot cake?! One of my favorite desserts that I transformed into the perfect breakfast or snack muffin. These carrot cake muffins are pillowy soft, moist, and full of flavor. This carrot cake muffin recipe has freshly shredded carrots, crunchy walnuts, shredded coconut, and topped with a delicious vanilla cream cheese glaze.
Why this recipe works?
As much as I love dessert, it’s not realistic to make and eat carrot cake everyday. These carrot cake muffins take all your favorite flavors and turn them into the perfect on-the-go breakfast and they are easy to store to enjoy throughout the week.
Ingredients
For these carrot cake muffins, you’ll need: all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, light brown sugar, unsweetened coconut flakes, fresh carrots, eggs, orange, vanilla extract, coconut oil, ground ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Carrots
When making these carrot cake muffins, freshly grate your carrots. Pre-shredded carrots are dry/hard and will affect the texture of the muffins. On the box grater, use the second largest side.
Dry ingredients
In a medium/large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Have you ever grabbed your brown sugar and it was hard as a rock? I have two remedies. You can place it in a small bowl, covered by a damp paper towel and microwave in 20 second intervals. Breaking it up as you go. Or I just got these brown sugar bears that help keep the sugar soft.
Wet ingredients
In a separate small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. There are two substitutes you can make: for the greek yogurt, you can substitute unsweetened apple sauce. For the coconut oil, you can substitute with vegetable oil. Whisk until smooth and fully mixed.
Carrot cake muffin batter
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl
- Whisk until fully combined. I use a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, to ensure all the flour is integrated
- Add the carrots, shredded coconut, and chopped walnuts into the batter
- Fold until all the ingredients are fully dispersed. I wait to fold in these ingredients last, to ensure the batter is mixed and you don’t get any flour pockets.
In a greased non-stick muffin pan, scoop the batter into each cup. You can also line with baking cups if your pan is not non-stick. To make them uniform in size, I use a cookie scoop and add two scoops to each cup. There is enough batter for 12 muffins.
Baking the muffins
A baking tip I learned from Sally’s Baking Addiction, is to start the muffins out on high heat. Bake the muffins at 425 degrees F for the first 5 minutes. The high heat will allow the muffins to puff up and get a higher rise. Then lower the heat to 350 degrees F for the rest of the bake.
Cream cheese icing
While the muffins are baking, assemble the easy cream cheese icing. In a small bowl whisk together: cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla extract. Whisk until fully combined and smooth. Store in the refrigerator until you’re ready to glaze the muffins.
Insert a toothpick into the muffin, it should come out clean once the carrot cake muffins are fully cooked. Remove from the muffin tin and place on a rack to cool for 10 minutes.
Once the carrot cake muffins have cooled, drizzle the cream cheese icing over the top of the muffins. You can top them with additional coconut and walnuts if you would like. The muffins are also enjoyable without the cream cheese icing.
Storing
Place muffins in an airtight container and store up to 3 days or you can refrigerate them to last longer, 1 week. Freeze the muffins for up to 3 months, thaw overnight in refrigerator, and warm in microwave.
Looking for other baking recipes?
- Cinnamon Streusel Muffins
- Giant Cinnamon Roll
- Pumpkin Spice Baked Donuts
- Dutch Baby Pancake
- Cast Iron Buttermilk Biscuits
- Lemon Poppyseed Donuts
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Carrot Cake Muffins
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Muffins
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup refined coconut oil (melted)
- 1/3 cup Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups freshly grated carrots (about 2 large carrots)
- 3/4 unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
Cream Cheese Icing
- 3 ounces cream cheese (softened)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
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Instructions
Carrot Cake Muffins
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, brown sugar, and kosher salt.
- In a separate small bowl, add the wet ingredients: eggs, melted coconut oil, greek yogurt, 1 tsp vanilla extract. Whisk until eggs are fully beaten and yogurt is fully incorporated.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl. Whisk until fully combined. I use a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, to ensure all the flour is integrated. Add the carrots, shredded coconut, and chopped walnuts into the batter. Fold until all the ingredients are fully dispersed.
- In a greased non-stick muffin pan, scoop the batter into each cup. You can also line with baking cups if your pan is not non-stick. To make them uniform in size, I use a cookie scoop. There is enough batter for 12 muffins.
- Bake the muffins at 425 degrees F for the first 5 minutes, then lower the heat to 350 degrees F for an additional 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted and cleanly removed.
- Once done baking, carefully remove from the muffin tin and allow to cool on a rack for 10 minutes prior to icing.
Cream cheese icing
- In a small bowl, whisk together: cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla extract. Whisk until fully combined and smooth. Store in the refrigerator until you’re ready to glaze the muffins.
- Once the carrot cake muffins are cooled, drizzle the cream cheese icing over the top of the muffins. You can top them with additional coconut and walnuts if you would like. The muffins are also enjoyable without the cream cheese icing.
Notes
Carrots
- Freshly grate your carrots. Pre-shredded carrots are dry/hard and will affect the texture of the muffins. On the box grater, use the second largest side.
Brown Sugar
- You can place the hard sugar in a small bowl, covered by a damp paper towel and microwave in 20 second intervals. Breaking it up as you go. Or store your sugar with these brown sugar bears that help keep the sugar soft.
Yogurt and coconut oil substitute
- For the greek yogurt, you can substitute unsweetened apple sauce. For the coconut oil, you can substitute with vegetable oil.
Baking Temperature
- A baking tip I learned from Sally’s Baking Addiction, is to start the muffins out on high heat. Bake the muffins at 425 degrees F for the first 5 minutes. The high heat will allow the muffins to puff up and get a higher rise. Then lower the heat to 350 degrees F for the rest of the bake.
Storing
- Place muffins in an airtight container and store up to 3 days or you can refrigerate them to last longer, 1 week. Freeze the muffins for up to 3 months, thaw overnight in refrigerator, and warm in microwave.
