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    Home » Baking » Carrot Cake Muffins

    Carrot Cake Muffins

    March 4, 2021

    683 shares
    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    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.

    carrot cake muffin with glaze dripping off side on a gold stand

    Why this recipe works?

    muffin tin with shredded carrots, carrot cake muffins, and cream cheese glaze on top

    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

    carrot cake muffin 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

    grating carrots on a cutting board

    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

    dry carrot cake  ingredients being mixed in a bowl

    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

    eggs, coconut oil, yogurt, being whisked in a bowl

    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

    folding shredded carrot, walnuts, and coconut into carrot cake batter
    1. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl
    2. 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
    3. Add the carrots, shredded coconut, and chopped walnuts into the batter
    4. 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.
    carrot cake muffins in a gold muffin tin

    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 carrot cake muffin on a gold cooling rack

    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

    cream cheese icing being drizzled over the muffin

    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.

    carrot cake muffins in a muffin tin with shredded carrots, coconut and walnuts

    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.

    cream cheese glazed carrot cake muffins on a cooling rack

    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

    bite out of carrot cake muffin topped with cream cheese frosting

    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
    cream cheese icing being drizzled over the muffin

    For the web story version of this recipe, click here!

    Made this recipe and loved it? Leave a star rating below!

    carrot cake muffin with glaze dripping off side on a gold stand

    Carrot Cake Muffins

    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.
    4.63 from 8 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Baking
    Cuisine: American
    Keyword: carrot cake, carrot cake muffins, cream cheese icing
    Prep Time: 15 minutes
    Cook Time: 23 minutes
    Total Time: 38 minutes
    Servings: 12 muffins
    Calories: 312kcal
    Author: Stephanie

    Equipment

    • Cookie Scoop
    • Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls
    • Nonstick 12-Cup Muffin Tin 
    • Box Grater
    • Microplane
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Ingredients

    Carrot Cake Muffins

    • 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
    • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
    • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
    • â…” cup brown sugar
    • ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
    • 2 large eggs
    • ¾ cup refined coconut oil melted
    • â…“ cup Greek yogurt
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 1 ½ cups freshly grated carrots about 2 large carrots
    • ¾ unsweetened shredded coconut
    • ½ cup roughly chopped walnuts
    • 1 tablespoon orange zest

    Cream Cheese Icing

    • 3 ounces cream cheese softened
    • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
    • ½ cup confectioners sugar

    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.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 312kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.003g | Cholesterol: 38mg | Sodium: 203mg | Potassium: 122mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 19g | Vitamin A: 2817IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 71mg | Iron: 1mg
    Made this recipe?Mention @GirlWithTheIronCast or tag #girlwiththeironcast!
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    683 shares

    Originally Published: March 4, 2021 Post Updated: November 16, 2022 Filed Under: American, Baking, Breakfast, Dessert, Recipes, Spring Delights, Vegetarian Tagged With: Carrots

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Lynn

      May 08, 2022 at 12:09 pm

      These muffins are to die for!! I replaced half of oil with unsweetened applesauce and used pecans instead of walnuts.
      So most and scrumptious. My husband loved them, will definitely make these irregularly. Thanks for sharing the recipe

      Reply
      • Stephanie

        May 08, 2022 at 6:05 pm

        I’m so glad you enjoyed them Lynn, thanks for making them!

        Reply

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