Carrot Cake Muffins

Whenever I am feeling like I need to switch up my baking routine, I bake muffins. I love the classics, like lemon poppy seed muffins, blueberry muffins, and banana nut muffins.

But now and then, inspiration strikes for something a little different, like coffee cake muffins or today’s carrot cake muffins. These are soft, tender carrot muffins made extra moist with oil, buttermilk, and sour cream. Instead of frosting, I like to add a rich, sweet cream cheese filling in the middle of the muffins for a tangy contrast.

I grew up eating my grandmother’s carrot cake cupcakes. I like to think of these muffins as a version that I can eat for breakfast!

Key Ingredients in Carrot Cake Muffins

These are ingredient notes on what you’ll need to make these muffins. Scroll to the recipe card below the post for the full list and amounts.

• Flour – It’s important to measure the flour correctly so you don’t add too much. Use the spoon-and-level method or a digital kitchen scale rather than scooping right from the bag, which leads to overmeasuring.
• Sugar – I like to use a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar. Brown sugar adds moisture. However, either will work.
• Cinnamon – Nutmeg would also go nicely in these muffins.
• Oil – I use vegetable oil in addition to butter in this recipe. Butter keeps the muffins flavorful, while oil adds lots of moisture. Canola oil is a good substitute.
• Sour Cream – Brought to room temperature. If you don’t have sour cream, use Greek yogurt instead.
• Buttermilk – If needed, use a homemade buttermilk substitute in place of the real thing. Make it with regular milk and white vinegar (or lemon juice).
• Carrots – Finely grated using the small holes of a box grater, or you can speed things up with a food processor. I still recommend chopping the grated carrots afterward to really get the pieces nice and fine. If the carrots are cold from the fridge, bring them to room temperature.
• Sanding Sugar – Turbinado sugar also works for topping the muffins. Sugar helps the tops brown and crisp up. You can use it on both plain and cream cheese-filled muffins.

Optional Cream Cheese Filling

If you’d like to add it, the cream cheese filling is the same that I use for my pumpkin cream cheese bread and red velvet cupcakes recipes. It’s a cheesecake-like filling stabilized with an egg so that you can bake it right into the muffins.

• Cream Cheese – Use a brick of cream cheese and soften it to room temperature.
• Sugar and Flour – Granulated sugar and all-purpose flour are best. Flour helps thicken the filling.
• Vanilla – Pure vanilla extract, or an equal amount of vanilla paste. Avoid imitation vanilla.
• Egg – To bind the ingredients and stabilize the cream cheese filling. Bring it to room temperature so it mixes smoothly.

How to Make Carrot Cake Muffins

Here are the steps to make these big, fluffy carrot cake muffins from scratch. If you’d like to add the cream cheese filling, see the next section for details.

1. Mix the dry ingredients. First, whisk the flour and dry ingredients together.
2. Combine the wet ingredients. Next, cream together the sugars, oil, and butter in a separate bowl. Once that’s smooth, add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla and sour cream.
3. Finish the batter. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk, until the batter is just combined. It’ll be thick, and that’s OK. The batter needs to be thick to compensate for the extra moisture in the pineapple and bananas.
4. Add the carrots. Lastly, fold in the shredded carrots. Cover the batter with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel, then leave it on the counter to rest for 30 minutes. 
5. Get ready to bake. Meanwhile, line two muffin pans, then divide the carrot muffin batter between the lined wells. Sprinkle a little sanding sugar over each muffin.
6. Bake. If you can’t fit two muffin pans in the oven at the same time, bake them one at a time. Bake the muffins at 425ºF for the first 5-6 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF for the next 13-16 minutes. The muffins are done when a toothpick stuck into the middle comes out clean. If you’re baking carrot muffins with a cream cheese filling, you’ll need to test them just outside of the cream cheese center.
7. Cool. After they’re out of the oven, allow the carrot cake muffins to rest for 15 minutes in the pan before moving them to a wire rack.

Add a Cream Cheese Filling

You can prepare the cream cheese filling while the batter rests. Here’s how to fill these carrot cake muffins with creamy filling that mimics the cream cheese frosting on a real carrot cake.

1. Mix. Beat cream cheese with sugar, vanilla, and flour, then mix in the egg.
2. Prep. Fill a piping bag fitted with a small round tip (or a ziplock baggie with the corner snipped off ½-inch from the bottom).
3. Fill. Fill the muffin liners with ¼ cup of batter each. Then, place the piping tip in the center of each muffin, about 1 inch deep, and press out the cream cheese filling. Sprinkle the sanding sugar around the cream cheese filling, then bake as usual.

Recipe FAQs

How to Store

• On the counter. Store the cooled muffins in a covered container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
• Freeze. You can freeze these carrot cake muffins for up to 2 months. Thaw them on the counter before serving.

More Muffin Recipes

• Cranberry Orange Muffins
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Apple Cinnamon Muffins
• Chocolate Chip Muffins