Classic Carrot Cupcake with Baileys Cream Cheese Frosting

These are fluffy, and moist classic carrot cupcake! Made completely from scratch with real grated carrots, these carrot cupcakes are always a hit! Make sure to top them off with the absolute best cream cheese frosting.

Carrot Cupcakes are my little one’s favorite and I’d like to believe that it’s a way to get his daily serving of vegetables.  Give him a cupcake and a zucchini muffin for each hand and we’ve got the bottom of the food pyramid covered.

Alright, maybe carrot cupcakes aren’t the best way to get your daily vegetables, but it’s definitely the tastiest, especially when topped off with a very generous swirl of cream cheese frosting. They’re soft, moist, and cheerfully fluffy, these cupcakes taste like springtime and sunny weather (which I could really, really use right now!).

The classic carrot cupcake recipe is almost identical to the cake I make often, except for a bit more liquid in the batter — the original is perfect for cake but I found it to be too dense in the small space of a cupcake liner and added some milk for a bit of levity.

I use all oil in this recipe (no butter) for the moistest (sorry if you hate that word, if you have a better substitute I’m happy to hear it!) cupcakes, and thanks to the spices you’re not missing anything in terms of flavor, I promise!  I found that butter just didn’t give these carrot cupcakes the texture that they really needed.

I have a few tips on how to make your own carrot cupcake turn out perfectly, so let’s get into that!

TIPS FOR MAKING Classic CARROT CUPCAKE

• I recommend using the grate setting on your food processor to prepare your carrots, and then briefly pulsing them in your food processor for fine shreds of carrot.  I feel like just grating them leaves carrot pieces that are too big, but don’t overdo it when you pulse or you’ll have carrot juice and it will impart way too much carrot flavor into your cupcakes!
• If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a hand grater to grate your carrots.
• While I didn’t use them for my carrot cake cupcakes, you can add walnuts, pecans, or raisins (why, though!) to this recipe, if you’d like.  This batter can hold about 1/2-1 cup of add-ins.
• This recipe can be doubled to make 20  cupcakes.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Classic Carrot Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

 

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These are the best carrot cupcakes ever! Made completely from scratch with real grated carrots, these cupcakes are always a hit! Make sure to top them off with the absolute best cream cheese frosting.

Author: Ash

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Serves: 10

Ingredients

Carrot cupcakes

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup canola oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1½ cups finely shredded carrots (from about 6 medium carrots)

Frosting

• 4 cup powdered sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter softened
• 8 oz cream cheese softened
• 1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp Almande Baileys Irish Cream to taste (optional)

Instructions

For Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350° and line 10 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the cinnamon, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer or whisk, beat the eggs with the canola oil. Gradually beat in the sugar at medium-high speed and beat until thick, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula, then fold in the carrots.
3. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Let cool slightly, then transfer the cupcakes to the freezer to chill.

For Frosting

1. In a separate bow, add the softened butter and cream cheese and beat it with an electric whip. Once it is creamed, add powdered sugar and whip until light and fluffy. Add the baileys cream and little vanilla extract. Mix.
2. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch plain tip with the Cream Cheese Frosting. Pipe the frosting onto the carrot cupcakes and serve. Alternatively, use a knife to spread the frosting on the cupcakes and serve.

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IF you haven’t used veggies in desserts, give this carrot cupcake a try and let me know how much you love it! If you try it, please leave me a comment below with your feedback and star rating. You can also find me on social media.

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