This recipe for carrot cake muffins is my absolute favorite! These easy and delicious muffins are very moist and stuffed with a cream cheese filling!
I love carrot cake! I always feel less guilty about eating a big slice of carrot cake since it has veggies in it. That practically makes it health food and good enough for breakfast right? Maybe not. But still any way I can sneak in some more veggies in my kid’s diet I’m game. But I’m also kind of picky about my carrot cake. It needs to be moist. As much as I hate that word, it’s the only one that comes to mind to describe it. It has to be sweet, but not too sweet. It can’t have raisins in it. I can not stress that enough! Raisins simply do not belong in cake or cookies and I’m not changing my mind about that! Also the frosting has to be cream cheese based! It’s the only way to go.
So this recipe is everything I love about carrot cake in one perfect carrot muffin! And you can definitely eat one for breakfast with your cup of coffee!
How to freeze carrot muffins?
These carrot cake muffins can be frozen! Place muffins on a baking sheet and freeze for an hour. Then place in a large freezer zip lock bag and freeze for up to 3 months!
How to make mini muffins?
You will follow the same directions as below but you need to add less batter to your muffin cups! Add 2 tsp of muffin batter first, then small dollop of cream cheese and then about 1 tsp more of muffin batter. Bake for 13-15 minutes. You can also freeze mini muffins the same way as instructions above!
What kind of oil to use in carrot cake muffins?
So in this recipe I used canola oil. You can substitute vegetable oil or melted butter. If you choose coconut oil, they might be a little more greasy so I would stick to either canola or vegetable oil instead.
Carrot Cream Cheese Muffins
Ingredients
For Muffins:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup canola oil (or vegetable)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 lb grated carrots (1 1/2 to 2 cups)
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
Cream Cheese Filling:
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
For muffins:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, combine sugar and oil. Add in eggs and vanilla extract and whisk to combine. Stir in carrots. Add in salt, flour, baking soda and cinnamon and stir to combine.
For cream cheese filling:
- In a large bowl with a hand held mixer (or bowl of your electric mixer) beat together cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and salt until fluffy.
- Spoon 2 tbsp of carrot cake batter in each paper liner. Top with a tablespoon of cream cheese filling. Then top with remaining muffin batter until each cup is 3/4 of the way full.
- Bake in preheated oven for 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake part of the muffins (slightly off center) comes out clean. Let cool completely before enjoying.
Video
Notes
For other breakfast muffins check out my favorite banana muffins
Wow can’t wait to bake these 😊
Great let me know how you like them 😊
Hello! how long can I store in our fridge if I have extra cream cheese filling? Thank you! I love your recipe!
You can keep the extra cream cheese filling in the fridge for up to 3 days. Glad you loved this recipe!
Hi Jess sorry you didn’t love this recipe as much as we do! You can definitely add some nutmeg and extra cinnamon if you like more spice! We love the cream cheese filling so I always use the full amount in the muffins.
The muffins looks fab. I love the hidden cream cheese.
Thanks so much Lathiya!
Do you have to store these in the fridge because of the cream cheese or can they keep on the countertop? Thanks!
I made these yesterday and absolutely love them, so easy and delicious
Hi Amy! So glad you enjoyed these! They typically don’t last long in my house (a day or two max) so I store them at room temperature in a large ziplock bag. You can put them in the fridge though or even freeze them!
That is one delicious muffin. Definitely going to try making this at home.
Thanks Saif let me know how you like them!
What a fantastic recipe, cannot wait to try it out!
Thanks Marina hope you enjoy!
thank you for your reply!!!
Yum – love the filling in these!
Hi Sula! The filling is my favorite part! So good.
Perfectly delicious. I love that the cream cheese is hiding inside the muffin instead of spread on top. Less messy and easier to store, and a nice surprise when you bite into it.
Hi Deanna so glad you enjoyed my recipe! The cream cheese filling is my favorite part.
These carrot cream cheese muffins sound so good! Like mini carrot cakes
Hi Maren! Yes exactly same flavors as carrit cake but so much easier and faster. Hope you give them a try!
I can’t wait to make these, they remind me of a certain coffee chain muffin in the fall…which I love! So I know I will love these.
Hi Emily! Its a one of my favorites and a recipe I make again and again. Hope you enjoy it!
These take a boring plain carrot muffin and make them over the top delicious!
These Carrot Cream Cheese Muffins are absolutely mouthwatering! Wish I could have a bite right now.
I’m so impressed with this recipe!
Thanks so much Leslie! Hope you give it a try!
Awesome recipe! When school goes back, it’s making its way to my daughter’s lunchbox!
This recipe was absolutely incredible. I made it for the first time yesterday and within 24 hours it was completely wiped out by everyone at home and all my neighbours. Everyone is begging me to make this again. Thanks for sharing it with us. The modifications I made to the recipe was increasing the cinnamon and adding a half cup of chopped walnuts. Absolutely delicious 😋
Hi Ally so glad you enjoyed these! I love the addition of walnuts!
Hi again! Any suggestion on how to reheat the cream cheese filled carrot muffins? I noticed that they tend to be a little bit hard and not that moist anymore after i place them in the fridge overnight. Thank you in advance for your response!
I keep in airtight container at room temp but they usually don’t last more than a day in my house. You can microwave them in 10 second increments and they should get softer!
thank you so much! really love your recipe!
Found your recipe on google and tried these..they were so yummy! Definitely gonna reccomend and attempt more of your recipes!
Thanks Gabrielle! So glad you enjoyed them!
Looks delicious. Can’t wait to try. I agree with you on the raisins! Even in oatmeal raisin cookies I replace the raisins with dried cranberries.
Thank you! Love cranberries, you should also try dried cherries with white chocolate chips! Make for a delicious cookie!
These are fantastic !
I made 1 and a half of the muffin recipe and kept the cream cheese as listed. Worked out great. I did end up with extra batter so I put in some chopped pecans for the 3 extra muffins that didn’t have the cream cheese. Those were really good too!