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 😊
meh, an ok recipe. muffins don’t have much”spice” flavour and could benefit from some nutmeg or something! The cream cheese recipe also makes about double of what you need so it’s a waste of ingredients.
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.