Carrot Cake Muffins

This carrot cake muffin is one of my favorite muffins! It was the best-selling muffin I made at the cafe. All customers, young and old, loved eating these carrot cake muffins! Even years later, after I sold the restaurant, I still got a request for this recipe. 

My carrot cake muffins are full of shredded carrots, apples, coconut, raisins, cinnamon, and a splash of vanilla! Trust me; you will want to make every bite worthwhile. The best part about this recipe is that it is versatile! You could use the batter to make a carrot cake by adding cream cheese frosting. You can also bake it in a muffin tin to make individual muffins. The muffin batter lasts a while and can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days. This means you can bake as needed and eat as much carrot cake as you want. 

This recipe is easy to assemble without needing a mixer. All you need is a bowl. Measure all the dry ingredients and place them in one bowl. Shred the carrots and apples with either a food processor or by hand shredder. Mix the wet ingredients, add them all together, and give it a good mix until they are incorporated well. 

While making the recipe for this blog, I discovered I didn’t have the correct baking muffin tin to bake it! So I baked some in a mini muffin pan and used the rest to make a carrot cake with icing on top! Also, surprisingly I found out that my dog Mia is a fan of the carrot muffin. I usually try not to give her sugar, but I gave in just this once; moms do that! 

How to Shred Carrots For Carrot Cake? 

When buying carrots for carrot cake, it is best not to use pre-shredded carrots. Pre-shredded carrots tend to be drier than you would want them to be. You can either hand grate the carrots or use your food processor to grate them. You should make sure the carrots are thinly grated so there aren’t long chunks of carrots in your carrot cake. 

Should I Add Frosting? 

Yes! If you want, you can add frosting. Cream cheese is the most common frosting for carrot cake since it is tangy, sweet, and creamy. Just make sure to let the muffins utterly cool before adding the frosting. This will prevent the frosting from melting down the side of the muffin. 

How to Prevent Muffins From Sticking?

Using aluminum foil cup liners is the best way to keep the carrot cake muffins from sticking. You can prevent the batter from sticking to the cup liners by spraying it with non-stick cooking spray. If you don’t have cup liners, you can use melted butter and flour and spread them around the cups with a pastry brush or directly spray the baking muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.

Can I make this recipe Gluten Free ?

Yes you can! To make the carrot muffin recipe gluten-free, you can use a gluten-free flour blend such as almond flour, rice flour, or a gluten-free all-purpose flour instead of all-purpose flour. Keep in mind that the amount of flour used in the recipe may need to be adjusted as gluten-free flours absorb liquids differently than all-purpose flour. Additionally, it may be helpful to add a binder such as xanthan gum or guar gum to help hold the muffins together. Gluten-free baking can be a bit challenging, but with some experimentation and adjustments, you can make delicious gluten-free carrot muffins without going too much into detail.