These easy Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes are incredibly moist and flavorful with cinnamon, nutmeg, crunchy pecans, and delicious coconut cream frosting. The perfect vegan breakfast muffin for any time of the year.
I love the carrot cake flavor on everything. Sometimes I make a full Vegan Carrot Cake, but when I want something simple, I do either my Carrot Cake Energy Balls, Carrot Cake Overnight Oats, or Vegan Carrot Cake Banana Bread.
I wanted an even easier recipe today so I came up with these carrot cake cupcakes. They bring all the flavors of a classic carrot bread in a recipe that is quick and easy to make.
Since the classic carrot cake cupcake recipe contains eggs, butter, and milk, it’s not vegan-friendly. Also, most cupcake frosting recipes also contain cream cheese. So let me show you how to make delicious plant-based carrot cake cupcakes.
Ingredients and Substitutions
It’s super easy to make these moist vegan carrot cake cupcakes. All you need are a few pantry ingredients. Let me explain how to select them and the eventual substitution you can make for each.
- All-Purpose Flour – you can also use spelt flour or white whole wheat flour. I haven’t tried gluten-free flour.
- Unrefined Cane Sugar – white sugar or sugar-free erythritol work as well for a sugar-free vegan carrot cake muffin.
- Brown Sugar – or coconut sugar or golden erythritol.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda – to give the cupcakes a soft and airy texture.
- Carrots – make sure you grate them finely. It delivers even more texture, moisture, and flavor to these vegan carrot cupcakes.
- Vanilla Extract – for flavor.
- Cinnamon and Nutmeg – for classic carrot cake flavors.
- Lemon Juice or apple cider vinegar. You can either use bottled lemon juice or freshly squeezed lemons.
- Almond Milk or any plant-based milk you like, including soy milk, oat milk.
- Olive Oil – or vegetable oils like canola oil or nut oil like almond oil and coconut oil.
- Chopped Pecans or walnuts or sultanas raisins.
How To Make Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- First, stir the lemon juice and almond milk together in a small bowl. Set aside to give some time to the acid to curd the milk lightly.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Make a well in the center and pour in the wet ingredients: oil and almond milk mixture.
- Now, add grated carrots, chopped walnuts, or chopped pecans and stir well to combine.
- Feel free to add 1/2 cup of shredded coconut to the batter if you are a coconut lover!
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 12-hole muffin pan with a paper liner. Fill each muffin tin evenly with the carrot cake batter.
- Bake the cupcakes in the center rack of the oven for 20-25 minutes at 350°F (180°C) until the top is golden brown and a pick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
- Let the cupcakes completely cool down on a rack until they reach room temperature. It takes about 1 hour.
Frosting
You can serve this recipe as vegan carrot muffins with no frosting, or to make vegan carrot cupcakes, add one of my two vegan frosting recipes:
- Vegan vanilla frosting – this one is made with vegan butter and vanilla. It’s a thick, creamy, and fluffy frosting similar to regular cream cheese frosting without the dairy. It’s easy to pipe to create beautifully presented cupcakes.
- Vegan coconut frosting – this is an easy frosting, lighter in texture. You don’t need a piping bag to spread this on top of your cupcakes. It’s an easy 2-ingredient vegan frosting recipe, but it requires a little bit of organization because you must place the can of coconut cream in the fridge the day before!
Flavor Add-Ons
You can customize this cupcake recipe by adding some extra ingredients in the batter, like 1/2 cup of:
- Unsweetened shredded coconut
- Finely chopped canned pineapple slices – make sure you pat dry the slices before adding, or they release too much moisture in the batter.
- Sultanas
Decorating The Cupcakes
First, make sure the carrot cupcakes have completely cooled down. If you add frosting to hot cupcakes, it melts, spreads, and gets absorbed by the cupcake.
If you are using vanilla frosting, use a piping bag and pipe on top of the cupcake. If you use the coconut cream frosting, spread with a spoon. Top each cupcake with a sprinkle of chopped nuts and cinnamon.
Storage Instructions
You can store these vegan carrot cake cupcakes in the fridge for up to 4 days in a sealed box. Another option is to freeze the cupcakes and thaw them the day before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, yes, and yes! This is an amazing vegan carrot cake batter to turn into an 8-inch vegan carrot cake recipe.
Of course, if you want to make a two-layer cake, double up the recipe or make this recipe two times.
I recommend baking each batch separately, so you will need 2 round pans.
Simply use one of my vegan frosting recipes to frost the cake.
Yes, you can replace the oil in this recipe with unsweetened applesauce. This option makes the cupcake very moist and a bit sweeter.
You can’t use almond flour or coconut flour in this cupcake recipe. These low-carb keto flours are very high in fiber and won’t work in an egg-free muffin recipe.
However, you can use spelt flour, white whole-wheat flour, or all-purpose gluten-free flour containing gum – I used Bob Red Mill’s gluten-free flour.
The recipe with gluten-free flour doesn’t rise as much, but the taste is still delicious.
More Vegan Carrot Recipes
If you love carrot cake recipes, try some of these other recipes with carrots:
Did You Like This Recipe?
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Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup Almond Milk - or any plant-based milk
- 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
- 1 ½ cup All-Purpose Flour
- ½ cup Cane Sugar
- ½ cup Light Brown Sugar - or coconut sugar
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Nutmeg
- ½ cup Light Olive Oil - or any vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1 ½ cups Grated Carrots
- ½ cup Chopped Pecans - or walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 12-hole muffin tray with a paper liner. Set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk lemon juice and almond milk. Set aside.
- In another large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Make a well in the center of the flour and add olive oil, vanilla extract and almond milk mixture.
- Combine, scraping down the sides to bring all the ingredients together, and it forms a smooth batter.
- Stir in grated carrots and chopped nuts until well distributed into the batter.
- Divide the batter evenly into the 12 muffin holes.
- Bake on the center rack of your oven for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown and a pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool down on a rack completely before adding any frosting.
- You can use one batch of my vegan frosting recipe for an easy cupcake frosting to pipe on top. Or, for a light spreadable frosting, use my coconut cream frosting recipe.
These are really good. I used oat flour/oatmilk/coconut oil using the same proportions in the recipe. I added raisins and walnuts. I will definitely be making these again perhaps with a little less sugar as I did find them super sweet.
Thank you!!
Great recipe!!! Amazing texture and just the right sweetness!! Love it!!
Yummy one of my favorites
Good day, if I want to make this a day or two ahead of guest, should I freeze them or what is best?
They last well in the fridge in an airtight cake box for up to 3 days, you don’t need to freeze them.
These were superb and I will definitely make again. Used gluten free flour, added raisins and chopped cashews as had no walnuts. Topped with creamy cashew icing. So moist and tasty. Will try with pineapple and chopped walnuts next time. Thanks for a great recipe!!
Absolutely loved this recipe! Would definitely make again! Just wondered what the cook time would be for a loaf?
Thank you! Loaf are thicker so it will probably take 10-15 minutes extra to bake. I would recommend checking often, inserting a toothpick in the center of the loaf. If it comes out clean, it’s ready!
So delicious! The cupcakes were light and fluffy, I’ll definitely be making these again soon. I didn’t bother making frosting as they tasted so good without it.
**I used oat milk, low-protein cake flour, walnuts and added some sultanas.
Amazing recipe !! My non vegan family loved it too, I used oat milk, walnuts and raisins. Butter cream on top because of what I had in. I didn’t have any nutmeg and vanilla and still tasted great
I don’t normally leave reviews but Jesus Christ! These are not only the best cupcakes I’ve ever made but the best cake I’ve ever tasted, hands down! I halved everything and made 6, omitted the nuts. I also used a vegan cream cheese frosting recipe from Nora Cooks on top. Baked for 25 minutes and they were PERFECT.
Wish I could give this more than 5 stars. This is really the ultimate recipe. Incredibly moist and tender. Not too sweet either. My only “variation” was canola oil instead of light olive. I frosted with vegan cream cheese frosting too. This one’s definitely a keeper, and I’ll recommend it to all and sundry. Thanks!