Moist and fluffy, Mini Carrot Cake Muffins are a yummy bite sized morning treat or snack. You'll love this one bowl mini muffins recipe!
If you have busy mornings, you will love this recipe! It's important to eat something to help jump start your body, and what could be better than bite-sized muffins?
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- The perfect combination of bite-sized muffins and sweet carrot cake!
- Freezer friendly. Save time by making a double (or triple!) batch of mini muffins at one time. They thaw out really quickly, and they freeze well for up to 3 months.
- A great way to get kids to eat more veggies.
Ingredients:
To make this mini muffin recipe, you'll need:
- all-purpose flour
- white sugar
- ground cinnamon
- baking soda: If you haven't used it in a while, be sure to test it for freshness.
- salt
- fresh grated carrots: You can either grate them yourself or buy a bag of shredded carrots.
- olive oil: The flavor of an olive oil cake is amazing!
- eggs
- whole milk
- vanilla extract
Substitutions and Recipe Variations
- all-purpose flour: If you'd like to make gluten-free muffins, substitute the AP flour with a cup-for-cup variety of gluten-free all-purpose flour. Two popular brands are Bob's Red Mill and King Arthur Flour.
- baking soda: There are no substitutes for this ingredient. Baking powder will not activate without an acidic ingredient.
- white granulated sugar: To reduce the calories, you can substitute the sugar with any cup-for-cup variety of granulated sugar substitute. Monkfruit sugar is a good option. Light brown sugar can be used as a substitute, but it does add a molasses flavor
- milk: You can substitute milk with half and half, low fat milk or non dairy milk..
- eggs: Egg yolks are important for creating moisture and adding structure. If you need a substitute, check out my post, Egg Substitutes for Baking.
- vanilla extract: If you need an alcohol-free flavoring, you can use vanilla essence.
Carrot Cake Mini Muffin Variations
- Decorating: The breakfast muffins are delicious as-is. However, for a sweeter treat, feel free to top them with cream cheese frosting, powdered sugar icing, chocolate ganache, etc.
- Add more spices- If you like a stronger cinnamon flavor, you can add one more tablespoon of cinnamon or include a teaspoon of nutmeg or ginger.
- For full sized muffins, check out my Carrot Muffins recipe. For a dessert with carrots, make Frosted Carrot Cake Cupcakes!
- Add other mix-ins: Stir in some mini chocolate chips, finely chopped walnuts, or even small blueberries.
How to Make Mini Carrot Cake Muffins
Summary only. The complete recipe instructions are in the card at the bottom of this post ⬇️
- Whisk wet ingredients together.
- Gently stir in the dry ingredients.
- Transfer batter to the muffin pan.
- Bake in preheated oven.
Liz's Tips for Making Muffins
- Grease the pan to prevent mini muffins from sticking.
- Shredding the carrots: It is best to shred full-sized carrots on a box grater so that you don't scrape your knuckles. If you have a food processor, use either large or baby carrots.
- Avoid over mixing the batter. Stop mixing when there are no visible streaks or clumps of flour. Mixing too much creates dry muffins.
- Let them cool in the pan for a couple of minutes. Otherwise, they tend to crumble apart.
How Do I Make My Muffins Fluffier?
If your muffins look deflated, you can always add a bit more baking soda to the batter.
Be careful to not add too much though, as this can cause the muffins to rise too quickly, which results them falling after baking.
You can also add a bit more batter to the muffin tin cavity. If there’s not enough batter, the muffins won’t look very fluffy. Putting too much batter can cause the muffins to run together, though. So, be aware of this limit as well.
Storing and Freezing
Storing: Store mini carrot cake muffins in an airtight container for 4-5 days at room temperature.
Store muffins in the refrigerator for 2-7 days in an airtight container.
Can you freeze carrot muffins? : Allow freshly baked muffins to cool completely before prepping for the freezer.
Wrap each muffin in plastic wrap and store in a freezer Ziploc bag or airtight container for up to 3 months. Allow thawing completely before enjoying!
Other Mini Sweet Treats
Mini Carrot Cake Muffins
Ingredients
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 large eggs
- 4 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Grease a mini muffin tin with butter or non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
- To a large mixing bowl, add shredded carrots, olive oil, eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Whisk well to combine.
- Stir in flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
- Scoop batter into the wells of mini muffin tin, filling them up to the brim.
- Bake in preheated oven for 12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a mini muffin comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Remove from oven and let the muffins cool in the pan for 3 minutes before serving or transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Helpful Notes and Tips From Liz
- Decorating: These carrot cake muffins are delicious as-is. However, for a sweeter treat, feel free to top them with cream cheese frosting, powdered sugar icing, dark chocolate, etc.
Marie Josee Roy
Hi! Is the batter supposed to be really really thick..?
Thanks!
Liz Marino
Yes, it's pretty thick!
Leah
Super simple and tasty, substituted the olive oil for melted butter as that's what we had.
Deborah
Great mini muffins, I have been searching for a good recipe for a while and this one worked well. simple, no fuss recipe. I used canola oil in place of the olive oil when I made them.
Leah
Great recipe, my 4 year old and I both loved these. I Did use melted butter instead of the olive oil, but it worked fine. thx 🙂