These brown butter carrot cake cupcakes are topped with the most heavenly brown butter cream cheese frosting! With shredded carrots, walnuts, and warming spices like cinnamon, they're the perfect Easter dessert!
If you need some more Easter recipes, you might also like these Robin's egg macarons or these lemon curd cookies!
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Ingredient Notes
You just need a few simple ingredients to make these fluffy, moist carrot cake cupcakes!
Cake Flour - I always use cake flour in my cupcakes because it makes them super soft and tender, but all purpose flour also works great!
Carrots - It's important to grate fresh carrots yourself for these cupcakes! Pre-grated carrots are very dry and won't add enough moisture to the cake. I use the small side of the box grater for super fine carrot pieces that distribute into the cupcakes nicely.
Yogurt - The yogurt keeps the cupcakes super moist while also adding a bit of tang! You always want to use full fat yogurt in baking for the best results! You could also use full fat sour cream or unsweetened applesauce instead!
Walnuts - I love adding nuts to carrot cake for added texture! But feel free to leave them out or substitute pecans! You could also add in raisins or shredded coconut if you prefer.
Warming Spices - These cupcakes are lightly spiced with a combo of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. You can also substitute 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice instead if you have it on hand!
Brown Butter - My favorite ingredient of all time is brown butter!! Brown butter is just unsalted butter that has been melted and gently cooked to bring out a toasty, nutty flavor. If you've never made brown butter before, you can check out this post with all my tips for how to make brown butter!
I recommend making the brown butter the night before you make the cupcakes, so that it has time to fully cool to room temperature! Since both the cupcakes and the frosting call for brown butter, I find it easier to just make one large batch and then weigh out the difference using a kitchen scale (½ cup of butter weighs about 113 grams). However, if you don't have a scale you can just make two separate batches of brown butter!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12 cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
Using the small side of a box grater, finely grate the carrots until you have 1 lightly packed cup. Set aside.
Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt together in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk the brown butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until combined. Then whisk in the eggs, and vanilla extract together until fully incorporated.
Then whisk in the yogurt until combined.
Gently fold in the dry ingredients until just combined.
Then fold in the grated carrots and finely chopped walnuts.
Pour about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake liner (they should be about halfway full).
Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. Let the carrot cake cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Frost the cupcakes with brown butter cream cheese frosting and garnish with chopped walnuts and sugar carrots if desired!
Tips for the Best Baked Goods
Use room temperature ingredients! Always make sure ingredients like butter, eggs, milk, yogurt, etc. are at room temperature before baking (unless the recipe indicates otherwise)! This ensures they'll incorporate into the batter more easily and leads to overall better texture. Remove all ingredients from the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before baking for best results.
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. [Measure cocoa powder the same way!]
Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature.
Make sure you baking powder is fresh! Baking powder is important for helping baked goods rise properly, but it has a relatively short shelf life once opened, so it's one of the few items I never buy in bulk! To test if your baking powder is still fresh, add a small amount to boiling water. If it bubbles it's still good to use, but if not it's time to toss it!
Cupcake Decorating Tips
Make sure you let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting!!
For these big beautiful cream cheese frosting swirls on these carrot cake cupcakes, I use the large round tip from this decorating kit. The tips are much larger than standard sizes and so fun for decorating cupcakes!
If desired you can garnish with chopped walnuts and carrot decorations!
- Buy sugar carrots (these are the ones I used in the photos)
- Make your own sugar carrots
- Pipe frosting carrots
Recipe FAQ's
Of course not! You can absolutely substitute regular unsalted butter. I just love the nutty flavor that brown butter adds. Instead of brown butter you can also substitute a neutral vegetable oil.
These cupcakes will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. However, they taste best at room temperature; so let the refrigerated cupcakes sit on the counter for about 30 minutes before serving for the best texture.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Brown Butter Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- ½ cup unsalted brown butter, melted
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup full-fat plain yogurt, substitute unsweetened applesauce or sour cream
- 1 ¼ cups cake flour, substitute all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger, optional
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup grated carrots, about 2 large carrots
- ½ cup finely chopped walnuts, optional
Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted brown butter, room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-3 tablespoons heavy cream, as needed
Garnish
- finely chopped walnuts
- sugar carrots, optional
Instructions
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12 cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- Using the small side of a box grater, finely grate the carrots until you have 1 lightly packed cup. Set aside.
- Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt together in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the brown butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until combined. Then whisk in the eggs, and vanilla extract together until fully incorporated.
- Then whisk in the yogurt until combined.
- Gently fold in the dry ingredients until just combined.
- Then fold in the grated carrots and finely chopped walnuts.
- Pour about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake liner (they should be about halfway full).
- Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.
- Let the carrot cake cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the room temperature brown butter and cream cheese together until smooth.
- Add in the powdered sugar and mix until fully incorporated.
- Mix in the vanilla and beat the frosting on high for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy!
- Add in 1 tablespoon of heavy cream at a time, if needed to thin out the frosting.
- Frost the cupcakes with brown butter cream cheese frosting and garnish with chopped walnuts and sugar carrots if desired!
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Kath says
Best carrot cup cake recipe ever! Delicious 😋😋