Carrot Cake Muffins With Cream Cheese Glaze

Name: Carrot Cake Muffins With Cream Cheese Glaze
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled); 3/4 cup dark brown sugar (packed); 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon; 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg (preferably freshly grated); 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves; 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 eggs (room temperature); 1 cup freshly grated carrots (about 3 whole carrots (see note)); 1/2 cup buttermilk (shaken before measuring); 1/2 cup vegetable oil; 1/2 cup crushed pineapple (well drained); 1/2 cup shredded coconut; 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or paste; 4 ounces cream cheese (softened); 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar; 2-4 tablespoons milk

Jump to Recipe

Add a delicious treat to your brunch menu with these carrot cake muffins with cream cheese glaze! These ultra moist, cakey muffins feature a fluffy, tender crumb with the perfect touch of warm spices. Paired with the sweet and tangy cream cheese glaze, you won't find a more decadent muffin.

Talk about upping your brunch game.

The carrot cake muffins in front of a basket with fresh carrots in it.

Why You Need to Make This Recipe

Need a brunch recipe that's sure to impress? Look no further than this carrot cake muffin. Whether you're hosting Easter or Mother's Day brunch, these carrot muffins belong on your table.

Not only are these muffins perfect for a crowd but they always disappear quickly. And how could they not? With that cream cheese glaze, they’re basically little breakfast cakes, and who doesn’t enjoy an excuse to eat cake for breakfast? When you put a tray of these muffins out, you’ll be everyone’s brunch hero.

Best of all, these muffins are super simple to make. With just a little stirring, whisking and folding, you have all the skills necessary to bake a batch of homemade muffins. So let's walk through the process and show you how truly easy this recipe is.

Bonus: And if you'd like some more muffin ideas, try my Nutella-banana muffins and sweet potato muffins!

Ingredients

For our dry ingredients, we use all-purpose flour, dark brown sugar, baking soda and powder, salt and spices. While I specifically like dark brown sugar in carrot cake treats, you can substitute light brown sugar. The dark variety has more molasses, which gives it a richer taste and a touch of additional moisture, but light brown still yields a tasty muffin.

If this is your first time making a carrot cake baked good, the pineapple and coconut may seem like odd additions. But rest assured, both are common carrot cake mix-ins and add wonderful flavor and texture. I don't recommend skipping them.

You may have also noticed I specified buttermilk rather than whole milk. I love the flavor buttermilk adds, but if you don't have any on hand, you can make your own buttermilk.

Simply add ½ tablespoon lemon juice or distilled white vinegar to ½ cup whole milk. We let the mixture sit for five to 10 minutes, and just like that, we have a buttermilk substitute.

Step-by-Step Instructions

And now we're ready to bake, so let's get started. Step 1: We begin by mixing together our dry ingredients. This includes our flour, dark brown sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder and spices (photo 1).

The dry ingredients in a stainless steel bowl after they've been mixed together.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, we add our wet ingredients and mix-ins (photo 2) and then gently whisk together just until combined (photo 3).

A collage showing the process of whisking the wet ingredients into one cohesive mixture.

Step 3: From here, we pour the wet ingredients on top of the dry ingredients. For the best texture, we want to be gentle as we combine the two, so we fold the two just until combined like so (photo 4).

The batter after the wet ingredients have been folded into the dry ingredients.

If some lumps remain, that's fine. The batter won't be perfectly smooth, especially with the mix-ins.

Step 4: Now we fill our muffin pan with batter so that each cup is about three-fourths full (photo 5). We pop the pan into a 425-degree oven and then immediately turn down the heat to 350 degrees. By giving the muffin batter that initial burst of high heat, we get that lift everyone loves in a good muffin.

The batter in the muffin liners after filling them about ¾ full.

Step 5: After about 20 minutes, our muffins should be baked to perfection and ready to cool (photo 6).

The muffins in the muffin pan after baking.

Once cooled, you're ready to enjoy the most delicious muffins. To complete your brunch, serve them with some raspberry pancakes and blueberry oatmeal. Aren't they delicious?

Recipe FAQs

How do you make the cream cheese glaze?

While our muffins bake, this is a good time to make our cream cheese glaze. Our first step is beat our cream cheese until it's fluffy. Then, we scrape it up and add some of our powdered sugar and beat again. We continue to do this until we use all our powdered sugar.

The final step is to beat in some milk, which gives us that perfect drizzling consistency. And just like that, our cream cheese glaze is ready.

Can I skip the cream cheese glaze?

Well, call me biased, but I truly believe that tangy, creamy goodness gives these muffins a little touch of extra special decadence. That said, the first time I made these, I didn't use the cream cheese glaze. These muffins still taste divine even without the glaze.

Can you make ahead of time?

You bet. With the buttermilk, oil, carrots and pineapple, these muffins sure are moist. Plus, the spice becomes even more prominent when it has a chance to meld.

As long as you store these carrot muffins in an airtight container, these should stay fresh for a good four or five days. This makes them great for any brunch parties when you need to make some recipes ahead of time.

The carrot cake muffins on a white wooden board with a basket of carrots in the background.

Expert Tips

To grate the carrots, simply run the carrots along the small-hole side of a box grater.
Do not scoop your flour to measure. Instead, you need to spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level with a knife. Scooping packs in too much flour.
Before adding the crushed pineapple, make sure you drain it completely in a fine-mesh sieve.
Let the eggs come to room temperature before using them. Room-temperature eggs incorporate into the batter better than cold eggs. Simply set the eggs in room temperature for 30 minutes, but if you forget, you can set them in warm -- not hot -- water for 10 minutes.
The cream cheese should also be at room temperature. Cold cream cheese will give you a lumpy glaze.

Perfect Pairing

You will love these carrot muffins with a nice barley wine. The dark brown sugar and spices meld nicely with the barley wine's caramel-forward and dried fruit flavors.

Love a wine with brunch? Try a Madeira. This wine comes with a complex, sweet nuttiness and kick of acidity that balances the tangy buttermilk and cream cheese while adding some brightness.

Or maybe you want a brunch cocktail. What could be better than this carrot cake mimosa? Or you could try this vodka sunrise for a light brunch drink as well. My guide on Easter cocktails has even more options.

A nice nonalcoholic drink, try this carrot cake smoothie or a Starbucks matcha latte. The matcha is such a lovely flavor for spring, and that smoothie is perfect for obvious reasons.

For a wonderful brunch treat that's sure to please, I hope you try these carrot cake muffins with cream cheese glaze. Everyone will love these sweet little bites.

Cheers!

The carrot cake muffin after a bite has been taken out to show the fluffy interior.

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