Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting
Easy-to-make carrot cake cupcakes topped with heavenly brown butter frosting and chopped walnuts. You and your family will go crazy for these cinnamon-spiced, fluffy cupcakes made with shredded carrots, cinnamon nutmeg, and rich frosting made with browned butter!
When was the last time you had a fluffy cupcake? Not dry or basic. A truly delicious soft, fluffy cupcake with cinnamon, nutty flavors?
If it’s been a while, it’s time to fix that ASAP. Enter these carrot cake cupcakes with brown butter frosting!
Ingredients for Carrot Cupcakes
- Neutral oil. Carrot cake calls for oil more than butter because the oil helps keep the cake moist for longer. You can use avocado oil, vegetable oil, melted coconut oil, or grape seed oil.
- Unsweetened applesauce. This helps the cake stay fluffy and moist without being too wet.
- Eggs.
- Milk. You can use regular milk or buttermilk. Either one will work!
- Vanilla extract.
- Grated carrots. The star of the show! I don’t recommend you buy pre-shredded carrots as they are hard and dry.
- All-purpose flour, brown sugar, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, salt. The dry ingredients for these cupcakes!
How To Make Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Prep your muffin tin. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- Mix both wet + dry ingredients together. In a bowl, whisk oil, applesauce, eggs, milk, vanilla, and carrots. Mix together until well combined. Slowly whisk in flour, sugars, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and salt. Mix until all is well combined.
- Bake the cupcakes. Divide the mixture into the 12 cup muffin pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.
Why do you put oil in carrot cake?
Typically, you use oil instead of butter for carrot cake because the oil helps keep the cake moist for a longer time. I recommend using flavorless, neutral oil for these carrot cupcakes because the other ingredients will give these cupcakes their flavor.
How To Make Brown Butter Frosting
For this brown butter frosting recipe, you need unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk.
- Melt the butter. In a saucepan, melt butter at medium heat for about 3-4 minutes, until the butter foams and little brown specks appear. Be careful not let it burn! This part takes a lot of patience.
- Cool it down. Once the butter turns an amber color and has nutty aroma, remove it from the heat and pour it into a small bowl. Place the brown butter in the freezer for about 5 minutes to cool down. We need room temperature brown butter to continue.
- Make the brown butter frosting. In a bowl, add cooled brown butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. Mix for about 3 minutes until well combined.
- Frost the carrot cupcakes. Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost each cupcake with the frosting. Garnish with chopped walnuts. You can use another nut or omit it completely, if you’d like.
This brown butter frosting is perfectly rich, nutty, and magical.
If that’s not a win, I don’t know what is. I hope you make these and absolutely LOVE them!
You may also like:
- Healthy Carrot Cake Banana Bread
- Guava Cake Bars (Cuban Masa Real de Guayaba)
- Coquito Donut Hole Recipe (Puerto Rican Eggnog)
- The BEST Chewy Fudgy Brownies
Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting
Ingredients
Carrot Cupcakes
- 1/2 cup neutral oil, (avocado oil, vegetable oil, melted coconut oil, grape seed oil)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Brown Butter Frosting
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, (1/2 cup)
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons milk
- Chopped walnuts for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- Divide the mixture into the 12 cup muffin pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.
- In the meantime, make the brown butter frosting. In a saucepan, melt butter at medium heat for about 3-4 minutes, until the butter foams and little brown specks appear. Be careful not let it burn!
- Once the butter turns an amber color and has nutty aroma, remove it from the heat and pour it into a small bowl. Place the brown butter in the freezer for about 5 minutes to cool down. We need room temperature brown butter to continue.
- In a bowl, add brown butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. Mix for about 3 minutes until well combined. Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost each cupcake with the frosting. Garnish with chopped walnuts. Serve and enjoy!
Originally posted in November 2018. Retested recipe + updated photos in February 2021.