When I was in 3rd grade, my family and I flew to Arizona to spend Easter with my grandparents. We packed lots of shorts, swim suits, and flip flops for our week in the desert, and I picked out a special dress for the holiday service at church: a light-weight lavender gingham print covered in white daisies. I thought it’d be perfect for the warm weather!
We spent most of the week painting with watercolors, refilling the bird feeder in the backyard, and drawing a gigantic 30-foot tall saguaro cactus with sidewalk chalk on my grandparents’ driveway. We even swam in the neighborhood pool and finally learned how to ride two-wheel bikes on top of all of our sidewalk chalk art.
But on Easter morning, the skies clouded over and the wind picked up. Mom insisted that we wore jackets to church over our summery Easter clothes, but since I forgot one, Grandma lent me her lime green shawl to drape over my shoulders. I looked like a tennis ball!
We quietly sat through the service, listening to the sermon and Grandpa performing with the rest of the church choir, and we stayed on our best behavior so Mom would allow us to eat a tiny slice of carrot cake at brunch after the final prayer. When we eventually walked out into the parking lot to drive home…
It was snowing!
Yes, snow in April in Arizona on Easter! It’s never happened to us again since. My brother and I excitedly sprinted to the car, urging Mom to go faster. As soon as we reached my grandparents’ house, we threw on the warmest clothes we had packed and ran outside to make icy snowballs.
We carefully saved them for two hours, waiting until Grandpa’s truck came down the street. (He had to stay behind to sing in the choir again for the second service.) Then we threw the snowballs at the sides of his car as he eased up the driveway.
I think the only traditional things about that year were dying eggs after church and eating honey-baked ham for dinner. To many sure our holiday this year is a little more on the classic side, I perfected these Carrot Cake Cupcakes, complete with cream cheese frosting, to serve at our Easter brunch!
This dessert is the second installment in Carrot Cake Week on AHB, and when it comes to carrot cake, I like mine packed full of carrots. Yes, even more veggies than cake! None of this spice-cake-with-a-few-streaks-of-orange business. I need lots of freshly grated carrots and an ample amount of cinnamon and nutmeg too. I want it to taste warm and cozy, just like comfort food should.
However, unlike most comfort food recipes, this one is actually healthy! The cupcakes are clean-eating friendly, meaning they’re entirely whole wheat and contain no butter or refined sugar. They’re sweetened with maple syrup instead, which helps keep them moist and adds to the warm, cozy flavor.
Because the cupcakes contain very little fat, you must spray the cupcake liners with nonstick cooking spray. I usually mist them twice to be safe. Low fat cupcake (and muffin) batter sticks to paper liners like superglue, so coating them with cooking spray prevents most of the cake from sticking to the liner. If you use foil liners, you’ll only need to spray once.
Tip: If you forget to spray the liners or don’t quite coat them well enough, seal the unfrosted cupcakes inside of an airtight container for 24 hours. That will loosen the liners from the sides and allow you to peel them off slightly better!
Classic carrot cake demands cream cheese frosting. No, it isn’t clean-eating friendly (if you want a clean frosting recipe, try this one of mine instead), but it’s packed with protein and sugar-free! My secret?
Greek yogurt and instant pudding mix! Greek yogurt is already fairly thick, and the instant pudding mix thickens it even further to give it a similar texture to buttercream, meaning you can pipe it into pretty swirls onto your cupcakes! The cheesecake flavor comes from cream cheese and cheesecake instant pudding mix. It’s sweet, tangy, and delicious!
Now with protein-packed frosting and skinny, clean eating cupcakes… These are basically healthy enough for breakfast! Right?
| Classic Carrot Cake Cupcakes | | Print |
- for the cupcakes
- 1 ½ c (180g) whole wheat flour (measured correctly)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp (14g) coconut oil, melted
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ c (60g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ½ c (120mL) maple syrup
- ¼ c (60mL) nonfat milk
- 2 c (210g) grated carrots (about 4 medium, peeled first)
- for the frosting
- 1 c (240g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 (8oz) block fat-free cream cheese
- 2 servings (14g) fat-free, sugar-free instant cheesecake pudding mix
- ¼ c (6g) granulated sucralose (or other sweetener, to taste)
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line 12 muffin cups with paper cupcake liners. Generously coat with nonstick cooking spray.
- To prepare the cupcakes, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Mix in the yogurt, stirring until no large lumps remain. Mix in the maple syrup. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, and stirring just until incorporated. (For best results, add the flour mixture in 3 equal parts.) Fold in the carrots.
- Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups. Bake at 350°F for 23-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- While the cupcakes bake, prepare the frosting. In a large bowl, beat the yogurt, cream cheese, pudding mix, and sucralose with an electric mixer on low speed for 2 minutes, or until thick. Chill for at least 2 hours before piping on top of the cooled cupcakes. (If chilling longer, cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap or foil.)
White whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, and all-purpose flour will all work.
Honey or agave may be substituted in place of the maple syrup.
Unfrosted cupcakes will stay fresh if stored in an airtight container on the counter for up to 2 days. The frosting will stay fresh if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
{clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
More carrot cake recipes from other food bloggers…
♥ Carrot Cake Cheesecake by Cooking Classy
♥ Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes by Simple Vegan Blog
♥ Pineapple Upside Down Carrot Cake by Layers of Happiness
♥ Carrot Walnut Cake by Tastes of Lizzy T’s
How will I adjust the recipe if I substitute sucralose for the maple syrup in the cupcake?
Hi Rhodieleen! If you’d like to substitute sucralose (the kind that sweetens cup-for-cup like granulated sugar!) in place of the maple syrup, then you’ll need ½ cup. Increase the milk to use a total of ½ cup + 2 tablespoons as well. You may need an additional 1-2 tablespoons of milk (to bring the milk to a total of ¾ cup instead!) if you can’t quite incorporate all of the flour mixture. The batter should be very thick but not dry. Does all of that make sense? 🙂
I can’t wait to hear what you think of these carrot cake cupcakes!
Your website is awesome! I am happy to find that we can still enjoy our favorite desserts and be healthy at the same time. I did this recipe. It rose beautifully during baking but deflated when out of the oven. I took them 5 minutes earlier because I think my oven is hotter judging from my past baking experiences but I had to put them back for 5 more minutes because the inside of the cupcake was wetter than I would like. I frosted with a simple cream cheese glaze. Came out yum except for the wrinkly appearance that was masked by the glaze luckily.
It means a lot that you tried my recipe! That’s so strange about your cupcakes deflating. I’d love to help solve that issue, if you’d like! To do so, I have some questions for you. 🙂
Did you make any other modifications or substitutions to the recipe, including those listed in the Notes section, other than removing the cupcakes from the oven 5 minutes early?
Did you use a kitchen scale or measuring cups/spoons, especially for the flour, maple syrup, milk, and freshly grated carrots?
Once you baked the deflated cupcakes for those final 5 minutes, were the centers all the way cooked through?
I know I just asked a lot of questions, but I’ll have a better idea of the culprit (and if there was anything that factored into the texture besides the baking time!) once I know your answers to all of them!
Thank you for trying to solve my baking issue, Amy! It means a lot.
I used half all purpose flour, half whole wheat flour as I also did in your other muffin recipes which all came out well (Mini Chocolate, Mocha and Gingerbread Choco Chip Muffins). I try to save my whole wheat flour as sometimes the stores run out of stock. I use measuring cups to measure the flour and measured it like you specified. Measuring cups, too, with the honey, grated carrots, and milk
They were cooked after the final 5 minutes of baking though a bit wet.
It’s my pleasure — I’m happy to help! Thank you for sharing your answers. That’s all really good to know, and I have a pretty good idea of the culprit. Just a couple more questions for you, if you don’t mind!
For measuring the flour, since you used the method I described for measuring cups, you used a fork — correct? I completely understand wanting to save your whole wheat flour. It was basically impossible to find any type of flour, let alone whole wheat, about a year ago!
For the other recipes of mine that you tried and listed, were those all the mini muffin versions (rather than making them as standard-sized muffins)? Did you need to pull those from the oven early?
Yes, I used a fork to measure the flour.
I made standard sized muffins out of the mini muffins rrecipes I made. I cooked them all the way through. You have to know, though, that the way I bake muffims is to bake them at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for the first five minutes and then 8 minutes at 350 degrees to get those dome tops. I see that in some of your muffin recipes, but not in all. I’ve adapted that kind of baking for alll my muffins since they’ve worked well for me. This is my first time to make cupcakes again after many years, Im not sure if the initial temp for baking would work for them, too. I thought cuocakes are supposed to have flatter tops tham muffins.
I see! That baking method doesn’t actually work (or yield the best results) for all muffins and cupcakes. In order for it to produce the best results, the batter should have a specific consistency, and the muffin cups need to be filled almost all the way to the top (amongst other factors!). Therefore, unless it’s explicitly called for in the Instructions, I generally don’t recommend doing so for my recipes. It can change the texture of the muffins by quite a bit — and not necessarily in a good way!
Knowing that this is the way you bake your muffins, I’m guessing that’s why you’ve started to remove them from your oven 5 minutes earlier than recipes instruct when the recipe doesn’t use that initial 425°F baking period. Is that hunch correct? 🙂
I have another question, if you don’t mind. Would this kind of powdered stevia work as a substitute for the liquid stevia in your recipes? It”s the only kind I can find in my area.
http://www.grreenstevia.com.ph
If it will work, how much to use? But I still camt find vanilla creme stevia.
Unfortunately, the link you shared didn’t work for me, so I’m not sure. I actually buy all of my stevia online at the links I’ve provided! It’s much easier than hunting them down in stores, and I’ve found the cheapest prices online anyway. 🙂
Have you ever used skinny syrup in place of the maple syrup? I know it’s not as thick as maple syrup! Just wondering if it might work. 🤔
We really appreciate your interest in this recipe, Laurie!
Are you referring to a sugar free syrup? If so, then we don’t recommend it. Sugar free syrups are almost always water-based, so substituting them in place of pure maple syrup (at least in our recipes!) often makes the baked goods collapse while cooling and turn out much denser.
If you’re looking for a sugar free carrot cake cupcake recipe, our mini carrot cake cupcakes would be a much better option! They taste really similar, and we included a modification about how to make them as full-sized cupcakes in the Notes section above the recipe (just above the two cream cheese frosting options).
I’d love to hear what you think if you decide to use any of our recipes to make some carrot cake cupcakes!