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These delightful little carrot cake muffins could not be tastier or easier to assemble. You make them in a single bowl with a whisk and a spatula, and all the ingredients you need are likely already in your pantry.
Cream Cheese + Carrot Cake = Heaven
We stuff these cuties with tangy, unsweetened cream cheese because cream cheese and carrot cake are a match made in heaven. The cream cheese also provides a nice contrast to the lightly sweet muffin. Think slice of carrot loaf cake with a smear of cream cheese and you’ll understand what you’re getting into here.
Sugar and Spice Swaps
We prefer brown sugar in this recipe for the molasses-like flavor it imparts, but you can substitute granulated sugar if desired. To streamline the recipe, we kept the spices to a minimum—just some cinnamon, in fact—but feel free to add a little ginger or cardamom if that’s how you roll.
How to Grate the Carrots
Using oil instead of butter in a muffin recipe makes them really easy to mix together and keeps them super moist (oil + carrots = moist muffins for days). The most “difficult”—if you can call it that—part of this recipe is grating the carrots. We like to use our food processor’s grater attachment, but you can also use a box grater.
When to Serve These Muffins (Hint: Anytime)
These muffins are obviously perfect for breakfast, but would also make a great late morning snack with a cup of coffee, an after-school snack for the kids (or you), or a lovely late-night treat while binge-watching tv. Bottom line: they are fantastic whenever the craving hits.
