These vegan carrot cake cupcakes are moist and rich and packed with flavor. Topped with a deliciously tangy lemon buttercream and chopped walnuts.
We’ve been going to town on the vegan carrot cake cupcakes you guys! Let’s just say, some recipe testing is just a lot of fun. And having a few batches of these on the go the past couple of weeks has been nothing but a pleasure.
They are so moist, so flavorful and so cute too. The lemon frosting, with some extra tang from a secret (well, not secret at all of course I’m going to tell you) ingredient and a sprinkling of chopped walnuts make the perfect topping.
And on top of all this, they are so easy too.
The recipe is based on our hugely popular vegan carrot cake. That recipe has become so popular that it’s made and served at various coffee shops and cafes around the world! With just a few small changes we adapted that recipe to make the perfect cupcake recipe.
And if you love these cupcakes then you’ll also love our vegan carrot muffins.
Ingredients You’ll Need For The Cupcakes:
Ingredient Notes
- Carrots – these should be fresh carrots that you grate yourself. Don’t buy a bag of pre-grated carrots because they will be too dry for this batter. We need freshly grated carrots.
- Distilled white vinegar – this reacts with the baking soda in the recipe and causes the cupcakes to rise.
- Baking soda AND baking powder – we use both in this recipe.
- Canola oil – can be replaced with any other vegetable oil.
Ingredients You’ll Need For The Frosting:
Frosting Notes
- Apple cider vinegar – is our ‘not-so-secret’ ingredient for the frosting. It adds some extra tang to the frosting making it taste similar to a cream cheese frosting.
- Lemon juice – can be fresh or bottled.
How To Make Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Sift all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add light brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together.
- Prepare your flax eggs by adding 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed meal to a bowl and adding in 6 tablespoons of hot water (from the kettle). Let it sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add the flax eggs, grated carrot, oil, applesauce, vanilla extract and vinegar and mix into a thick batter.
- If the batter seems too thick to come together then step away from the bowl for 2-3 minutes and then come back to it and mix again. The moisture from the freshly grated carrot will seep into the batter, so that when you mix it again it will come together into a batter.
- Divide the batter between 12 cupcake liners.
- Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center of one of the cupcakes, it should come out clean.
- Let the cupcakes cool for a few minutes and then remove them from the cupcake pan and transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting by adding powdered sugar, vegan butter, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar and lemon juice to the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Start at slow speed, gradually increasing speed until the frosting is thick and smooth.
- When the cupcakes are completely cool, pipe on the frosting and decorate with chopped walnuts.
Recipe Success Tips
Measure the flour properly. I always recommend weighing out your flour. It’s the trickiest measurement in baking and for the best accuracy, it’s worth weighing it out on a kitchen scale. If you don’t have a food scale though then the best way to measure it is to use the ‘spoon and level’ method. Spoon your flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup.
The batter is thick. You end up with a very thick batter here and that’s entirely okay. In fact it’s what you’re going for. So don’t freak out when it starts out so thick it’s like it’s not going to form into a batter, just stir a bit more and those ingredients will start to merge together and form into a batter. A thick batter, but a batter nonetheless!
The frosting. You can use our lemon frosting as pictured here, or you can swap it out for our vegan cream cheese frosting that is made with a homemade cashew based vegan cream cheese.
Gluten free. For gluten free cupcakes check out our delicious vegan gluten free carrot cake cupcakes.
Storing and Freezing
These carrot cake cupcakes lose none of their moistness or flavor when kept (covered) in the fridge and they last for at least a week, though of course the fresher the better.
They are also freezer friendly (frosted or unfrosted) for up to 3 months!
More Vegan Cupcakes
- Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
- Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes
- Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes
- Vegan Lemon Cupcakes
- Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes:
- 1 and ½ cups All Purpose Flour (188g)
- 1 cup Light Brown Sugar (200g)
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- ¾ tsp Nutmeg
- 2 Flax Eggs 2 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed + 6 Tbsp Hot Water
- 1 and ¾ cups Grated Carrot (192g)
- ⅓ cup Canola Oil (80ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 2 Tbsp Applesauce
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Distilled White Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar
Frosting:
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar (480g)
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2-3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
Decoration:
- Chopped Walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- Sift all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add light brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together.
- Prepare your flax eggs by adding 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed meal to a bowl and adding in 6 tablespoons of hot water (from the kettle). Let it sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add the flax eggs, grated carrot, oil, applesauce, vanilla extract and vinegar and mix into a thick batter.
- If the batter seems too thick to come together then step away from the bowl for 2-3 minutes and then come back to it and mix again. The moisture from the freshly grated carrot will seep into the batter, so that when you mix it again it will come together into a batter.
- Divide the batter between the 12 cupcake liners.
- Bake for 25 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center of one of the cupcakes, it should come out clean.
- Let the cupcakes cool for a few minutes and then remove them from the cupcake pan and transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting by adding the powdered sugar, vegan butter, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar and 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice to the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Start at slow speed, gradually increasing speed until the frosting is thick and smooth. If needed, add the extra lemon juice.
- When the cupcakes are completely cool, pipe on the frosting and decorate with chopped walnuts.
Notes
- Measure the flour correctly using the spoon and level method (spoon it into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife, don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup). Or weigh it on a food scale for total accuracy.
- Grated carrots – these should be fresh carrots that you grate yourself. Don’t buy a bag of pre-grated carrots because they will be too dry for this batter. We need freshly grated carrots.
- The frosting. You can use our lemon frosting as pictured here, or you can swap it out for our vegan cream cheese frosting that is made with a homemade cashew based vegan cream cheese.
- Storing and freezing: These carrot cake cupcakes lose none of their moistness or flavor when kept (covered) in the fridge and they last for at least a week, though of course the fresher the better. They are also freezer friendly (frosted or unfrosted) for up to 3 months!
- Nutritional information is based on 1 cupcake (of 12) with a very generous amount of frosting.
- This recipe was first published in November 2016. It has been updated with new photos and a slightly adapted recipe.
Looking forward to making this for the holidays. Appreciate the thoroughness of your recipe – notes, gram measurements, freezing instructions, etc.. All good advice. I do have a question about freezing: can the frosting be added and frozen or should it be put on after thawing? Thanks for your response.
Thank you for the compliment Sherry. You can frost them before freezing and thaw at room temp when needed. 🙂
Delicious and very easy…. Used about 1/2 the sugar and half the icing and mixed white and whole meal flours. Also used ginger and cardamom instead of cinnamon and nutmeg ( my husband dislikes cinnamon :). I will certainly make again.
Thanks so much for sharing and for your great review Deborah!
Don’t normally enjoy vegan frostings with lemon juice but this one is so good! Everyone loved these cupcakes, definitely making again soon.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe Emily!
Hi! I have yet to make this carrot cupcake recipe, but I plan on making it for my work colleagues (mix of vegan and non), I was wondering about the apple cider vinegar both in the cupcakes and icing. Is it necessary? Can you taste it (especially in the icing)? Thank you!
Hi Chelsey, it’s essential in the cupcake batter (it reacts with the baking soda and creates the rise), but optional in the frosting. In the frosting it just creates a bit of a tang that works great.
Can I use a different oil? Like coconut?
You can use melted coconut oil. It may result in a slightly more dense texture but does also work great.
This recipe is amazing! I’ve never baked anything vegan but needed to bake some cupcakes for a friend’s birthday and this recipe was flawless. I subbed the flax egg for 6 T applesauce based on a previous comment. I threw all the dry stuff in my vitamix and pulsed it so everything was well distributed (brown sugar was getting clumpy on me) and then folded in the wet ingredients and carrots. I made mini cupcakes and baked for 12 minutes. I’m glad I made a test batch because I couldn’t help myself from eating a ton of them!
You can make quick work of the carrots with a salad shooter if you have one. Super convenient. Thank you so much!
Awesome! Thanks so much for the great review Lauren!
A great recipe, thank you I have made them for friends and family who are non-vegan and they devoured them all! Great to show other people that vegan cakes are not boring. Super moist and zingy with the butter cream 🙂
Awesome to hear that Laura, thanks so much! 🙂
Can I use cake flour instead of all purpose flour? I’m trying the recipe this week for our family dinner 😊
Hi Justine, I think so. I haven’t used cake flour myself and the only worry is that it may be more crumbly. But readers who have tried some of our other recipes switching out cake flour have said it works.
Hello Allison,
I love this recipe and I am not vegan. First made it for a vegan option at my moms 80th birthday Saturday, and again today for me!
That’s awesome Deb, I’m so happy to hear that! 🙂
Just made these, they were delicious. Next time I try to cut back on the amount of sugar. But other than that I’m glad I gave this recipe a try. Thank you.
I made these twice in one week and they are insanely perfect. Do you think it would taste weird to use olive oil instead of canola? Thanks!
Hi Dianne, so glad they were a success! I find olive oil to work great in baking provided it’s a light/mild olive oil.
These are amazing! So soft and delicious. I didn’t have any apple cider vinegar on hand so subbed some lemon juice. Thanks for this amazing recipe!
Awesome! Thanks Rachael!
I love this recipe. The third time I made them however I used almond flour and I believe that was the reason that they sunk and didn’t cook through. They were still delicious but I wasn’t able to get them out of the pan in any servable manner.
I also double the cinnamon and nutmeg. And I just slightly break up the walnuts because I like larger pieces.
Can I use oat flour or is there a gluten free substitute instead of gluten free flour? I just ran out!!
Hi Vivi, I don’t think oat flour would work. In my experience it has to be a blend to work well when replacing regular flour. 🙂
Hi Alison
Can I sub ground flaxseed with anything else?
Many thanks
You can make a chia egg the same way as a flax egg if you happen to have chia seeds on hand. Otherwise 6 tablespoons of applesauce can replace the two flax eggs (so you would use 8 tablespoons applesauce in total as there are already 2 tablespoons needed for the recipe).