Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling, incredibly moist and light, the best Easter treat after the classic Carrot Cake. The muffins are so easy to make, and are out of the oven in 15 to 20 minutes. The cream cheese is silky and refreshing, giving the muffins a delicate touch.
You gotta love muffins! They can be made from scratch in under 30 minutes, and can have any flavour and filling you like. From fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables, to decadent chocolate, caramel or cream, it’s a matter of preference how to make them.
And since Easter is upon us, nothing better than a twist on a classic dessert recipe: the one and only Carrot Cake. Not that the cake is not easy to make, but these muffins are even quicker and easier to bake. And kids can give a helping hand too. That is, if you don’t mind mess in the kitchen!
All you need is a muffin tin, and a few simple ingredients. The muffins are a lot healthier than the more popular carrot cake cupcakes, which are rich in buttercream icing. The cream cheese filling I used for the muffins is made with cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract only.
You can top these muffins with icing if you wish, it’s entirely up to you, but if you like to keep them lighter and simpler, then just the filling should be more than enough. Or no filling at all, for some healthy carrot cake muffins.
HOW TO MAKE CARROT CAKE MUFFINS WITH CREAM CHEESE FILLING
Carrots have a high water content, and it’s important to squeeze as much liquid as possible after grating them, otherwise the consistency of the muffins might change.
- in a bowl, sift the flour, add the baking powder, ground cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg
- separately, beat the eggs lightly with the sugar and oil
- add the vanilla extract, then mix all the ingredients together
- grease and flour a muffin tin
- to make the cream cheese filling, mix the cream cheese with the icing sugar and vanilla extract
- add one tablespoon of batter in each muffin hole, top with about a teaspoon or 2 of filling, then cover the filling with more batter
- bake in the preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit) for 15-20 minutes or until the muffins are firm to touch
- remove from the oven, and leave to cool
- add the remaining cream cheese to a piping bag fitted with any small nozzle, and pipe more filling into the centre of the muffins
And that is all, quick, easy peasy, and so delicious!
FOR HEALTHIER MUFFINS
My carrot muffins are not overly sweet or sugary, but there are always other ways of making them even healthier, if you’d rather cut down on some calories.
Use half plain flour and half wholemeal flour, for some added goodness – if the batter is a bit thicker, loosen it up by adding a bit of milk – 1 or 2 tablespoons should do.
Also, swap the white sugar for light brown sugar, the muffins will look a tad darker on the inside, but the consistency should not change much. Dark brown sugar can be used too.
If you choose to leave the sugar out – be it white or brown, use some honey or maple syrup instead – the carrots are naturally sweet, so that should be enough, especially if you don’t have such a sweet tooth. Or apple sauce – but then make sure the consistency of the batter is still right.
But that should help, let me know if you tried the muffins, I hope you’ll love them as much as we did. Happy Easter everyone!
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Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling, incredibly moist and light, the best Easter treat after the classic Carrot Cake. The muffins are so easy to make, and are out of the oven in 15 to 20 minutes. The cream cheese is silky and refreshing, giving the muffins a delicate touch. The best carrot cake muffins baked from scratch at home. Top them with icing, and you got the perfect carrot cake cupcakes.
- 200 g plain flour
- 2 eggs
- 125 ml vegetable oil
- 85 g white sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- 100 g grated carrots
- 25 g chopped walnuts
- 125 g cream cheese
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
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To make the muffins, sift the flour in a large bowl, add the baking powder, ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and walnuts.
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In a separate bowl, mix the sugar with eggs and oil.
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Grate the carrots and squeeze out the excess liquid.
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Mix all the ingredients together to get the batter - this should not be thick nor runny.
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To make the filling, mix the cream cheese with vanilla extract and sugar.
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Grease and flour a muffin tin, then spoon about 1 tablespoon of batter into each hole, top with 1 or 2 teaspoons of filling - we should still leave about half of the filling for later.
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Cover the filling with the remaining batter, and bake the muffins in the preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit) for 15-20 minutes, or until the muffins are firm to touch and golden on top.
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Remove from the oven, and leave to cool.
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Add the remaining cream cheese to a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle, and pipe more filling into the centre of each muffin.
- Click on the US Customary link to see the measurements displayed in cups and ounces.
- The servings can be adjusted by clicking the number next to Servings.
