My Favorite Pans For Gluten Free Carrot Cake And Cupcakes
This recipe is designed to be made either in 2 8-inch round cake pans, or the standard wells of a 12-cup muffin tin. I always recommend baking in cast aluminum, which conducts heat well but not too well, and is light in color so it doesn’t burn the outside by attracting too much heat in the oven.
Since the recipe calls for 4 eggs, you can easily cut the ingredients in half, right down the middle, and make either 1 cake or just 12 cupcakes. The cupcakes do freeze really well, though, if you make the whole recipe but don’t have a need for all 24.
If your pan is 9-inches in diameter, rather than 8-inches, it will make shorter cakes that bake faster. Begin checking at 25 minutes.
Keep in mind that there’s no truly standard size well in a standard 12-cup muffin tin. So you may get more or fewer cupcakes than the recipe states.
Substitutions And Swaps In This Recipe
While I love this recipe just the way it is, I know some of you might not have all these ingredients on hand!
Below are some swaps and substitutions that can be made in this recipe:
- Vegetable Oil You can use any flavorless oil in this recipe. Canola or sunflower oil would work great!
- All Purpose Flour This recipe turns out best with AP flour, but you can use a gluten free flour blend if needed.
- Light Brown Sugar I prefer using light brown sugar in this recipe but you can use dark brown sugar too.
- Walnuts These add a ton of texture to this recipe but can be omitted if you have a nut allergy.
- Cream Cheese If you dont like cream cheese, use unsalted butter in place of the cream cheese to make the frosting for these cupcakes.
- Unsalted Butter You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted butter in this recipe if needed. Just be sure to omit the salt that this frosting recipe calls for. You can also use vegan butter in its place!
- Heavy Cream Whole milk or alternative milk will work in this frosting if thats what you have on hand.
- Shredded Carrots I like to use a microplane grater to grate my carrots super fine. However, a food processor with a shredding attachment works great too . Shredded zucchini can also be used in place of the carrots in this recipe.
Making These Cupcakes In Advance & Storage Tips
Make your cupcakes in advance! If stored unfrosted in an airtight container, they can last for 2 days at room temp, up to a week in the fridge, or up to 3 months in the freezer.
Make this spiced cream cheese frosting ahead of time too or save any leftover frosting. Store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week or the freezer for a month. Be sure to give it a good stir once it thaws to get the consistency nice and smooth again.
Frosted cupcakes can sit at room temperature for 3 hours or in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container. However, I find frosting them right before serving is best.
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How To Make The Cream Cheese Frosting
Cream cheese frosting is by far the most popular frosting for carrot cake and for carrot cake cupcakes. This is a basic cream cheese frosting, but goes so well with these cupcakes.
How To Make Carrot Cake Cupcakes:
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Success Tip: Shredding The Carrots
The bags of pre-shredded carrots you can find at the grocery store are not worth the extra couple of minutes it saves you to peel and shred whole carrots yourself. Store-bought carrot shreds are dry and tough, and that will translate into your carrot cake cupcakes. Grab whole carrots, a peeler, and a box grater, and flex your grating muscles!
And beyond that: After youve finished shredding, give the carrots a rough chop, so the pieces are finer and can distribute evenly in each cupcake, like this:
In this photo, you can see the difference. You want more carrots in each bite, so chop those shreds:
How To Make Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Making these cupcakes is just as simple as making carrot cake. If you have a couple of bowls and can stir ingredients together then you can absolutely make these cupcakes! Heres how I like to do it:
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How To Make Carrot Cake
SAMS TIP: While a single batch of frosting will cover this cake, I typically increase the recipe by 50% to allow for a thicker coating and decoration.
Can I Make This Gluten Free Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting Ahead Of Time
As described above, you can make the carrot cake layers even weeks ahead of time by wrapping them tightly and freezing them. Defrost in the refrigerator before frosting and serving.
The cake is moist enough, in fact, that you can even store it at room temperature, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, up to 1 whole day in advance. Don’t refrigerate it, though, as the refrigerator tends to dry out baked goods.
The frosting can also be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator for a few days. It will be solid, though, once fully chilled, so you’ll need to let it warm up for about an hour, and then mix it again with your mixer until you reach the proper consistency for spreading or piping it.
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What About A Dairy
Todays cupcakes are dairy free when made with applesauce, so if youre looking for a dairy free frosting, try this creamy .
I topped this batch of cream cheese-frosted cupcakes with chopped nuts and a white chocolate carrot topper, but both are completely optional. See Notes for instructions on making the white chocolate topper!
- Total Time:2 hours
Choosing The Right Gluten Free Flour For Carrot Cake
I’ve made this cake so many times that I’ve made it with Better Batter classic gluten free flour blend, Cup4Cup gluten free flour blend, and my Better Than Cup4Cup blend. They all work beautifully.
It’s a relatively forgiving recipe, unlike for example our perfect gluten free vanilla cake, which is so simple that it must be made with just the right gluten free flour blend, sifted. Steer clear entirely of gf flour blends with very gritty rice flour, like Bob’s Red Mill, but you might even be able to make this cake successfully with King Arthur Flour Measure for Measure.
As always, please consult our comprehensive guide to all purpose gluten free flour blends, which is linked in every recipe, like this one, that calls for an all purpose gluten free flour blend.
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Tell Me About These Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Flavor: These cupcakes are scrumptiously spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. You also have brown sugar, a little applesauce, natural sweetness from carrots, and the tangy-sweet frosting.
- Texture: The crumb of these cupcakes is soft and moist, but not at all greasy.
- Ease: Bakers of any skill level can handle this recipe. You can mix the cupcake batter by hand, though I recommend using a mixer to make the cream cheese frosting.
- Time: The batch of cupcakes takes about 2 hours start to finish, and that includes cooling. Cupcakes cook faster than cake layers, but they still need to cool completely before frosting.
Ive said this before and Ill say it again: carrot cake is only good if its spiced and if its moist. Under-spiced carrot cake tastes like nothing. Dry carrot cake tastes like you forgot you were baking a cake and frosted a vegetable instead. Ha! I encourage you to stick to my recipe below for best results.
Tips For Making The Best Easter Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Ingredients at room temp mix together better. Set the cold ingredients ahead of time.
- If youre short on time, use a food processor with a disc attachment to shred your carrots in seconds.
- Properly measure your flour or use a kitchen scale to measure your dry ingredients.
- Once you add the flour, mix your cupcake batter just until the ingredients are incorporated. This will ensure your cupcakes are tender and fluffy.
- Use a cookie scoop to easily fill your cupcake liners. It also makes sure your cupcakes end up being the same height.
- Bang your cupcake pan on the counter before putting it in the oven. This brings any air bubbles that are trapped in the batter to the surface.
- Seal off the top of your piping bags with a rubber band to prevent any frosting from seeping out the top of the bag and make the piping bags easier to use.
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How To Make Carrot Cake Cheesecake
Can I Add Cornstarch To My Cream Cheese Frosting
- Yup! While this recipe does not call for it, if you need a particularly stiff frosting or are looking to make your frosting thicker without making it sweeter, you can add cornstarch . I dont recommend adding more than a few Tablespoons, so start with just one Tablespoon at a time until desired thickness is reached.
Alright, while cream cheese frosting goes great with everything, there are certain cakes and cupcakes that complement it particularly well. Wednesday Ill be sharing one of my favorite cupcakes with you the exact cupcakes seen in the photos above.
Can you guess what flavor they are???
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Gluten Free Dairy Free Frosting
I’ve successfully made cream cheese-style frosting dairy free by using 4 ounces Daiya nondairy cream cheese, 8 tablespoons nonhydrogenated shortening, and 6 tablespoons Earth Balance nondairy butter in place of the butter and cream cheese.
I find that nondairy cream cheese has a strong taste that can become unpleasant if used in large amounts, so I don’t use a whole 8 ounces of it in place of 8 ounces of conventional cream cheese.
An easy gluten free dairy free alternative to making your own frosting is to buy a can of Pillsbury brand cream cheese frosting. It’s gluten free, and contains no dairy ingredients .
Make Your Icing And Serve
For the frosting, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy. Add ½ teaspoon vanilla and ¼ teaspoon salt and beat for another one to two minutes. “The frosting can be made in advance and refrigerated until ready to use,” adds MacLean. “Just take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature before using so it is soft enough to top the cupcakes!”
Gradually add in the powdered sugar until your desired balance is reached. Frost the cooled cupcakes and decorate with more chopped walnuts, if desired. “You can test to see if they are cool enough by topping one with just a bit of frosting and seeing if it starts to melt and slide off,” explains MacLean. “If not, you are good to go!”
While you can spread the frosting on with a knife, a piping bag makes things cleaner and easier. “To frost these cupcakes, I used a piping bag and a star-shaped piping tip. My hack for making filling a piping bag easier is to put it in a tall glass or vase first and then fold the edges over the side to hold it open while filling with the frosting.”
Serve the cupcakes immediately, or store them in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Or, eat some now and stash some away so you can enjoy a sweet treat every day of the week!
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Tips For Making Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- I recommend using the grate setting on your food processor to prepare your carrots, and then briefly pulsing them in your food processor for fine shreds of carrot. I feel like just grating them leaves carrot pieces that are too big, but dont overdo it when you pulse or youll have carrot juice and it will impart way too much carrot flavor into your cupcakes!
- If you dont have a food processor, you can use a hand grater to grate your carrots.
- While I didnt use them for my carrot cake cupcakes, you can add walnuts, pecans, or raisins to this recipe, if youd like. This batter can hold about ½-1 cup of add-ins.
- This recipe can be doubled to make 24 cupcakes.
Enjoy! The full printable recipe is just below the video, make sure to channel if you enjoy watching these videos!!
How To Make Homemade Carrot Cake Cupcakes
What I love about this recipe is just how easy it is to make. The batter is mixed together all in one bowl and all by hand. To ensure yours turn out just right, here are a few things to keep in mind:
Once the cakes are baked, allow them to cool inside the pan for 20-30 minutes. This makes it much easier to lift the cakes out as they wont be as delicate when cooled. Then, allow the cakes to cool on a cooling rack before frosting. Do not add frosting until the cakes are completely cooled, otherwise the frosting will slide right off.
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