Spring has sprung, and that means Easter is coming. What better way to celebrate than with some carrot cake muffins?

These one bowl carrot cake muffins are easy and quick and only require one real prep step: grating the carrots! If you like moist, sweet muffins with fresh cinnamon flavor, you will enjoy these. I promise the carrots aren’t overwhelming – but if you like carrot cake, then you already know that!

What you need to make these muffins

Only a couple of things needed:

A standard muffin pan – one with 12 tins. Or, you can use two that have six and six.
One large mixing bowl – for combining our ingredients.
A whisk
Box grater – I used the larger side of this cheese grater to grate my carrots which worked very well.

Carrot Cake Muffin Ingredients

You’ll be shocked to know that this recipe has carrots. I used about two large, whole carrots from Trader Joe’s, but just grate enough to make about 1 1/2 cups worth. I’d refrain from using packaged baby carrots if possible for this one. Baby carrots are sometimes just really wet. But if you have to use them, pat them down a lot with some paper towels before grating!

Other important ingredients:

Cinnamon – very key for these carrot cake muffins. I love the warmth it adds to the batter. If for some reason you don’t have any, throw in some nutmeg!
Ginger – Adds an additional small kick to our batter. I just used dried ginger for this, but you can also finely grate fresh ginger directly into your batter.
Brown sugar – for that rich molasses taste.
Canola oil – you can use other vegetable oil or olive oil for this recipe too.
Flour – I used all purpose flour to make things simple.

How to make carrot cake muffins

Okay so it’s VERY EASY. And it is one bowl. NOTE: Listen. Most people would recommend that you mix your dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Me? I just don’t do that very often unless I’m making a layer cake or something important. In fact, I will dump all of the flour on top of the wet, followed by the salt, ginger, cinnamon, etc and sort of whisk the top gently before really mixing it all into the wet. It works for me and saves a dirty dish.

COMBINE your wet ingredients: In a bowl, combine the brown sugar and canola oil until homogenous. Add the vanilla, and then whisk in the eggs one at a time.
ADD in the dry ingredients: Add in the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Mix together until well combined. The batter will be a little thick and not very runny.
Add in the grated carrots. Mix the batter until just combined.
Pour the batter into the muffin tins evenly, filling each one no more than ¾ths full. Place the muffins in the oven to bake for 16-18 minutes. When a knife comes out clean after being inserted into the center of the muffin, they are ready to be removed from the oven to cool.
Allow them to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing them from the muffin pan. TIP: Twist the muffin tops gently to loosen them from the pan.

How to serve carrot cake muffins

Of course you can eat these as they are, but I found that a smear of butter and a drizzle of honey was the perfect topping. You can also dust these with a little bit of cinnamon or powdered sugar.

Storing carrot cake muffins

Put these muffins in an airtight container and leave at room temperature so they do not dry out! Eat within 4 days time.

Other recipes to try

If you liked these carrot cake muffins, try out some of these other recipes:

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