This carrot cake muffins recipe is a showstopper! The muffins are moist and spiced, topped with a tangy cream cheese drizzle.

Here’s a muffin recipe you need in your arsenal: carrot cake muffins! These are beautifully moist and spiced, with cozy spices interspersed with pecans and bright strands of carrots. Add a tangy cream cheese glaze to decorate the tops, and it takes them into rockstar territory! This recipe is perfect in the spring, but we like it anytime of year: it’s a hit with friends and family alike!

Ingredients in this carrot cake muffins recipe

This carrot cake muffins recipe takes everything you like about the popular cake and boils it down into muffins. They’re lightly sweet so they’re not too heavy, and drizzled with just a bit of cream cheese icing (instead of the usual generous layers). There’s nothing better than a great muffin, and this one satisfies every bit of a muffin craving. Here’s what you’ll need:

• All purpose flour
• Brown sugar and granulated sugar
• Cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Pecans (or raisins)
• Eggs
• Applesauce
• Vegetable oil
• Vanilla extract
• Carrots

A few ingredient notes: the applesauce in the muffins keeps them beautifully moist without using more oil. If you love nuts, pecans are the perfect mix-in! You can swap them out for raisins, or you can do both (if you’re a fan of raisins in carrot cake).

For the cream cheese glaze

The best part of these carrot cake muffins? The cream cheese glaze! This glaze is a play on our powdered sugar icing, but using cream cheese instead. Turns out, softened and warmed cream cheese makes an excellent glaze. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Heat the cream cheese. Here you’ll want to heat it so that it becomes very soft and easy to stir. We did it in the microwave, but you can also use a small saucepan and use medium low heat on the stovetop.
• Adjust the powdered sugar and/or milk in very small quantities. The goal is a drizzle-able glaze. Powdered sugar can have some variability when you measure it, so you can add a little more if the icing is too thin. Add a bit more milk if the icing is too thick.
• Use a fork for drizzling. The best way to drizzle icing on muffins? Use a fork, not a spoon! It makes the best lines as it drizzles off of the tines of the fork.

Mix-ins and variations

Love a great carrot cake? There are loads of variations on carrot cake, and you can work them into these muffins easily. Here are a few more ideas:

• Raisins: use ½ cup as noted above
• Walnuts: use chopped walnuts instead of pecans
• Coconut: add ¼ to ½ cup sweetened shredded coconut
• Pineapple: add ½ cup chopped canned pineapple in place of ½ cup of the shredded carrots
• White chocolate chips: Add another sweet layer with chips

Carrot cake muffins storage

These carrot cake muffins are so delicious, you’ll want to eat them all the day of baking! But this makes a batch of 12, which is probably more than you’ll need. Here are a few notes on storing leftovers:

• The muffins last best uniced. If making the muffins in advance, store them un-iced and refrigerated; add the drizzle directly before serving.
• Store with a paper towel in the container. The muffins last at room temperature in a sealed container lined with a paper towel to absorb extra moisture, about 2 days if iced or 4 days if un-iced. The glaze becomes soft during storage, but it holds its shape.
• Store refrigerated for up to 1 week or more. Allow to come to room temperature before serving. Again, the glaze becomes softer during storage but holds up.
• You can also freeze the muffins without the glaze. They last up to 3 months frozen.

More carrot recipes

This carrot cake muffins recipe is perfect for spring, Easter, or Mother’s Day brunch, but it also works any time of year. Love making recipes with this orange vegetable? Here are some ideas for carrot recipes: