Super soft and moist coconut carrot cake cupcakes are loaded with coconut, sweetened with brown sugar, and flavored with warm spices. They’re topped with silky smooth cream cheese frosting—like carrot cake and coconut cake in one!
Why You’ll Love These Coconut Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Deliciously moist
- Perfectly spiced
- Coconut-y
- Quick and easy to prepare
- A great make-ahead recipe
- Garnished with cream cheese frosting
If you’re looking for traditional cupcakes without the coconut flavoring, here are my regular carrot cake cupcakes. Very similar to today’s recipe!
Carrot Cake Should Be Spiced & Moist
Let’s be honest. Carrot cake is only good if it’s spiced and if it’s 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. I encourage you to stick to my recipe below for best results! From the oil and brown sugar to the eggs and Greek yogurt, there are many moist-makers in these coconutty carrot cupcakes.
Two stand out the most:
Carrots: Pick up whole carrots and freshly grate them at home. Carrots that you buy pre-shredded are much drier and thicker than freshly grated carrots. Use those and you’ll miss out on a ton of moisture, not to mention experience large chunks of carrot in each bite.
Coconut: While the main player in this recipe is the carrot, we can’t ignore the coconut. It’s best to use sweetened shredded coconut in these cupcakes—it’s a little sticky and adds mega moisture to these cupcakes. Unsweetened is fine, but it’s typically drier and less flavorful than sweetened coconut.
How to Make Coconut Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Just like hummingbird cake, these cupcakes are simple to make!
- Whisk the dry ingredients together.
- Mix the wet ingredients together. Add the carrots and coconut.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients. The batter will be thick.
- Fill cupcake liners. Pour the batter into cupcake liners—only about 2/3 full.
- Bake.
- Make the frosting.
- Frost the cupcakes. Make sure they’re completely cool before frosting.
- Garnish with coconut flakes.
How to Frost Coconut Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Coconut carrot cake cupcakes are great, but they’re basically muffins without a swipe of cream cheese frosting. (Albeit super moist and spiced and delish muffins!) Cool, creamy, and smooth-as-silk cream cheese frosting complements the warm spices in our coconut carrot cupcakes.. For even more coconut flavor, try adding a little coconut extract to the frosting.
These would also be delicious topped with the brown butter cream cheese frosting from my banana layer cake recipe or the cinnamon cream cheese frosting from my banana cupcakes recipe. Have fun mixing and matching flavors!
These cupcakes taste even better after a few hours because the flavors have settled, mingled, and married. The moisture prevails and the cream cheese frosting sets into the tops. They’re the perfect treat to make ahead of time—even a day or 2 before.
Ingredient Substitutions You Can Make
Here are ingredient substitutions I’ve tested with success.
- Coconut: Use either type of coconut—sweetened or unsweetened. For best results, however, sweetened coconut adds the most moisture. If coconut isn’t for you, leave it out! You can replace it with 1 cup of chopped nuts or raisins.
- Coconut Extract: Totally optional for amped up coconut flavor. If you can’t get your hands on it or don’t enjoy coconut, simply leave it out.
- Yogurt: Use 1/3 cup of sour cream or unsweetened applesauce instead. Or try using 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple in place of the yogurt. They’ll taste like pineapple carrot cake!
- Oil: Instead of vegetable oil, try melted coconut oil for even more coconut flavor.
Coconut Carrot Cake Cupcakes Recipe
Ingredients You’ll Need
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 12-count muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves together in a large bowl. Set aside. Whisk the oil, brown sugar, eggs, yogurt, vanilla and coconut extract (if using) together until combined. Whisk in the carrots and coconut. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use a mixer or whisk until completely combined. Batter will be thick.
- Pour/spoon the batter into the liners—fill only 2/3 full to avoid spilling over the sides. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. For around 30 mini cupcakes, bake for about 12-13 minutes, same oven temperature. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter together on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, coconut extract (if using) and salt. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then switch to high speed and beat for 2 minutes. If you want the frosting a little thicker, add the extra 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar (I add it).
- Frost cooled cupcakes however you’d like.. Top with coconut flakes.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. I recommend a cupcake carrier for storing and transporting decorated cupcakes.
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