Carrot Cake Cupcakes (Doctored Cake Mix)
Today I'm going to share a delicious recipe for carrot cake cupcakes!
Like so many of our box cake mix recipes, nobody would ever guess that this flavorful carrot cupcakes recipe isn't completely from scratch.
Like our popular scratch carrot cake recipe, these carrot cake cupcakes from cake mix have amazing flavor from cinnamon, freshly grated carrots, shredded coconut, crushed pineapple, and pecans.
We just love classic cakes and cupcakes like this one- they are the recipes that you will return to again and again!
We hope that you enjoy this delicious recipe!
Table of Contents
How to Make Carrot Cake Cupcakes
You can find our full, printable recipe further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!
I like to go ahead and get the main "add-ins" ready first. Here is a bowl of our drained pineapple, sweetened coconut, crushed pecans, and freshly grated carrots.
This is what will make our carrot cupcakes truly seem like a from-scratch recipe.
- In the bowl of your mixer combine the dry ingredients (cake mix, flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and ginger) and whisk 30 seconds to throughly combine.
- To this add the eggs, milk, and sour cream and mix on low speed for 20 seconds to moisten the ingredients. Then, mix on medium speed for two minutes, stopping halfway through to scrape down the sides of your bowl.
- Next, fold in the shredded carrots, coconuts, pecans, and drained crushed pineapple.
- This recipe makes approximately 6.5-7 cups of batter.
- Scoop batter into the cupcake liners. Bake at 350 F for about 17 minutes or until the centers spring back when lightly touched (or toothpick can be inserted and removed with just a few crumbs attached). Makes about 28 cupcakes.
- After baking, remove the baked cupcakes from the pan as soon as you can safely do so. We usually do this within 5 minutes of removing form the oven. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
Carrot cake and cream cheese frosting are the perfect pairing! We filled and swirled our carrot cake cupcakes with our easy and delicious cream cheese frosting.
This classic recipe is a simple combination of two packages of softened cream cheese, two softened sticks of butter, powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, and vanilla extract.
As with any cream cheese frosting, the consistency is a bit softer than our usual buttercream. For this reason, we often chill it for several minutes just after mixing up a batch.
You can also pop your piping bag (or the bowl of frosting) in the refrigerator at any time as needed.
Filling the Cupcakes
- Filling the cupcake centers with a bit of cream cheese frosting is an optional step, but one that we love to do!
- If you would like to fill your cupcakes, load a disposable piping bag with cream cheese frosting and snip the tip away. Then, halfway into the top center of an unfrosted, cooled cupcake.
- Squeeze the piping bag for 2-3 seconds, remove. Then swirl the cupcakes as usual. (To get an idea of how much filling comes out in 2-3 seconds, do a practice run on a plate first and adjust as needed. Or, if you have an extra cupcake, fill it and split in half to see if you are happy with the amount of filling.)
- We swirled our cupcakes using a 2D piping tip, starting in the center and spiraling outward.
Refrigerating Carrot Cake Cupcakes
These carrot cupcakes should be refrigerated because of the cream cheese frosting. For the best taste and texture, remove from the refrigerator about 2 hours before serving to give them time to warm and soften.
More Carrot Cake Favorites
In addition to today's carrot cake cupcakes, we have more delicious carrot cakes for you to try! Any of these delicious cakes are sure to please!
Keep them in mind when thinking of birthday cake recipes and other celebrations with family and friends!
If you love cupcakes in particular, some of our favorites are: lemon cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, snickerdoodle cupcakes, and Oreo cupcakes! You can find our full collection in our cupcake recipes section.
Also, if you are interested in learning more about cake design, we have hundreds of free cake decorating tutorials as well!
We'll show you basics like how to make a cake, how to frost a cake (easily!), as well tutorials for elegant cakes and themed birthday cake ideas!
Recipe FAQs
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Carrot Cake Cupcakes (Cake Mix Recipe)
Ingredients
- Do not follow ingredients on the back of the cake mix box use the ingredients listed below.
- 1 box Spice Cake Mix sifted (We used Duncan Hines)
- 1 cup (121g) all purpose flour
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- ½ (3g) teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (242g) sour cream
- ½ cup (118g) milk
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon (3g) cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon (2g) ginger
- 1 ¼ cups (112g) Grated Carrots (small pieces)
- ¾ cup (50g )shredded coconut- We used Baker's Angel Flake Sweetened Coconut
- 4 oz Crushed Pineapple, drained (You can put it in a strainer and let the excess juice drain out)
- ¾ cup (92g) chopped pecans
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened
- 16 oz cream cheese (We used two 8 oz packages, full fat.)
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon (2g) salt 2g
- 6 cups 690g powdered sugar (Adjust amount slightly up or down to your liking.)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Add cupcake liners to your cupcake pans.
- In the bowl of your mixer, combine the dry ingredients (cake mix, flour, sugar, salt, & spices) and whisk 30 seconds to throughly combine.
- To this add the eggs, milk, and sour cream and mix on low speed for 20 seconds to moisten the ingredients. Then, mix on medium speed for two minutes, stopping halfway through to scrape down the sides of your bowl.
- Next, fold in the shredded carrots, coconuts, pecans, and drained crushed pineapple.
- Makes approximately 6.5-7 cups of batter.
- Scoop batter into the cupcake liners. Bake at 350 F for about 17 minutes or until the centers spring back when lightly touched (or toothpick can be inserted and removed with just a few crumbs attached). Makes about 28 cupcakes.
- After baking, remove the baked cupcakes from the pan as soon as you can safely do so. We usually do this within 5 minutes of removing form the oven. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- Add the softened butter to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until smooth.
- Cut the softened cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to soften the cream cheese a bit more.
- Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended. Cover the bowl with a towel to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
- Increase mixing speed and mix until fluffy. Don't over mix or it will become too soft. If it becomes too soft, refrigerate a short while to firm it up a bit.
- This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.
Filling and Decorating the Cupcakes
- Filling the cupcake centers with a bit of cream cheese frosting is an optional step, but one that we love to do! If you would like to do this, load a disposable piping bag with cream cheese frosting and snip the tip away. Push halfway into the top center of an unfrosted, cooled cupcake.
- Squeeze the piping bag for 2-3 seconds, remove. Then swirl the cupcakes as usual. (To get an idea of how much filling comes out in 2-3 seconds, do a practice run on a plate first and adjust as needed. Or, if you have an extra cupcake, fill it and split in half to see if you are happy with the amount of filling.)
- We swirled our cupcakes using a 2D piping tip, starting in the center and spiraling outward.
- These cupcakes should be refrigerated because of the cream cheese frosting. For best taste and texture, remove from the refrigerator about 2 hours before serving to give them time to warm and soften.
Fabulous! Love carrot cake :-)
this is a good idea and I am going to try it....