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These Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes are moist, fluffy and perfect for a delicious treat! They’re loaded with carrots, walnuts and raisins and topped with homemade coconut whipped cream.
Carrot cake recipes are some of my favourites. Anything from Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal to Carrot Cake Energy Balls, or Carrot Cake Overnight Oats. I love the flavours of any carrot cake treat!
These cupcakes are naturally vegan and made with overall healthy ingredients like spelt flour, apple sauce and coconut cream.
The coconut whipped cream topping is best enjoyed fresh with these cupcakes, but feel free to make the cupcakes a day or two in advance before serving and make the coconut whipped cream topping right before serving!
How to make these cupcakes
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl and the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl.
- Mix both together just until combined then divide evenly between a muffin pan lined with muffin liners
- Bake at 350 degrees for 23-27 minutes.
How to make homemade coconut whipped cream
A good coconut whipped cream comes down to four main elements:
- Using full-fat coconut milk
- Using a good quality brand of coconut milk
- Placing the coconut milk in the fridge overnight before whipping
- Using just the cream on the top of the can
Light coconut milk or cartons of coconut milk will NOT whip up into coconut cream. You need to make sure to use full-fat coconut milk and a good quality brand that isn’t watered down.
Placing the coconut milk in the fridge overnight will help the coconut cream and coconut liquid separate, and you should be left with a thick cream at the top of the can. You want to use just this cream!
Whip the cream up in a mixer as you would regular whipped cream.
Tips for making this recipe perfectly
- Don’t overmix the batter. Overmixing the batter can lead to tough cupcakes
- If preparing these cupcakes in advance, prepare the cupcakes first and store them in the fridge, then make the whipped topping right before serving.
- Make sure to spray your muffin liners with cooking spray to prevent the batter from sticking.
More cupcake recipes to try
If you tried these Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes or any other recipe on the blog let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment/rating below! Be sure to follow along on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook for even more deliciousness!
Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 cupcakes 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These vegan carrot cake cupcakes are topped with a homemade coconut whipped cream for a delicious treat!
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 2 cups white spelt flour (can sub regular flour for 1-1- gluten-free flour)
- 1/2 cup+2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 2 1/2 cups shredded carrots
- 1/2 cup sunflower seed oil (coconut oil or vegetable oil work too)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/3 cup raisins
- 1/3 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
Coconut whipped cream
- 1 can full-fat coconut milk, chilled in the fridge overnight
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp cane sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a muffin pan with liners sprayed with cooking spray.
- Mix the spelt flour, cane sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and orange zest together in a bowl
- Next, add the shredded carrots, sunflower seed oil, and applesauce and orange juice and mix until combined.
- Stir in the raisins and walnuts and mix until well combined.
- Bake for 23-27 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- To make the coconut whipped cream, remove the can from the fridge and scoop out just the cream on top (the cream and liquid will have separated in the fridge)
- Add the vanilla extract and cane sugar and whip on high until smooth and the whipped cream forms soft peaks
- Add the whipped coconut cream to a piping bag and place back in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up while the cupcakes cool.
- Pipe onto the cupcakes.
Notes
Don’t overmix the batter. Overmixing the batter can lead to tough cupcakes
If preparing these cupcakes in advance, prepare the cupcakes first and store them in the fridge, then make the whipped topping right before serving.
Make sure to spray your muffin liners with cooking spray to prevent the batter from sticking.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cupcake
- Calories: 400
- Sugar: 15g
- Fat: 15g
- Carbohydrates: 22g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 2g
Can this recipe be used for cake instead of cupcakes? Thank you!
Hi Kristen, I haven’t tested it out so I’m not sure about the baking time if you were to make it into a cake
Going to make those over the weekend but only gave Wholegrain Spelt flour would that work?
Amazing! My friends all loved them and they were so easy to make. So moist and not too sweet, the right amount of spices also. I removed the raisins but I’m sure they’d still be lovely with them. Thank you for the recipe!
So happy you liked the recipe Fatima!