Fragrant and sweet flavored, healthy Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting are perfect spring / Easter dessert. These whole grain and refined sugar-free muffins are loaded with chopped walnuts, shredded carrots and beautiful spices - very nutritious and low-calorie. Rustic, delicious, and completely addictive.
With the coming of Spring, my taste buds starts to crave desserts including sweet carrots. I bet you all feel me! I mean, carrot desserts are like ultimate Spring / Easter treats! That was exactly what happened to me last week. I wished for some sweet carroty, carrot cake flavors.... 'cause Spring is in the air.
And while I enjoy Carrot Cake Cookies and no-bake Carrot Cake Balls throughout the whole year, the real carrot cake I like to bake just before Easter celebration. Not before.
Since Easter is still a couple of weeks away, and I could not wait that long, I decided to turn my famous Carrot Cake into a family favorite weekend treat - muffins. What better way to celebrate the coming of the Spring than with Carrot Cake Muffins. Right?!
To make these healthy Carrot Cake Muffins I used whole grain Spelt flour. It has a nutty, slightly sweet flavor which paired very nicely with overall carroty muffin flavor. Compared to whole grain wheat flour, spelt flour is richer in many nutrients, such as protein and minerals that's why I use it in my baking. Spelt flour is also packed full of high-quality fibers great for our digestion. Yeey!
What makes these muffins so special is of course sweet fresh carrot loaded with so many nutrients - fibers, natural sugars, and packed full of some powerful antioxidants, vitamins, and many essential minerals. BUT also these Carrot Cake Muffins are bursting with some AMAZING flavors coming from beautiful spices that made batter so fragrant and unbelievably delicious.
I used warm spices - Ceylon cinnamon and nutmeg, but I also included some other spices like fresh ginger and rich tasting cardamon. This spice combo elevated muffins taste to a whole new level.
All these spices uplifted the muffins taste but also enriched them with many health benefits.
It's well known that Ceylon cinnamon helps lowering blood sugar levels and has a powerful anti-inflammatory effect. Same as amazing healthy ginger. BUT what you've probably didn't know is that cardamom, besides being sooooo freakin tasty, is good for our stomach and keeps our gut healthy, but also helps with weight loss. Yes. It has the ability to increase fat metabolism in the body by burning fat. Well, don't get overexcited. You CAN eat it with a spoon, but you'll quickly become discouraged when you hear that cardamom is one of the most expensive spices in the world. Bummer!
I also added some crunchiness - walnuts - into these muffins beauties. All these amazing flavors - sweet carrots and fragrant spices balanced so well with wintery nutty tasting walnuts. Carrot Cake Muffins turned out PERFECT! Sweet, moist and tender, heavenly fragrant.
These Carrot Cake Muffins may look like they are packed with calories, but far from that. They are packed with wholesome NUTRIENTS - high-quality dietary fibers, proteins, and healthy fats, as well with vitamins.
These muffins contain no refined sugars which make these muffins a perfect weekend dessert, breakfast or kids school snack. + If you're looking to sneak more veggies into your kid's (or like me - in hubby's) diet, this may be a good way.
On the top, I swirled some cream cheese because... well, why not?! These muffins certainly deserve a fluffy crown. The tartness of cream cheese wonderfully balanced the sweetness of muffins. The warm spices, nuttiness and cheese altogether turned these muffins into a real Spring treat.
Rustic, sweet tasting, with a bit crunchiness from walnuts these amazingly tasty muffins will uplift your mood and bring spring to your family table. Like definitely. Carrot Cake Muffins are also very addictive. Oh, yes they are. So, if you have a large family or expect guests make sure you make a double bunch. They disappear quickly from a plate.
I can’t wait to hear how you liked these muffins!
Enjoy!
Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
OR THE MUFFINS:
- 2 cups whole grain flour I used Spelt flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Himalayan salt
- 1 teaspoon Ceylon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- ¾ cup coconut sugar
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- ½ cup extra virgin coconut oil melted and cooled
- ⅓ cup Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups carrots finely shredded
- 1 teaspoon ginger freshly grated
- ½ cup walnuts roughly chopped
- ½ cup dried raisins
FOR THE FROSTING:
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
Instructions
- Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375ºF. Spray the insides of the muffin pan with cooking spray or line it with paper liners.
- In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients - the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cardamon and nutmeg, set aside.
- In a large bowl with a whisk or hand mixer on medium speed, combine the coconut sugar, coconut oil, and syrup. Beat in the Greek yogurt until fully combined – about 1 minute. Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Beat well.
- Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until well combined.
- Fold in the finely shredded carrots, freshly grated ginger, raisins, and walnuts. The muffin mixture will be thick.
- Pour the mixture into prepared muffin pans. Fill muffin tins ¾ full.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a baking rack.
- Make the frosting by combining the cream cheese and syrup until smooth. Spread onto cooled muffins. Topp it with chopped walnuts.
Notes
Nutrition
These are my recommendation for this recipe:
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This is a fantastic recipe. I followed the muffin recipe exactly as written and the muffins turned out fantastically. I made my muffins extra big so just added on 10 minutes to the bake time and it was perfect. I have been searching for a healthier carrot cake muffin for so long and am so pleased to have found this recipe.
I did tinker with the frosting a bit since I know that I do not love frosting with only cream cheese--I find that it needs to be cut with something else. I added to the frosting recipe 1/2 cup 2% plain greek yogurt and a splash of vanilla. I also added another tbsp of honey to it. It came out wonderfully.
Thank you again for such a thoughtful recipe!
Thanks DJ for your lovely comment and feedback. I'm glad to hear you liked the muffins. I love added greek yogurt. Must give that a try! :)
Can I use honey instead of maple syrup for muffins? Thank you, I love your recipes :)
I made your muffins with apple and cinnamon two days ago, they're gone (kids and hubby were delighted), and now I want to make these :)
I'm soooo glad you liked the recipe. Thank you for your lovely comment and feedback. Absolutely - you can use honey instead of syrup! BUT just a quick note about honey in baked things. Honey is very healthy and honey doesn't just sweeten our food and drinks but brings many health benefits too. BUT when we heat honey on certain degrees all the benefits got blown away by the heat. So that why I stopped using honey in baked goods. Just something to think about. ;)
YES. I think you're onto something here... all muffins should have cream cheese frosting, as far as I'm concerned! These look so yummy. And carrot cake is just the BEST.
Carrot cake = one of my favorite types of cakes out there! These muffins look so good! <3
Mmmm. I love anything carrot cake! These look delicious!!
YUM! Besides funfetti, carrot cake is my absolute fav! These sound awesome!
Cinnamon, maple syrup and nutmeg are my spices! These look delicious
These look delicious! My grandmother used to make carrot cake with a delicious butter cream frosting and I used to just eat the frosting lol She would always make extra frosting too!
I don't eat carrot cake often but when I do I remember how delicious it is. Especially the frosting!
These sound AMAZING, I love carrot cake and I am excited to try your recipe!
I LOVE everything about these delicious muffins! Carrot cake is one of my favorite sweet treats. Can you please send me some?!?!?
You had me at cream cheese frosting! Carrot cake never gets old!
My dad LOVES carrot cake. And I'm always trying to keep him healthy, so love the good swaps in here.