Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Glaze

These Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Glaze are on the healthier side – made with whole wheat pastry flour, almond flour, coconut oil, maple syrup, and Greek yogurt! They’re super flavorful, and full of texture from grated carrots, shredded coconut, raisins, and chopped walnuts! And the best part – they’re topped with a delicious cream cheese glaze!

Carrot cake will forever be one of my favorite sweet treats, whether it be cake, bread that’s actually cake, or even oatmeal. And now, these muffins. Ohhhh my goodness they’re SO good. Especially with that cream cheese glaze. I mean, what isn’t exponentially more delicious when it’s slathered in cream cheese glaze?

And the best part? Other than the fact that they’re insanely delish, is that they’re on the healthier side. As in, you can most definitely eat these for breakfast.

They’re made with whole wheat pastry flour, which is my go-to for healthy baking, and also almond flour! I love the combination of those two flours because together they yield a tender, moist crumb. I find whole wheat pastry flour (not to be confused with whole wheat flour) at my regular grocery store, but if you can’t find it, you can definitely sub all purpose. It’s basically a finer ground, more delicate whole wheat flour, and it subs perfectly with all purpose.

I don’t know about you, but I am a lover of all things texture in my carrot cake. Lots of grated carrots obviously (and I mean LOTS), shredded coconut, raisins, and chopped walnuts. I usually add pineapple too (I have an incredible carrot cake sheet cake in my cookbook with pineapple in it and omgomg I can’t wait for you guys to try it!!), but in this case I left it out for simplicity’s sake.

And they turned out just perfect.

The cream cheese glaze is kind of a cross between a glaze and an icing, and it’s realllly hard to not consume by the spoonful (which I absolutely did).

It’s just a little cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, a pinch of salt, and a little almond milk to thin it out. Super easy and super delicious!

Years ago I learned this awesome trick from Sally, and that is to bake your muffins at a high temp for the first several minutes, then reduce the temperature for the remainder of baking. I’m not sure of all of the science behind it, but it always yields the most perfectly cooked, domed muffins! Never ever fails. And that’s exactly what I did with these!

I love sprinkling these with a little extra cinnamon, but you could do toasted coconut, a mixture of cinnamon and nutmeg, or even sprinkles! These would be a super fun snack for Easter brunch too!

So perfect!

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Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Glaze

These Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Glaze are on the healthier side - made with whole wheat pastry flour, almond flour, coconut oil, maple syrup, and Greek yogurt! They're super flavorful, and full of texture from grated carrots, shredded coconut, raisins, and chopped walnuts! And the best part - they're topped with a delicious cream cheese glaze!

Course Breakfast, Breakfast/Snack, Brunch, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Breakfast, Healthier Baking

Keyword carrot cake muffins, carrot cake muffins with cream cheese glaze, easy carrot cake, healthier carrot cake muffins, healthy carrot cake, moist carrot cake recipe

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 14 muffins

Author Molly | Spices in My DNA

Ingredients

For the muffins

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour*
• 1 cup almond flour*
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk*
• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly grated carrots
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

For the cream cheese glaze

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 2-3 tablespoons unsweetened vanilla almond milk*

Instructions

For the muffins

1. Preheat oven to 425℉. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners and spray liners with nonstick spray also. This recipe makes about 14 muffins, so if you have another tin, line it with two liners as well. Set aside.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the whole wheat pastry flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.

3. In another medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, coconut oil, and maple syrup until combined. Add the almond milk, Greek yogurt, and vanilla and whisk again to combine. Add the carrots and stir to combine.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, folding with a rubber spatula until almost fully combined. Add the coconut, raisins, and walnuts, and stir until just evenly combined. (Don't overmix!)

5. Fill muffin liners 3/4 full with batter. Bake for 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350℉ (leave the muffins in the oven!), and bake for an additional 18-20 minutes, or until set in the centers and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in the tins, then remove and cool the rest of the way on a cooling rack.

6. Once muffins are completely cool, spoon the cream cheese glaze over the muffins and sprinkle with extra cinnamon if desired!

For the cream cheese glaze

1. Add cream cheese to a medium mixing bowl. Beat the cream cheese with electric beaters on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add the vanilla and salt and beat on medium-high until combined. Add the milk a tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached and no lumps remain. Spoon over cooled muffins!

Recipe Notes

*This is the whole wheat pastry flour I use and love. You can also sub all purpose flour!
*This is the almond flour I use and love.
*You can sub any milk for the muffins! For the glaze, you can sub any milk also, or half and half/cream!

There may be an affiliate link(s) in this post, which means that if you click on a product link above and complete a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you! As always, all opinions are my own. Thank you SO much for reading!