I love all things carrot cake and these easy and super tasty vegan carrot cake muffins are right up there with my favorite baking recipes. I often like to top these heart-warming treats with a smooth lemon glaze but feel free to eat them undecorated if you prefer.
This recipe takes less than 30 minutes to make which is very convenient when you don't have much time on your hands but you're craving a cozy snack like this one.
This is definitely one of my simpler recipes which is what we all want and once you try one of these muffins, you'll want another pretty soon afterwards. They're so moreish (in a good way).
If you are a big muffin fan, you will also love my vegan raspberry muffins, vegan peanut butter chocolate chip muffins and my vegan blueberry cream cheese muffins which are all classics.
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Why You Will Love These Muffins
- The Best Texture - These treats are incredibly soft and fluffy. If you love muffins which are tender, light and a little airy, this will be one of your new favorite baking recipes.
- Delicious Topping - The muffins are topped with a tangy lemon glaze which balances the strong carrot cake flavors perfectly. It only requires two ingredients and closely resembles the toppings in my vegan lemon drizzle cake and vegan lemon poppy seed muffins.
- Easy to Make - To make these muffins all you need to do is grease cupcake liners, fold together the batter, pour the batter into the liners, bake the muffins and top them with the glaze once they've cooled a little.
- Allergy Friendly & Plant Based - This vegan carrot cake muffins recipe is wholly vegan and dairy free.
Ingredient Notes
- Large, ripe banana - Make sure that the bananas that you use are brown and spotty. This means that they are ripe. If the bananas aren't ripe they won't act as an effective egg replacer for the muffins and the texture will be a little dense. These are also used in my vegan high protein banana pancakes and vegan blueberry banana cake effectively.
- Light brown sugar - When making any carrot cake inspired recipes, I always like to use this kind of sugar. In general, brown sugars contain molasses which creates a moist texture and a strong flavor in baked goods.
- Apple cider vinegar - This is used for the vegan buttermilk mixture and will react with the leavening agent to create an amazing texture. Without this underrated ingredient the muffins would be completely different.
- Ground spices - The spices that are used in this muffin recipe are ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg. These are the main two spices that I always use for all of my carrot cakes.
- Carrots - Don't buy pre-grated carrots as they have less moisture. Grate them by hand just before you're going to add them to the batter. This gives the muffins a beautifully moist consistency.
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice - If you'd like a lemon glaze which has a strong, authentic flavor, make sure that you use freshly squeezed lemon juice, as opposed to lemon juice from concentrate.
See recipe card for full information on individual ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions & Variations
- If you like, you can add another filling to the carrot cake muffins. Although they already contain chopped pecans, I sometimes also add some dairy-free chocolate chips like in my delectable vegan banana chocolate chip muffins or even poppy seeds to give the recipe an aromatic and unique twist. In reality, there's no right or wrong answer.
- If you have an intolerance to gluten, you can make these muffins completely gluten-free by making just one small change to the recipe. The all-purpose flour needs to be substituted out for an alternative such as, a 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose flour which is specifically a baking blend. You may also want to add a little bit of arrowroot powder to boost the texture if you're making these free from gluten.
How To Make Vegan Carrot Cake Muffins
For the full method, please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
1: Line two muffin tray with cupcake liners. Grease with oil.
2: Mix together the wet ingredients inside a large bowl including the bananas.
3: Add the dry ingredients to the mixture. Fold the muffin batter until smooth.
4: Add in the grated carrots and the pecans.
5: Spoon the carrot cake muffin batter into the cupcake liners. Bake until golden brown.
6: Let the muffins cool.
7: Make the lemon glaze and top the muffins with it.
Expert Tips
Bake at the correct temperature - Baking vegan muffins at the incorrect temperature can cause them to expand outwards instead of rising upwards. You also want the muffins to bake all the way through without the tops becoming burnt.
Make the muffins healthier - In order to make the muffins a little bit healthier, swap out your all-purpose flour for wholewheat flour and replace the light brown sugar with coconut sugar. They'll still taste mouth-watering.
Recipe FAQs
Replace the 75ml oil with 37.5g unsweetened applesauce. This will make them a little sweeter and moist.
No, a traditional carrot cupcake recipe contains dairy products and eggs. The glaze however, is naturally vegan.
Store these muffins inside a large airtight container for up to three days at room temperature.
Muffin batter is usually much thicker than cupcake batter. Therefore, the texture of muffins is more like a light bread.
More Vegan Muffin Recipes
If you tried this Vegan Carrot Cake Muffins Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below. I love hearing from you!
Easy Vegan Carrot Cake Muffins with Lemon Glaze
Ingredients
For the muffins:
- 1 large ripe banana (mashed)
- 180 g light brown sugar
- 240 ml soy milk
- 2.5 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 75 ml vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 260 g all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 150 g carrots grated
- 60 g pecans chopped roughly
For the glaze:
- 160 g powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
Preparation:
- Preheat your oven to 200 Celsius (390F).
- Line two 6-hole muffin trays or one 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake liners.
- Grease each of the cupcake liners with a drop of oil the set aside.
Make the muffin batter:
- To a large bowl, add the mashed banana, light brown sugar, soy milk, apple cider vinegar, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Mix well.
- Next, fold in the all-purpose flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, grated carrots and the chopped pecans. Make sure that there are no pockets of flour remaining.
- Equally, pour the carrot cake muffin batter into the cupcake liners until they’re almost full.
Bake the muffins:
- Place the muffins into the center of the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes. They should be golden brown, and a skewer should come out clean.
- Allow the muffins to cool in the baking trays for 15 minutes then transfer them over to a cooling rack.
Make the lemon glaze:
- Add your powdered sugar to a small bowl. Mix in the lemon juice one Tablespoon at a time.
- Spoon the lemon glaze over the muffins or dip them into the glaze.
Video
Notes
- Baking vegan muffins at the incorrect temperature can cause them to expand outwards instead of rising upwards. You also want the muffins to bake all the way through without the tops becoming burnt.
- In order to make the muffins a little bit healthier, swap out your all-purpose flour for wholewheat flour and replace the light brown sugar with coconut sugar. They'll still taste mouth-watering.
Claire says
OMG these look so yummy! Thanks for sharing.