Keto Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

These keto carrot cake muffins are incredibly moist with a flavorsome crumb filled with crunchy pieces of pecans.

Bonus, each of these keto muffins only contains 4.5 grams of net carbs per serving, and they are dairy-free if you don’t add the cream cheese frosting.

Is Classic Carrot Cake Keto-Friendly?

No, a classic carrot cake recipe is not keto-approved, and it’s not because it contains carrots!

But don’t worry this Carrot Cake Muffins recipe is 100% Keto-friendly!

Surprisingly, 100 grams of raw carrots contain only 6.8 grams of net carbs – keep in mind that broccoli, a popular keto vegetable contains 4 grams of net carbs per 100 grams.

So the issue with a regular carrot cake recipe is the carbs from the wheat flour and sugar!

In fact, each muffin will only get a small amount of carrot, resulting in only 3.9 grams of net carbs per serving.

How To Make Keto Carrot Cake Muffins

These are gluten-free almond flour carrot cake muffins made with only a few dairy-free ingredients. No coconut flour needed!

Ingredients

• Almond flour – use ultra-fine almond flour for the best texture. Almond meal adds a gritty texture to the crumb.
• Large eggs – at room temperature. This recipe doesn’t work with egg replacer like flax eggs.
• Melted coconut oil – or melted butter, but I prefer the texture with coconut oil. It’s lighter.
• Unsweetened almond milk – you can use any keto milk like hemp milk, cashew milk.
• Baking powder  – if you prefer to use baking soda, use only 1 teaspoon in the recipe below.
• Vanilla extract
• Erythritol -you can use a combination of brown sugar-free erythritol and regular erythritol to increase the moist crumb of these carrot cake almond flour muffins.
• Shredded carrots – finely shredded with a hand grater or food processor.
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Ginger
• Chopped pecans or chopped walnuts or macadamias
• Salt

Preparing Ingredients

There are quite a few simple ingredients involved in this recipe.

First, measure each of them using small bowls, so you don’t forget any of them while making the recipe.

Start with shredding the peeled carrots in a food processor.

Then, measure the remaining ingredients into small individual bowls.

Combining Ingredients

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with sweetener, vanilla, almond milk, and coconut oil.

In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients: almond flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking powder.

Then, gradually add the flour mix into the wet ingredients and stir until the batter is smooth.

Finally, stir in shredded carrots and chopped pecans and fill evenly a 12-muffin tin filled with a paper liner.

Baking

Bake the carrot cake muffins in the center rack of your oven for 25-35 minutes.

You know they are ready when the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Cooling

Transfer the baked muffins to a cooling rack and wait for a few hours before frosting. The muffins get their best texture after 2 hours.

If you want to turn these carrot cake muffins with almond flour into cupcakes, add my cream cheese frosting on top! But first, make sure the muffins are cool, or the frosting will melt.

Pipe your frosting on top of each muffin using a piping bag.

Making The Frosting

All you need to make a keto vanilla cream cheese frosting are:

• Cream cheese – cream cheese is an excellent keto-friendly dairy product.
• Unsalted butter
• Vanilla extract
• Powdered sweetener – you can use powdered erythritol or allulose or any keto powdered sweetener you love

In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, add softened butter and cream along with vanilla and powdered sweetener.

Using the whisk attachment, beat the ingredients together on medium/high speed until light and fluffy.

Pipe the frosting on top of each muffin.

Decorating

You can’t add too many sprinkles to keto cupcakes because they are made of sugar.

But there are many toppings that you can sprinkle on top of your keto cupcakes to add color, texture and make cute keto cupcakes.

The best keto cupcakes toppings are:

• Chopped nuts – finely chopped walnuts, pecans, macadamia, or peanuts.
• Shredded coconut – even better, add toasted coconut flakes. It tastes delicious with the moist crumb of these keto carrot cupcakes.
• Spices – a pinch of cinnamon, ginger, all spices, or unsweetened cocoa powder!

Storage Instructions

These muffins store well for up to 4 days in a sealed box in the fridge.

You can also freeze these muffins in an airtight container and thaw the mat room temperature the day before.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Add Extra Toppings?

You can customize this keto carrot cupcake recipe by adding some lovely ingredients in the batter, like 1/2 cup of:

• shredded coconut 
• chopped walnuts instead of the pecans

You can’t add crushed pineapple or sultanas to this recipe. These are not keto-approved fruits, and it would too much raise the sugar and carbs amount per muffin.

How Many Keto Carrot Cake Cupcakes Can I Eat?

Luckily you can make keto-friendly carrot cake muffins using a combination of:

• Keto flours
• Keto sweeteners
• A small number of carrots – yes, you can eat a small number of carrots on your keto journey!

Of course, carrots are not the best keto vegetables to eat daily or in large quantities, because they contain 6.8g of net carbs/100 grams.

But we are not talking about eating 1 cup of carrots for a meal!

On a keto diet, you limit your intake to roughly 25 grams of net carbs per day, so eating 100 grams of carrot will quickly add up to 6.8 grams of net carbs that are not fulfilling. But, using 1 cup (128 grams) of raw carrots to make 12 carrot cake keto muffins is totally fine!

Have you made these keto carrot muffins? Share a comment or review below. I love to hear your feedback on my recipes.

XOXO Carine