If you are looking for a sugar free carrot cake cupcake that is diabetic friendly, then this cupcake recipe is the one you are looking for. Healthy carrot cake cupcakes are tender, moist, and delicious and packed with fresh carrots and warm spices the whole family will love.
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❤️ Why I Love This Recipe
Healthy ingredients: These moist carrot cake cupcakes are made with a brown sugar blend, and a cinnamon flavored unsweetened applesauce, then Guilt free snacking: you can enjoy these as a snack without worrying about breaking your diet.
Low carb cupcakes: These light and fluffy cupcakes are low in calories, have 2 grams of fiber, 4 grams of sugar, and lower in carbs than your regular cupcake with just 16 net carbs per serving!
🥘 Ingredients
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Whole wheat pastry flour, is a lighter texture that aids in producing a fluffier cupcake.
Sugar-free brown sugar sweetener, for best results, my choice for this recipe was Swerve brown sugar.
Unsweetened cinnamon flavored applesauce, replaces some of the oil that is in most carrot cakes.
Carrots: Look for fresh, firm carrots that are bright orange.
Reduced-fat cream cheese: adds creaminess without adding too much fat, is part of what makes the cupcake moist and tender.
Sugar-free syrup: there are several out there, but the best one is made by Lankanto. You can use pure maple syrup if desired, but the carbohydrate count will change.
🔪 Instructions
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners or coat cups with cooking spray (use the spray without the flour).
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar sweetener, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves until combined; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, using a electric hand mixer on low speed, mix the eggs, applesauce, oil, and vanilla together until combined. Stir in the freshly grated carrots. Pour the wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir to combine.
- Scoop the batter into muffin cups using a ¼ cup sized scoop. Bake the cupcakes for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a small mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer on low speed, combine the softened cream cheese and sugar-free syrup.
- Evenly spread the frosting on the tops of the cupcakes and garnish with a sprinkle of finely shredded carrots.
🙋 Recipe FAQ's
A good substitute for whole wheat pastry flour is to use ½ all purpose flour and ½ whole wheat flour.
Yes, it will up the fat by 3 grams (10 grams of fat) but it will work just as well as the reduced fat cream cheese.
Yes, Greek yogurt will be a good substitute for applesauce.
💭 Tips
- For a more tender result, be sure to sift the whole wheat pastry flour.
- To measure flour, spoon it lightly into the measuring cup, then scrape the excess off with a straight edge knife. Do not tap the cup, this packs the flour in and will result in an incorrect measure.
📖 Variations
- Stir 1 cup mini chocolate chips into the cupcake batter before scooping into the muffin tin.
- Sprinkle the top of the frosted cupcakes with a little bit of unsweetened shredded coconut.
- Use mini muffin tins and liners to make a mini cupcake, you will get 30 mini cupcakes from this recipe.
- Sprinkle the top of the frosted cupcake with sugar free sprinkles, unsweetened toasted coconut, or finely shredded carrot.
🍽 Equipment
Box grater: to shred carrots
Mixing Bowls
Electric mixer
Wooden spoon
Rubber scraper
Muffin tin
Cupcake liners
🏫 What I've Learned
- The secret to a moist, delicious cupcake with less fat and sugar is to use ingredients that add moisture.
- For this cupcake recipe, I shredded whole carrots fine, added applesauce in place of oil, and used whole wheat pastry flour to reduce the amount of protein and gluten in the cake.
- These changes did not affect the texture or flavor of this diabetic friendly cupcake and made it a much healthier version of a traditional carrot cupcakes recipe.
Serving Suggestions
Carrot Cake Cupcakes go well with a hot cup of coffee, cold glass of milk, or a scoop of homemade vanilla bean ice cream!
Storage
Store these Carrot Cake Cupcakes in an airtight container on the counter up to 3 days, in the refrigerator up to 1 week, and in the freezer up to 3 months.
Related Recipes
Keto Coconut Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream
Keto Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Icing
When you make this recipe, please comment below and let me know what you think. I'd love it if you tag me on Instagram @grumpyshoneybunch or #grumpyshoneybunch so I can see your photos!
If you love this recipe, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating
📖 Recipe
Carrot Cake Cupcakes Recipe
Equipment
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour , sifted
- 6 tablespoons sugar-free brown sugar sweetener , packed
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 large eggs , lightly beaten
- 2 cups shredded carrots
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 ounces ⅓ less fat cream cheese
- 3 tablespoons sugar-free maple syrup
Instructions
For the cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners or coat cups with cooking spray (use the spray without the flour).
- In a large mixing bowl combine flour, brown sugar sweetener, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, using a electric hand mixer, beat the eggs, applesauce, oil, and vanilla extract together until combined. Stir in the shredded carrots. Pour the wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir to combine.
- Scoop the batter into muffin cups using a ¼ cup sized scoop. Bake the cupcakes for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
To make the frosting
- In a small mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer, combine the softened cream cheese and sugar-free maple syrup until smooth. Spread on cupcake and garnish with desired toppings.
Chris says
The most delicious carrot cupcakes.
Instead of sugar I used coconut sugar and a bit of agave. I added shredded unsweetened coconut and chopped walnuts. For the frosting I added fresh orange zest and keto maple syrup and a bit of agave. My husband is diabetic and it was just delicious. Thank you for this amazing recipe.
Pegasuslegend says
Oh wow this sounds scrumptious!
Michele O'Donnell says
I love carrot cake and I am a diabetic. Perfect!
Stephanie says
When do you add the sugar free brown sugar? Also the agave nectar isn't on the ingredients list. Is that interchangeable with the sugar free maple syrup? Excited to try this recipe.
Shelby Law Ruttan says
Hi Stephanie, I updated the recipe card. The recipe card originally stated mix together flour through cloves (brown sugar is included there - I updated and listed all ingredients so it was more clear). As for the agave, that is an ingredient I no longer use and substituted the sugar-free maple syrup in an update for this recipe for agave and had missed the point in instructions. If you would like to use agave, just substitute it for the maple syrup in the frosting ingredients. Thanks and hope you enjoy the recipe!
Nupur says
this is really a diebetic freindly recipe Shelby, love the icing decor on the cup cake..
Lizzy says
So beautiful! And I appreciate having a lightened up version of my favorite!
Shelby says
Thank you Lizzy!