Carrot Cake Donut Muffins

I love a good challenge! And what a fun challenge this was. Do you remember the show, "Sugar" hosted by Anna Olson? Well, it was an awesome show and I'm a HUGE fan of Anna Olson. She's not only an incredible baker, but she's also Canadian too! And for a while, she ran a monthly bake-off challenge where she'd pick one of her recipes and invite you to recreate it, with your own twist. This particular challenge involved her Jam filled Doughnut Muffins.

At the time, I had never even heard of a doughnut muffin, much less made one. I was intrigued...This Carrot Cake Donut Muffin was the delicious result of that bake-off challenge! And you'll love how different it is from your typical cinnamon sugar donut muffins. This is a great recipe for any type of brunch or special occasion breakfast or potluck, and pairs perfectly with a cup of coffee! And be sure to check out my other Breakfast Potluck Ideas!

Jump to:

• 🥘Ingredients
• 📖Variations & Substitutions
• 🍽Equipment
• 🌡️Storing
• 👪 Serving Size
• 📋 Carrot Cake Donut Muffins Recipe

I actually created these donut muffins years ago, around the time my Mom and Grandma were coming to town for a visit from Winnipeg. It was close to Mother’s Day so I decided to have an early celebration.

This gourmet muffin is an orange mocha glazed carrot cake doughnut muffin with jam Mascarpone filling and candied carrots. Fancier than your typical muffin or doughnut, but easy to make and tastes like carrot cake. And although they are fancier, this is really an easy recipe. This donut muffin recipe is perfect for Easter, Mother's Day, or your next brunch or breakfast potluck!

🥘Ingredients

For this donut muffin recipe, you'll need:

• Milk
• White granulated sugar
• Vegetable oil
• Carrots
• Eggs
• Vanilla
• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Cinnamon
• Jam (marmalade, apricot or peach)
• Confectioner’s sugar/powdered sugar/icing sugar
• Orange juice
• Walnuts
• Brewed vanilla coffee
• 1 recipe for Candied Carrots

📖Variations & Substitutions

• Jam: My Mom’s fave muffin is carrot and my Grandma loves marmalade, which also goes so well with carrot (although I've made this with peach jam and apricot jam as well - peach being my fave).

• Mascarpone: If you don't have mascarpone, you could substitute cream cheese.

• Coffee: you can substitute regular coffee and ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract if you don't have vanilla-flavored coffee

• Mini donut muffins- you can make these in a mini muffin pan, but you'll need to cook mini muffins for half the amount of time as regular muffins.

🍽Equipment

You will need a whisk,  large mixing bowl, a medium bowl, and spoons. I also like to use these pretty damask muffin liners. I bought them at Michaels.

Although this donut muffin is as easy to make as any muffin, it's not your typical muffin. Therefore, I'm going to go as far as to give it the label "gourmet muffin" because it's fancier than your average muffin or doughnut. However, it's still not too fancy for a regular breakfast or brunch potluck and it's easy to make.

But if you want to bring something a little more elegant, that looks super yummy, it really is the PERFECT sweet treat for any breakfast or brunch potluck. In fact, I recently brought these carrot cake muffins to a breakfast potluck and I think it was the candied carrot topping that won everyone over.

My husband actually couldn't get past the fact that I turned carrots into candy. He thinks it's my new super power 🙂 You can find my Candied Carrot recipe HERE!

🌡️Storing

These muffins will keep for up to 4 days in an airtight container or can be frozen (in an airtight container) in a single layer for up to 3 months. Don't store them at room temperature because of the perishable filling. If you're just storing them overnight, you can cover them with plastic wrap.

If you are going to make them in advance and freeze them, I recommend you wait until they are completely thawed to add the candied carrots. Although you can freeze them with the glaze, they present nicer when you glaze them after they are defrosted.

👪 Serving Size

This recipe for gourmet muffins makes 18. However, you can cut the recipe half, make a double batch or triple the recipe. Simply click on the blue serving size in the recipe card, select the number of servings and the recipe amounts will adjust accordingly. You'll just need additional muffin tins.

The best part is that these carrot cake donut muffins, with a jam Mascarpone filling, orange mocha glaze and candied carrots, are part doughnut, and muffin and taste like carrot cake! You can't go wrong with that combo. So, if you are looking for unique muffin ideas that are a little fancier than the usual and you LUV carrot muffins, carrot cake, and donuts (and who doesn't?!), this carrot doughnut muffin is for you!

And if you love carrots in your baking, then give my other carrot recipes a try:

Healthy Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake Dessert Pizza

So if you are looking for a great muffin for Mother's Day, you'll love this carrot cake twist on the Donut Muffin. They are a perfect excuse for eating donuts for breakfast!