Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cupcakes

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cupcakes

This incredibly moist cake recipe pairs perfectly with a decadent cream cheese icing. For a slightly healthier option, this recipe also works wonderfully as a sweet muffin – no icing required.

Everyone has a few favourite foods which can bring back memories of the idyllic days of their childhood - running around with the other kids in the neighbourhood, only coming inside once the yellow glow of the street lights flickered on and our parents stood on the front porch calling our names to come inside to get cleaned up and ready for bed. This chocolate chip zucchini cupcake recipe is one of these recipes for me.

This was a recipe my mum made on special occasions, often in the form of a delicious, moist chocolate cake, covered in a sinfully good cream cheese icing. I think my mum also loved this recipe because of the opportunity it presented to slip in some veggies undetected into a family meal. Not always an easy feat with my older sister, who as a child, held a great distain for anything green. Still not one for loving the veggies, we all find it amazing that this recipe is still my sister’s favourite cake to this day. Although she did once tell me she viewed the cake simply as a delicious method of delivery for the decadent cream cheese icing.

This versatile recipe can be made as a cake in a 10-inch bundt pan, 8 or 9 inch round cake pans, or as cupcakes. I will provide the instructions for the multiple methods below.

Ingredients

• ¼ cup of butter
• 1 ¾ cup of sugar
• ½ cup of oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• ½ cup of buttermilk or sour milk 
• 2 ½ cups of flour
• 4 tablespoons of Cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• ½ teaspoon of cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon of ground cloves
• 2 cups of grated unpeeled zucchini
• ½ cup of chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream together butter and sugar, add oil, egg, vanilla, and buttermilk. In a separate bowl combine flour cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves. Add dry ingredients into the liquid mixture. Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips. Pour into a greased and floured 10 inch bundt pan OR pour into two greased and floured 8 or 9 inch cake pans OR  line 2 cupcake pans with cupcake tin liners and divide mixture evenly among the 24 cupcakes.

For 10 inch bundt pan bake for 55-60 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit or until the top bounces back when touched.

For the two 8 or 9 inch cake pans bake for 35-40 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit or until the top bounces back when touched.

For the 24 muffins/cupcakes bake for 20-25 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit or until the top bounces back when touched.

Don’t have buttermilk on hand? Make your own by adding a dash of white vinegar or lemon juice to ½ cup of milk, stir, and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. Fair warning: it will look like chunky curdled milk.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 8 ounces softened cream cheese
• ¼ cup of butter
• 2 teaspoon of vanilla
• 3 ½ cups of sifted icing sugar

Directions

Let butter and cream cheese come to room temperature.

Add all of the ingredients to a mixing bowl and whip ingredients together with a sturdy whisk or whip ingredients together on medium speed on an electric mixer.

Enjoy!