Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

by Laura Frerichs, Tastemaker in Residence

Cooks Note

This is a really easy recipe. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, just use regular milk and add a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice to the milk. Let that sit for 5-10 minutes to sour before adding to the rest of the wet ingredients. These would be good topped with cream cheese frosting. You can also bake the recipe in a loaf pan. The cake doesn’t rise a whole lot, so you can fill almost all the way to the top of pans with batter.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil or liquid coconut oil


1 tsp. vanilla extract


2 cups grated zucchini

2 cups all-purpose flour OR whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup cocoa, sifted

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup melted butter

3 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp allspice

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin pan with cups and/or lightly grease loaf pans. In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, butter, and oil. Beat in eggs, one at a time until well incorporated. Stir in vanilla, buttermilk, zucchini, and chocolate chips. In a large separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients. Add the liquids into the dry and mix until combined. Spoon batter into muffin tins and/or loaf pans. Bake large muffins 35 minutes, regular muffins 15-18 minutes, and loaves 20-30 minutes. All until a toothpick comes out mostly clean with a few crumbs attached. Let cool completely in the tins on the rack. Frost with cream cheese frosting after they have completely cooled or chocolate ganache frosting is also very good. These freeze very well.
From www.culinate.com