Description
I just love chocolate but I am not the hottest for really rich food during the summer, so a nice alternate to this dilemma is zucchini-chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing!
Ingredients
- 1 cup pecans
- 1 tablespoon butter
- cooking spray
- 3 cups grated zucchini
- 1 ½ cups vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 cups white sugar
- 10 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup salted butter, softened
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Set an oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source and preheat the oven’s broiler. Spread pecans onto a baking sheet. Cut butter into small pieces and scatter on top of pecans.
- Broil in the preheated oven until pecans start to turn golden brown and become fragrant
- about 5 minutes
- watching carefully to prevent burning. Remove from oven and allow to cool
- about 10 minutes. Transfer pecans to a cutting board and smash or crush into small pieces.
- Turn off broiler and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 18 cups of a muffin tin with paper liners. Spray inside of liners with cooking spray.
- Combine zucchini
- oil
- and eggs in a large mixing bowl.
- Mix flour
- sugar
- toasted pecans
- sugar
- cocoa powder
- cinnamon
- and salt in a bowl. Add zucchini mixture and stir to combine. Fill muffin tin cups 3/4 full with batter.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
- While cupcakes bake
- cut softened cream cheese and butter into small pieces and place in a mixing bowl. Add sugar and almond extract. Mix icing using an electric mixer until smooth
- about 5 minutes. Store in the refrigerator until use.
- Remove cupcakes from the oven and let cool completely before frosting
- about 1 hour.
Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 2 hrs
Servings: 18