Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

Absolutely sinful. But, like my sister-in-law says, sometimes we need that. :)


Ingredients:

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
2 cups all-purpose flour (or half and half whole wheat/white)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
*3 eggs
1-3/4 C packed brown sugar
**2/3 C vegetable or canola oil
2 C finely grated unpeeled zucchini (2 small)
3/4 C finely chopped walnuts or pecans

*I hear vegans often replace eggs with mashed banana. Sounds like it's worth a shot...

**Haven't tried this yet, but next time I'm going to experiment replacing all or part of the oil with apple sauce

Melt chocolate. In small bowl, stir together flour, baking power, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In large bowl and with electric mixer, beat egg and sugar for 10 minutes or until thickened and pale in color. Blend in oil and cooled chocolate. Add flour mixture, mixing at low speed until just blended. Stir in zucchini and chopped nuts. Spoon batter into 24 paper-lined or greased muffin tins, filling each two-thirds full. Bake at 350 F (180 C) for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Let cook in pans on rack for 10 min. Remove and cool completely before icing. Garnish with pecan and walnut halves.

*Icing:
1/4 C melted butter
3-4 Tb cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
~2 C powdered sugar

Mix butter, cocoa and vanilla with fork until smooth. Add powdered sugar until desired consistency.
*Still waiting for Samantha's avocado frosting recipe. ;)