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Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

These decadent chocolate zucchini cupcakes are moistened with shredded zucchini and frosted with chocolatey cream cheese frosting! If you’re looking for a fun and fresh way to use up your zucchini, look no further than these luscious cupcakes!

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes with chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting sitting on white paper doilies

Why I Love These Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

Zucchini is one of those vegetables that everyone seems to have in abundance! I absolutely love the green veggie, but after coming up with so many different recipes – like Zucchini Pizza Bites – to make sure it didn’t go to waste, I found myself at a loss. 

That’s when I realized it was time to go to the sweet side, and when all else fails, we must turn to chocolate for the answers. Enter: Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes. This treat isn’t your standard zucchini bread recipe, it’s ten times better. 

These cupcakes are moist, chocolatey, succulent, and smeared with cocoa cream cheese frosting. I know, I’m salivating too! I’m so excited for you to make this yummy and surprisingly simple dessert! You don’t have to tell the kids there’s zucchini in it, but trust me, once they get a taste they won’t even care.

Ingredients to Make Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

These cupcakes taste decadent and smooth, so you’d think they’d take a lot of work and special ingredients. Thankfully for us, that couldn’t be farther from the truth! We have two components to this recipe – the cupcakes and the frosting, and you need simple ingredients for both. 

Cupcake Ingredients

  • Shredded zucchini 
  • Egg
  • Buttermilk
  • Chocolate: cocoa powder and mini chocolate chips
  • Pantry staples: Flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, powdered sugar, oil, vanilla, and salt

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Cream cheese
  • Butter
  • Cocoa Powder
  • Powdered sugar
  • Milk
Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting on a wood table

Instructions to Make Zucchini Cupcakes

Step 1: Combine Zucchini Mixture

Mix your shredded zucchini, egg, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until just combined. 

Step 2: Mix Dry Ingredients 

Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl. 

Step 3: Combine Both and Add Chocolate Chips

Add the dry mixture to the wet zucchini mixture and stir everything just until it’s evenly moistened. Gently stir in the mini chocolate chips. 

Step 4: Prep Muffin Cups and Bake

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners and fill each with batter until they’re ⅔ full. Bake the cupcakes at 350 for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

Step 5: Make Cream Cheese Frosting

Combine the cream cheese and butter and beat at a medium speed until the mixture is fluffy. Then, add cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and milk. Beat again until fluffy. 

Step 6: Remove and Frost

Remove the cupcakes from the muffin tin and allow them to cool completely before frosting. Enjoy! 

FAQs

What benefit does zucchini add to baked goods?

What doesn’t it add?! Zucchini gives baked goods really great moisture, texture, and added bulk, which I love. It’s also a vegetable, of course, so it’s full of nutrients. It’s kind of nice to eat a dessert knowing there’s a vegetable in it and you can’t even taste it!

Do you peel the zucchini skin before adding it to the cupcake batter?

There’s no need to remove the zucchini peel before shredding it. Go ahead and shred your zucchini with the skin on and then incorporate it into your batter. 

Do I need to store this in the fridge since there’s zucchini in it?

I don’t think these cupcakes are going to last long enough to be stored, and I would recommend serving them the same day they’re baked. If you do have to store them, I would recommend keeping them in the fridge in an air-tight container for no more than 5 days. Not only for the zucchini but for the cream cheese frosting too!

How do you shred zucchini for baking?

All you have to do is chop off the top of the zucchini so one side is flat and then shred it against a grater. 

More Zucchini Recipes to Try

Thanks so much for reading! Enjoy zucchini season and have fun making these yummy cupcakes!

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Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Print Recipe
5 from 2 votes

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

These decadent chocolate zucchini cupcakes are moistened with shredded zucchini and frosted with chocolatey cream cheese frosting! If you’re looking for a fun and fresh way to use up your zucchini, look no further than these luscious cupcakes!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Total Time35 minutes
Course: Dessert
Servings: 12
Author: Malinda

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 c. zucchini shredded
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 c. buttermilk
  • 1/4 c. oil
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 3/4 c. sugar
  • 3/4 c. all purpose flour
  • 3/4 c. cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 c. mini chocolate chips
  • FROSTING
  • 8 oz. cream cheese room temperature
  • 4 TBS. butter room temperature
  • 4 TBS. cocoa powder
  • 3/4 c. powdered sugar
  • 1 1/2 TBS. milk

Instructions

  • Mix zucchini, egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.
  • Combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
  • Add to the zucchini mixture and stir just until moistened.
  • Gently stir in chocolate chips.
  • Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
  • Fill each cup 2/3 full with batter.
  • Bake 350 for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  • Remove cupcakes from muffin tin and cool completely before frosting.
  • FROSTING
  • Combine cream cheese and butter and beat at a medium speed until fluffy.
  • Add cocoa powder, powdered sugar and milk.
  • Beat again until nice and fluffy.
  • Frost cupcakes as desired.

Chocolate Fudge Raspberry Cake

Well, I finally did it!  I committed and started my own blog.  I have been thinking about doing this for a long time now, but I did it!  I am brand spanking new to the blogging world and it is a very scary and intimidating place!!  There are so many beautiful food blogs out there with gorgeous pictures.

Fudge Raspberry Cake

I thought I would start off by making a cake.  This was hard to choose just one, but I went with a chocolate fudge raspberry cake.  I have been making this cake since I was a little girl and just learning to bake only I used more frosting in the middle instead of raspberry fruit spread.  My family has always liked it and I thought I would jazz it up a bit by putting in a raspberry layer.  It turned out really yummy!!

Cocolate Fudge Raspberry Cake

Course: Dessert
Servings: 12
Author: Malinda

Ingredients

  • Cake
  • 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
  • 1 c. good quality unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • 3/4 c. butter room temperature
  • 2/3 c. granulated sugar
  • 2/3 c. brown sugar packed
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 1/2 c. buttermilk
  • Middle layer
  • 3/4 c. seedless raspberry spreadable fruit
  • Frosting
  • 3/4 c. butter room temperature
  • 3 1/2 c. powdered sugar
  • 1/3 c. good quality cocoa powder
  • 3 oz. good quality unsweetened chocolate melted
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1/3 c. milk

Instructions

  • Cake
  • Preheat oven to 350.
  • Grease and flour the bottom and sides of both pans.
  • Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars at medium speed until light and fluffy.
  • Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  • Add vanilla.
  • At low speed, alternate with the flour and buttermilk and mix only until blended after each addition.
  • Divide batter equally between prepared pans.
  • Bake cakes for 25- 30 minutes. Or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  • Place pans to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
  • Take cake cake out of pans and finish cooling completely on racks.
  • Frosting
  • Beat butter and powdered sugar at a medium speed until light and fluffy.
  • Add melted chocolate, cocoa powder, milk and vanilla.
  • Continue beating until fluffy and smooth.
  • Assembly
  • Place one cake layer on a cake plate or stand.
  • Pipe frosting around the outer edge of the cake to create a dam to hold in the raspberry filling.
  • Spread on the raspberry filling.
  • Top with second layer of cake.
  • Spread remaining frosting on the top and sides of the cake.
  • You can also reserve some frosting and pipe a decorative edge if desired.

Enjoy!