Chef Gretchen Allison of Ducksoup Inn grew up loving tomato soup. Learning to make good soup at the beginning of her career opened the door to a completely new pallet of tastes.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 2 dozen |
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups packed brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 1 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, divided
- 1 (16 ounce) container chocolate frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 12-cup muffin tins or line with paper liners.
- Beat brown sugar and eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer until thick and pale, about 10 minutes. Blend in oil and melted chocolate.
- Stir flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a separate bowl; stir flour mixture into egg mixture until just blended. Stir in zucchini and 1/2 cup walnuts. Using an ice cream scoop, spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, 20 to 30 more minutes.
- Spread frosting over cooled cupcakes and garnish with remaining walnuts.
- Use pecans in place of walnuts if you like.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 316 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 38 g |
| Cholesterol | 23 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 172 mg |
| Sugars | 27 g |
| Fat | 18 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Great recipe. The main difference was beating the eggs for ten minutes compared to the recipe I usually use and they came out very light and fluffy.
Very yummy. My husband is gobbling them up! I had to hide several in the freezer so he doesn’t eat them all! I did some things differently per other bakers’ suggestions. I used half oil and other half applesauce. (first time I’ve subbed this and I am very happy with it). I melted 2 ounces of dark chocolate candies (no squares), and added another 3 T. of cocoa and 1 more T. oil. I had a handful of coconut in a bag so tossed that in. (I meant to add vanilla but forgot). One thing I will change is the way I did the zucchini. I didn’t shred it but tossed it in pieces into my blender. So, some small chunky pieces but didn’t matter. Next time I’ll shred.
I added vanilla extract, which I assume was just accidentally left out of the description, and I also replaced some of the flour with cocoa powder, and they turned out AWESOME!!! My kids lived them, I made them for National Chocolate Cupcake Day, and they never woulda thought that there was vegetables in them!! Delicious!!
These turned out really good and I didn’t change a THING! This time a year the garden is turning out so much zucchini this is a great way to use it.
I just added a little bit less sugar, I love this recipe
i LOVE anything with zuchinni
I would make it agian
These cupcakes are AWESOME! Celebrating a friend’s birthday this weekend so I was looking for something extra chocolate-y and decadent. I read every review on this recipe and decided to make a few minor alterations: Instead of 1 C oil, I use 1/2C oil and 1/2C melted unsalted butter. Instead of chocolate, I used 1/2C unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch) and put 1/2C of semi-sweet chocolate chips in. Followed the recipe otherwise as directed, and these come out SOOOO moist and chocolate-y and people have NO CLUE that there is zucchini in them (unless you study the muffins as you bite into them, as I did). They are delicious without any frosting, but since I made them for a birthday party, I did find a rich chocolate buttercream recipe to frost these with. The only thing missing is the shot of insulin we’ll need after eating one!!!
I fooled my toddler. She will never know she ate zucchini!
The only 2 changes were: to add more zucchini (probably about 3 cups in total–I didn’t measure), and I used 2 oz powdered baking cocoa instead of squares. Wow, these are just so delicious! Moist, chocolatey, and some veggies thrown in! =)
These are amazing! Super moist and delicious! My daughter is allergic to eggs and milk so I substituted the egg with flax seed/water and used her milk. She doesn’t like super sweet foods and she loves these! So happy! Thanks for sharing! I will be adding this to my favorites! 🙂 Note that I use the chocolate frosting recipe on here to make these into cupcakes and wowza! Amazing! I’ve had people who don’t have allergies ask me what is in these because they are shocked at how good they are. 🙂
Absolutely delicious. Everyone in my family loved them. The zucchini was a nice aftertaste to the chocolate, but a little more chocolate wouldn’t hurt.
I wasn’t wild about these cupcakes. I used ingredients as noted with the the exception of the vegetable oil. I substituted light olive oil which I bake with all the time. I thought the taste was lacking something and I also thought they were dry.
Will definitely make again. I made one change: I added 4 T powdered baker’s chocolate instead of the chocolate squares as that’s what I had on hand. Followed the rest of the recipe exactly as is and they came out moist and delicious. My 11-year-old ate them without frosting. I tried them with homemade butter and cream cheese frosting, but it’s really not necessary, as other posters have pointed out, too. Very good recipe!
I thought this was one of the better chocolate zucchini recipes I’ve tried. As others suggested, I added about a teaspoon of vanilla, and I wanted to add cinnamon, but was all out. Instead of using chocolate squares, i used a heaping 1/3 cup of a special venezuelan hot cocoa powder, which contains cocoa powder and cocoa butter. I omitted the nuts because i wanted my super picky toddler to eat them (she did). Otherwise, i followed the recipe, and will be making them again.
These are really good – moist and chocolately. I did, however, as others suggested, doubled the chocolate and added chocolate chips, reduced the sugar. Left the nuts out. They are more like muffins but that’s ok. They don’t need frosting then either. Will make again.
I give this cupcake four stars for texture, nutrition and ease of making. However, I agree with other raters who have mentioned it needs more chocolate. Also, because the recipe uses oil, not butter, as the fat, you need a flavorful icing. The cupcake itself does not have much flavor, beyond sweet. That said, it had wonderful texture, a tender crumb and good “mouth feel.” The second time I made it, I added additional chocolate, substituted melted butter for 1/3 of the oil, and added vanilla, a bit of espresso powder and a bit of cinnamon. Also used whole wheat pastry flour. Frosted with chocolate ganache. Superb!
made this recipe with 1/4 c oil and 3/4 c homemade applesauce, 1c brown sugar, 1/4 c melted chocolate chips and no nuts. the recipe ended up making 17 cupcakes. delish!!!
Wow amazing recipe! Let me try another one JUST to make sure…Yep still amazing! I didn’t use walnuts in the mix but I did top some of the frosted ones with chopped walnuts and the others with sprinkles just because I know some were not a fan of walnuts and WOW what a moist and yummy cupcake even the next day! I love baking with zucchini, it’s always a treat! I filled my cups half way, left enough room for frosting and this made more than 24, though you wont hear any complaining from my family about the extra cupcakes! 😀
Very good. Mine came out moist with a sponge cake texture. I did follow other reviewers by substituting apple sauce for most of the oil. I also used coconut oil in place of vegetable oil. I only had cocoa powder on hand so I did add a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil so that it would not be too dry. I did add semi sweet chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. So glad I did. I’my not frosting them since I want to keep them on the healthier side and they really don’t need the extra flavor anyway. Mahalo for the great recipe!!
Moist and delicious!