Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes With Salted Caramel Frosting

This has to be one of my favorite ways to eat zucchini. Cover pretty much anything in chocolate and it becomes that much better, no?

We have a tasty Double Chocolate Zucchini Loaf that is a favorite around our house but this recipe may be the new favorite. The loaf is fairly dense and these cupcakes are soooo light and fluffy. They are both moist and chocolaty though. 

The Salted Caramel Frosting makes these pretty irresistible. I say go ahead and have one - they have zucchini in them after all....that makes them healthy. 

*wink wink*

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes With Salted Caramel Frosting

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 1/4 cup butter, room temp

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup icing sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup baking cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

2 cups zucchini, shredded

1/2 cup Greek yogurt, plain

Salted Caramel Frosting

1 cup butter, room temp

2 cup icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup Salted Caramel Sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 cupcake tins with paper liners. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat butter until smooth. beat in brown sugar and icing sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda & powder, and salt. 

In another bowl, stir together the zucchini and Greek yogurt. 

Beat in the dry ingredients alternating with the zucchini mixture until everything is well combined.

Scoop an equal amount of batter into each of the 24 lined cups. (Batter will be very thick.)

Bake at 350 for approx 20 minutes, toothpick inserted near center should come out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks.

Prepare frosting - In a medium bowl, beat butter until smooth. Beat in icing sugar and vanilla. Lastly, beat in caramel sauce.

Frost cooled cupcakes. If desired, you can drizzle with a little extra salted caramel sauce.

A note about this recipe:

You can use store bought salted caramel sauce or you can follow the link in the ingredients (or HERE) and make your own super simple salted caramel sauce. 

Fall is zucchini time. This is one way to use up the bounty. 

Looking for a recipe that will use up A LOT of zucchini? Try our What-Do-You-Mean-It's-Not-Apple Apple Crisp. It uses up 10 cups of zucchini and tastes just like an apple crisp!

 

Looking for some fun and tasty links? Head over to Carole's Chatter for more.