Remember our Coconut Day Celebration? Kat had picked up some coconut butter to help celebrate and she had mentioned that I was bringing some zucchini cupcakes. Well, I did and they were . . . okay. One of the girls we worked with said they didn't taste like cupcakes, they tasted like a sweet vegetable bread. That's not a bad thing, but I wanted this recipe to be one of those recipes that people love and then shock people when I tell them there's a vegetable in it!
Anyway, I got the recipe from Cook Yourself Thin: Skinny Meals That You Can Make in Minutes, check it out below. I got this book last summer on a whim and actually liked a lot of what I made. The only thing I didn't really like was they list the calories, but nothing else (no fat, sodium, carbs, etc.) Last week I followed the recipe to a T last time. So today I tried a few adjustments to make them totally cravable.
Cook Yourself Thin: Skinny Meals You Can Make in Minutes
I omitted the ground nuts and subbed out flour in hopes of lightening it up and tried Splenda Brown Sugar Blend instead of 100% regular sugar. I also didn't use the recipe for the frosting in the book, I used a reduced sugar vanilla frosting.I combined the dry ingredients and then the wet ingredients. Then I shredded the peeled zucchini and added it to the wet mixture. You can't really tell, but the grated zucchini is a pretty light green color and super watery.
Then I added the wet zucchini mixture to the dry mixture and mixed them all up.
Then I filled my little cupcake holders and let them do their thang in the oven for 28 minutes.
I let them cool (barely) and covered them with some frosting.
Final verdict: Much better! Still pretty dense, but this frosting was 10x better than coconut butter (and loads less in saturated fat!!). Looking back, I really think my cupcakes are so dense because I don't have an electric mixer and mix everything by hand with a whisk. And honestly, my forearm gets tired in, like, 30 seconds, so there's probably not enough air incorporated into them.Any other suggestions to help lighten up these little guys??
Here's the nutritional info for 2 cupcake, topped with 1 tbsp reduced sugar frosting:
| Nutritional Information |
| Servings Per Recipe: 12 |
| Amount Per Serving |
| Calories: 153 |
| Fat: 5 g |
| Sodium: 151 mg |
| Fiber: 1.3 g |
And here's my recipe, adapted from Cook Yourself Thin:
Zucchini Cupcakes
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c oat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3 tbsp Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 c zucchini, finely grated
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the flour, oat flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, brown sugar blend and vanilla until thick and lightly colored, about 4 minutes. Add the zucchini until incorporated.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and continue to beat until well mixed.
Pour ~1/3 c batter into 12 lined muffin tins and bake for 25-28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Top with your favorite frosting (I like the reduced sugar vanilla with these cupcakes!)
