Baking these cupcakes reminded me of when my mom would harvest the last zucchinis from her vegetable garden as Summer came to an end, and baked her famous Zucchini bread.
It's been ages since I'd had my mom's Zucchini bread, and while I was reading Kayln Denny's article, "Zucchini Madness, the Final Chapter: Zucchini Bread, Cakes, Cupcakes, and Muffins", I came across Garrett at Vanilla Garlic, and his recipe for Zucchini cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting . What I love about these cupcakes, is the plump raisins, and the turbinado sugar, give it a natural sweetness, not that sickly sweet taste, and the cinnamon gives it, it's warm Summer flavor. And how could I forget the cream cheese frosting. The recipe for the frosting is so easy, I'll never buy store bought again. You just blend butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar.
The best part about it, is my kids love them. So, they don't know exactly what's in them, but all they care about is how good they taste.
Here's a recipe from All Recipe's. I subsituted the walnuts for raisins, and left out the chocolate.
INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups grated zucchini
3/4 cup raisins
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a large bowl, beat eggs with sugar for about 10 minutes or until thickened and pale. Blend oil into the beaten egg mixture.
In a small bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir flour mixture into egg mixture until just blended. Stir in zucchini and raisins. Spoon in batter into 24 paper-lined or greased muffin cups, filling the cups 1/2 full.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until fork or toothpick inserted in a cupcake's center comes out clean. Let cool in pans on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans; let cool completely. Spread with cream cheese frosting.
I hope you enjoy not only baking them, but savoring their Summer goodness.
