Zucchini Carrot Cupcakes with Maple-Brown Sugar Frosting

Tonight, I decided to bake zucchini carrot cupcakes with maple-brown sugar frosting. I had been thinking of making something mapley-tasting (if there is even such a word in the English language) for some time now and found this recipe while "surfing the net" :))) I couldn't have been happier with the outcome- the cupcakes turned out delicious! I know I will definitely be making them again. I adapted the recipe from a recipe for cake, but if you decide to make it into cake instead of cupcakes, just pour the batter into two greased 8 inch round pans and bake for 25 minutes or until they test done.

Here is what you need:

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chopped walnuts- you can always omit those in case of nut allergies but i think that for people like me who happen to love anything that has nuts in it- they make the recipe!


Preheat oven to 350F.
Beat sugar and eggs until frothy. Whisk in canola oil.
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt in a separate bowl. Beat into egg mixture until well combined.
Fold in carrots, zucchini and walnuts.
Divide equally into muffin pans lined with cupcake paper liners. I was able to fill 12 regular and 12 mini cupcakes with this recipe, or if you are making only minis- 48 all total! Bake at 350F for 12 minutes for mini cupcakes and 18-20 minutes for regular cupcakes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Let cool 5-10 minutes before removing from pans. Cool completely before frosting.

This is how my cupcakes looked like right out of the oven- they rose beautifully and smelled delicious!

I did frost my cupcakes with the frosting suggested in the original recipe but I made a few changes to it:

Maple-Brown Sugar Frosting

1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream together cream cheese, butter and brown sugar. Beat in maple syrup and vanilla until well combined. The frosting, as it turned out from this recipe was too runny for me to be able to pipe on the cupcakes, so I ended up adding about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of powdered sugar. The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of maple syrup too, but I cut that in half. It wasn't with a strong maple flavor, but you can always add 1 tsp of maple extract if this is your preference. It turned out a lot lighter in consistency- and richness- than my regular buttercream frosting and it paired very well with the zucchini carrot cupcakes.

This was the end result: yum!

As an afterthought, I figured I'd add walnuts on top of the frosting- this way people will know there are walnuts inside the cupcakes in case they are allergic (whereas in my book a few extra nuts are always welcome :))

Recipe adapted from: 

http://kitchensimplicity.com/zucchini-carrot-cake-with-maple-brown-sugar-frosting/