Chocolate Zucchini Spice Cupcakes

 I have had this zucchini in my fridge and lately i feel like I have been making everything zucchini to use it up! Zucchini omlets, zucchini stir fry, the list goes on....and it seems like it just won't ever disappear.
Today I was in a bad mood and so I was parusing all the food sites in my google reader to see what I could cook to make me feel better. I found all these amazing chocolate recipes I would like to try but then I found the most perfect recipe for me: one to use more zucchini! The added bonus was the amount of chocolate that would be placed in the recipe to boost my mood.

So the recipe below is inspired from another fellow bloggers site. But in typical briggy fashion, I didn't stick to the recipe. I substituted a number of things for either lack of ingredients or for wanting to use healthier alternatives.

Try it! Esp if you are in a bad mood, it's the cure!

Ingredients:

2 large eggs
1/2 cup refined expeller pressed coconut oil - for medium high heat
1/2 cup raw cane sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tbsp ground espresso
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated sea salt
3 dashes cayenne

1 cup bread flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cup shredded zucchini (food processor will shred this in a snap)
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks (I used 1 1/2 bars of good Russian chocolate from the Brighton Beach Bazaar!)


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat eggs with a hand mixer. Set aside.
3. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside.
4. Beat oil*, sugars, vanilla, espresso, cinnamon, salt, and cayenne. (Since the sugars are very granular you will need to beat on medium heat for a few minutes until almost smooth.)
5. Beat the eggs into the wet mixture.

 6. Stir in the flour mixture. Once combined, stir in the zucchini and chocolate.
7. Using an ice cream scoop (or two spoons), scoop the batter into 12 muffin cups.

8. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out almost clean.

*The oil will be solid when it is cold. If the oil in your jar is solid, heat it up and make sure to use a 1/2 cup of liquid oil. If you store your sugar in the refrigerator, be sure to let it get to room temperature before mixing it with the oil or it will solidify. This is why it is important to beat those ingredients (in step 3) together first before adding the eggs. This enables the oil to bind with the ingredients before adding the eggs which may be slightly chilled.