Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes (2024)

These chocolate zucchini cupcakes are the most moist and fudgy cupcakes you’ll ever try thanks to grated zucchini in the batter. They have a chocolate flavor that’s not too rich and chocolate frosting on top makes these perfect with a glass of milk. No one will ever guess that there’s zucchini in these cupcakes!

If you’re looking for chocolate cupcakes that are incredibly moist and tender – then these chocolate zucchini cupcakes are the perfect recipe. The grated zucchini dissolves as the cupcakes bake so you don’t taste or see it whatsoever. Instead, it adds moisture to make the cupcakes soft, slightly fudgy and incredibly moist. The recipe is simple and straightforward and you end up with chocolate cupcakes that have the absolute best texture.

Making Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes – Step-by-Step Photos

This recipe is very straight forward and made entirely by hand (apart from the frosting). I’ve included step-by-step photos and recipe tips below.

1. Start by preheating the oven to 350F (180C or 170C fan forced) and lining your muffin tin with cupcake papers. Because cupcake batter is much thinner than muffin batter, lining the muffin pan (as opposed to greasing and flouring) is absolutely necessary.
2. Grate the zucchini using a fine cheese grater. Finely grated zucchini dissolves into the batter much better. Then gently squeeze out any excess liquid using a paper towel. It will not and should not be bone dry. You just want to remove any pools of liquid.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. If you notice that your cocoa powder is quite lumpy, sift it first to remove any lumps.
4. Then in a separate bowl you’ll whisk together the oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla and milk. You want to ensure that you get out all the clumps of brown sugar and that you don’t have pieces of egg in the mixture.
5. Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until smooth. The photo below shows the mixture about 1/2 of the way there.
6. Then stir in the grated zucchini. At this point, you’ll see strands of zucchini but they will dissolve as the cupcakes bake.
7. Then spoon the batter into the prepared tin, dividing it evenly between the 12 muffin papers. Each should be about 2/3 to 3/4 full.
8. The cupcakes will need to bake in the preheated oven for about 16-20 minutes, or until the tops look set and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Always with cupcakes it’s important to cool them in the tray first for at least 10 minutes, then carefully remove them from the muffin pan to continue cooling. If you remove them from the muffin pan too quickly the cupcakes can lose their shape because they’re still so warm.

Frosting, Decorating & Variations

I frosted these chocolate zucchini cupcakes with chocolate frosting for a double dose of chocolate. The recipe below is enough to pipe the cupcakes high with frosting (I used a 1M tip). However, if you plan to frost your cupcakes with a knife for a thinner layer of frosting, feel free to divide the frosting recipe in half (I’ve included the measurements in the recipe notes).

For a less sweet chocolate frosting, I love my chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe too.

I often have readers ask if they can add chocolate chips into this recipe. Because the cupcake batter is quite thin, I only recommend using mini chocolate chips instead of regular. Regular are too heavy and can fall to the bottom of the cupcakes. If you choose to add in chocolate chips, I’d use 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips. Note that you may end up with closer to 14 cupcakes if adding in chocolate chips.

Fudgy, tender and incredibly moist – these chocolate zucchini cupcakes are the perfect way to use up your fresh garden zucchini without anyone knowing there’s zucchini in the batter. And for more zucchini treats, be sure to try:

• Chocolate Zucchini Bread
• Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread