If you’ve never baked with zucchini before, it’s something you absolutely MUST try! You can’t taste the flavor of zucchini in your baking but it makes your baking so moist and amazing… the kids will never know! I’ve used it in everything from brownies to bread!
I had a massive zucchini given to me this year (it was 7.5 lbs, check it out here) and I grated and froze a lot of it (more on how to freeze zucchini here). I ended up with a whopping 26 cups of shredded zucchini and this was one of my favorite things I made with it! I made these 3 times within a week… LOL, they were pretty popular in our household! (In fact, I served them to myself on my birthday)!
Lemon Zucchini Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 2 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon lemon zest about 1 lemon
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups zucchini finely shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Mix together dry ingredients in a small bowl.
- Combine eggs, sugar, oil, lemon juice, milk, rind, and extract in a large bowl. Stir in dry ingredients until well combined.
- Stir in zucchini.
- Line a cupcake pan with papers. Fill each well 2/3 full and bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
- Serve with cream cheese frosting or lemon buttercream. (I used Lemon Buttercream)
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dessert
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Hi Holly, the recipe calls for the zucchini to be Finely shredded. Before the recipe you mentioned how you graded your zucchini and then gave the recipe for how to freeze the zucchini. For the cupcakes, should Zucchini be grated or shredded?
It can be grated or shredded. The finer the better the texture of the cupcakes will be but both will work well in this recipe.
Perfect! I topped it with your lemon buttercream frosting.
The recipe doesn’t say whether or not to peel the zucchini. I did not.
The zucchini is not peeled for this recipe.
Thank you
Best Zucchini dessert I’ve ever eaten! I used monk fruit sweetener instead of sugar.
i baked this and my family loves it but its dry to them hiw can i make it more moist?
If you found them dry they are likely overbaked. You want to bake them just until a toothpick comes out clean.
Could I bake this as a cake…9×13 or ?
I haven’t tried this recipe in a cake pan. If you do try it, I think you’d need a smaller pan (9×9 perhaps). Let us know how it goes if you try it!
I used a 9×13 but ended up with a thin cake however I did frost with the full lemon Butter cream icing . This helped compensate for the thinness. I would use a smaller size pan next time
I had my doubts about all the zucchini, but these are surprisingly good.
Did you squeeze the juice out of the zucchini before address to the mixture?
If it is super liquidy you can drain the liquid but I wouldn’t recommend squeezing the juice out before adding it to the recipe.
Can you substitute egg replacer to make this recipe vegan?
I have only tried the recipe as written Ugonna. Maybe some other readers can help you out.
I’ve been making this recipe for a couple years. My sister is allergic to egg. I substitute 1/4 cup of smooth unsweetened applesauce per egg (so 1/2 cup total), and about 2 additional heaping tbs of flour. I’ve had no issues with this substitution, although mine take a few extra minutes to cook than the recipe calls for (but I couldn’t say if that’s the applesauce or my crappy oven).
Made the cupcakes and they are wonderful! I doubled the zest in the cupcake and the icing and left out the almond. Can this recipe be doubled?
Changed these put 1 tablespoon lemon extract 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice left out almond extract put 1 teaspoon lemon extract in cream cheese frosting might have put 2 teaspoons tasted it thought it needed more really good my 103 year old mom ate 2
Wow, sounds amazing Patti!
Looks like something I would like to bake.
Just made these cupcakes today for my son. He loves lemon.
These are CRAZY GOOD! I did use Coconut oil, that was my only change.
Made the lemon buttercream icing too and it is now going to be a family fave.
These will not disappoint, thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the suggestion Meg! Glad you enjoyed them.
This sounds wonderful and I’m looking forward to making it along with the lemon buttercream frosting. Could you please specify the size of eggs you used in the recipe? I’m assuming you used large eggs, but knowing precisely would be best – thank you!
Yes, I used large eggs. Enjoy!
getting ready to make this recipe as it sounds wonderful. quick question, is the almond extract too strong? is this a typo, should it read lemon extract? just curious. I would think the almond flavoring would be overwhelming.
This is not a typo, almond extract is commonly found in lemon poppyseed baked goods. You can definitely taste the almond extract, you can certainly leave it out or substitute vanilla if you’d prefer.
Has anyone tried using flax eggs for this recipe? This sounds AMAZING I
I have not tried that egg substitute yet Nikki! Let us know how it turns out.
I used cake flour and didn’t drain the zuccchini and the batter was very runny. Also, the cupcakes didn’t rise and were lumpy! Where did I go wrong??
If you change the ingredients, especially in baking, this can affect the way the recipe turns out. This recipe uses all purpose flour.
Hi, these sound delicious!!
Will whole wheat flour work?
Thank you!!
I have only made the recipe as written. Some readers have substituted some flour for whole wheat with success. Let us know if you try it Michelle!