Saturday, July 10, 2010

Sweet Zucchini Cupcakes with Orange Marscarpone Frosting

A Sweet Zucchini Cupcake with Orange Mascarpone Frosting, I cannot resist. I’m a huge fan of a good cupcake, particularly if I add cardamom and my mascarpone frosting. Not to mention the home grown zucchini, I knew instantly that this cupcake would suit my fancy.


With the spiciness of the cupcake and sweetness of the creamy frosting, brightened with the citrus flavor of orange zest made these cupcakes the perfect treat. Zucchini, which is a fruit, is low in calories, and contains useful amounts of folate, potassium and vitamin A, 1/2 cup of zucchini, also contains 19% of the recommended amount of manganese. Who knew? My family loved these delicious cupcakes, and I have a feeling we will see them often.







Sweet Zucchini Cupcakes with
Orange Marscarpone Frosting


1&1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1&1/2 cups zucchini, coarsely grated
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoon vanilla


Mascarpone Frosting


8 oz mascarpone cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar, or to taste
zest of orange, to taste
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cups of a standard (12-cup) muffin tin with paper or foil liners. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cardamom, cinnamon, and salt.
In another bowl, combine zucchini, oil, eggs, and vanilla; add to flour mixture, and mix just until combined, do not overmix.

Divide batter evenly among cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

Cool in tin on a wire rack for 5 minutes, turn cupcakes out, right side up, and cool completely.

Meanwhile, make frosting. With an electric mixer blend cheese, sugar, orange zest and vanilla together until smooth.

Using a spatula or butter knife, spread frosting on cupcakes. The frosted cupcakes are best eaten within 1 day. Which in this household, it's no problem :).




Enjoy!
adapted from Everyday Food

40 comments:

  1. The frosting sounds delicious! Good way to get in some vegetables ;)

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  2. Diana- this is exactly the kind of recipe I have been looking for. I have zucchini coming out of my ears. Nice blog.

    Anna

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  3. wow these look so gourmet and adore the frosting so creative I write the blog for a FL citrus grower could I feature your recipe and link to you?

    Rebecca

    rebeccasubbiah at yahoo dot com

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  4. These zucchini cupcakes look absolutely gorgeous, esp. the one with mascarpone frosting!

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  5. Delicious!! What a tasty blend, {Orange Mascarpone} Also, I like the use of the zucc's!
    Thank you for sharing:)

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  6. Oooh. These sound perfectly lovely. Once my grandma's zucchini is ready, I'll have to steal it and make these! : )

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  7. These look and sound delicious. Forgive my play on words but I simply have to say, "The frosting takes the cake." :-) I hope you are having a great day. Blessings...Mary

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  8. Very yummy; a little naughty and a little nice. Perfect balance :)

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  9. Would it be possible for you to package up a few of these and ship them to The Netherlands??? these look amaing!

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  10. Diana, these are fabulous! I especially love the orange infused marscarpone frosting!!

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  11. Yum! I could easily eat two or more in one sitting:) I love all baked goods with zucchini and you totally sold me when you metioned adding cardamom- delicious.

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  12. What a great recipe for the crazy amount of zucchini right now!! I bet that frosting was amazing...yum!

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  13. What a gorgeous combination! We've got a few zucchini to spare!

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  14. They look heavenly and it's been a long time since I have had a really good cupcake so I cannot wait to give these a try! LOVE your blog.........Kat

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  15. Ahh, I'm such a huge fan of any baked good containing zucchini! This looks heavenly!

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  16. I should be able to pick my first zucchini from my garden this week or next - so I'm going to need lots of zucchini recipes. This one sounds wonderful!!

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  17. It's that zucchini time of the year when they are abundant! These look so scrumptious - love that frosting!

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  18. I have never used mascarpone for anything though a lot of folks have been discussing it on their blogs. I am pretty partial to a butter cream frosting myself, probably because I always have those ingredients around. Thanks for sharing.

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  19. What a fantastic dessert. It always amazes me how well zucchini does in sweet dishes. This is perfect with the tang of the mascarpone.

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  20. I love the zucchini in this recipe. I will be giving this one a try as I'm loving the mascarpone frosting. Thank you for sharing.

    Whitney

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  21. Love this...not so typical! I am going to make these this weekend! Thanks :)

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  22. I love zucchini bread so I think I will love these too! Yum!

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  23. I'm with you I really like cardamom and I flat out love mascarpone. YUM!
    ~ingrid

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  24. girl, you had me with the title, those look just sinful!

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  25. Those zucchini cupcakes look so tempting!

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  26. I made these for an office party and they were amazing! I used Penzey's Baking Spice instead of ground cardamom (it has cardamom in it), and they turned out great. The frosting was so smooth, I am going to try mascarpone in other frostings. You could do so much with these cupcakes... add orange zest to the batter, even a little coconut. Delish! Merci!

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  27. How did I miss this post?? These look awesome and the mascarpone would be my favorite part. Oh who am I kidding, all of it would be my favorite.

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  28. These look like a perfect use for those extra zucchini the neighbors just brought to me! I'm not usually a frosting fan, but this one looks divine. Thanks for the post!

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  29. Amazing flavor combo..sounds delicious:)

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  30. Another person using mascarpone. It's every where but in my household! I'll be swimming in zucchini shortly so I'll know what to do!

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  31. Oh, how scrumtious those must have been? I've bookmarked this recipe so I can try it soon. Thanks for sharing!

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  32. Wow, these muffins look fantastic!!!
    I've been wanting to make something with Mascarpone cheese.

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  33. OHHH Yeahhh.. that's working for me. I love a good, fresh muffin. Beautifully done. Your blog is always a treat.

    Thought I'd invite you to come over and enter to win a $40.00 CSN GiftCard Giveaway. Great Odds. You could easily win, and if you enter, I hope you do. Keri

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  34. These look wonderful! I going to have to track down some zucchini tomorrow.

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  35. This sounds soo good and the frosting sounds amaazzinnng!

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  36. Yumm... these look so moist a good !! I like the cream~
    Thank you :)

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  37. I'm tucking this recipe away for next summer when we'll have lots of zucchini. And I'll definitely be trying your mascarpone frosting before then!

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  38. Mary is so right- the icing does take the cake! One of my favs in catering back in the day was using marscarpone for toppings- one of the most under rated cheeses out there for desserts or savory...

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