Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Searching for a sweet treat to take along to a Memorial Day celebration? Try these moist cupcakes and you'll be sure to please your guests. If your family doesn't eat them all first.  You'll be hard-pressed to convince others that a recipe so fabulous could actually contain zucchini. Maybe you don't need to bother sharing that secret.

This is one of my favorite recipes which I most recently made for a baby shower, and happily pleased the girlfriends who showed up.

Here's what you need:

This will make 12 regular cupcakes and 24 mini-cupcakes

• 2 cups zucchini, shredded
• 3 eggs
• 1 ½ cups honey
• ½ cup canola oil
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• ⅔ cup cocoa, dark, unsweetened
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¾ cup dark chocolate pieces, chopped

***Frosting***

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 2 tablespoon rice milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 to 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

On to the mixing and baking:

• Preheat oven to 325 standard or 300 convection.

• In a large bowl stir together zucchini, eggs, honey, oil and vanilla. Blend well.

• In a separate bowl, stir flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, baking powder and chocolate pieces.

• Add flour mixture to wet mixture.

• Fill lined cupcake molds no more than half full.

• Bake in convection oven for 20 minutes for regular size cupcakes or 11 minutes for mini cupcakes.

• Cool completely, then frost.

Whip up the Frosting:

• Beat peanut butter, butter, rice milk and vanilla until smooth.
• Stir in powdered sugar and mix until combined.