Chocolate Zucchini Cup Cakes

Clearly I have a cup cake problem.  I had so much zucchini left over from my bread, I decided to make cup cakes as well using this recipe.  Using vegetables in sweet baked goods has always intrigued me.  I loved eating my vegetables as a child, and didn't have to be "tricked" into consuming them.  In fact, they were usually the first thing off of my plate!  However, having a career in child care, I can see why hiding nutritious things in sweet and enticing edibles would be ideal for parents.  And honestly, who would say "no" to delicious chocolate cake?

Making these cakes was similar to making the zucchini bread.  The dry ingredients are mixed in a small bowl, and the wet ingredients are mixed together.

However this time I had to employ the use of buttermilk.

Buttermilk is often used in baking as a thickener. I didn't have buttermilk in my fridge, so I used regular 2% milk with lemon juice in it.  This causes the milk to thicken and makes it a great substitute for the recipe.

After mixing the butter, oil, and sugar with the eggs and vanilla, I added the dry ingredients alternately with the "buttermilk."  This made it a pretty standard cake mix.  Then came the shredded zucchini.

And for added fun I sprinkled in white and semi sweet chocolate chips into the mix.  I baked these for 30 min, rather than the 50 min stated in the original recipe.

They came out great!  Moist, and not too sweet.  Didn't even notice the zucchini, which could be a good thing if you were attempting to feed your picky child more veggies!  Enjoy!