Zucchini Bread Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting aka My Healthy Cupcakes

Now that I have a 2-year-old toddler, I’m doing my best to keep her sugar intake limited as long as possible – after all, she has her entire life to eat sugar! However, celebrations and special occasions call for treats so I made these zucchini bread muffins with cream cheese frosting for her 2nd birthday celebration, to share at day care. They are full of zucchini, (in the best way possible) moist, delicious and the cream cheese frosting on top really does make it taste basically like a cupcake. You can make them any size you want – I made mini ones for the kiddos – and decorate to your heart’s desire. I used some teddy bear and sugar sprinkles I had on hand.

Ingredients (makes 12-18 full size muffins or 36 mini muffins)

For the zucchini bread muffins

• 2 cups (227 grams) all-purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup (200 grams) light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2½ cups (340 to 453 grams) grated zucchini 

For the cream cheese frosting

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 1/3 cup (75 grams) plain Greek yogurt
• 3-4 tablespoons maple syrup (depending on how sweet you like it)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Piping bag and tip (can be substituted with a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off for piping)

Method

To make the zucchini bread muffins

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F and line your muffin tin with muffin cup liners
2. In a bowl whisk together the wet ingredients – eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and the sugars. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients – the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, add the grated zucchini to the dry ingredients and toss to coat. Add the dry zucchini mixture to the wet mixture and stir until combined, with a rubber spatula (works best). Pour into the prepared muffin tin using a cookie dough/ice cream scoop or a teaspoon (for the mini ones) and bake on the top rack of the oven until toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Note: Every oven is different so cooking times may vary slightly. If you notice the muffins getting too brown, cover them with foil.)
3. Let the muffins cool fully before frosting. 

To make the cream cheese frosting

• Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer (or in a stand mixer if you don’t have a hand one) until well-combined, light, and airy, about 10-15 minutes.
• Transfer to a piping (or Ziploc) bag and refrigerate to stabilize for at least 30 minutes. Cream cheese and yogurt will get runny when warm, so it’s important to refrigerate this frosting before using it so that it holds it texture.

To assemble and decorate

• Take your cool frosting and pipe on top of the muffins using a piping tip of your choice or if you don’t have one, just pipe straight from the bag with an opening of about 1/2 – 1 cm, depending on the size of your muffins (mini vs. regular).
• Decorate with any sprinkles or anything else of your choice and return to the fridge to stabilize
• Enjoy!