Pineapple Zucchini Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

One of my favorite things about birthdays is birthday cake. Especially making birthday cakes! The birthday person chooses a cake or simply gives me inspiration.  Then I try to make the best cake I can.  When it came time to choose my birthday cake, believe me, it was a tough decision. My head was still in zucchini-mode. I love pineapple, and I love cream cheese. So I was on zucchini, pineapple, and cream cheese mission. Seems easy enough, right? 

I researched a few recipes until deciding on this one, and made a few changes, reflected below.  The frosting is a nice balance of cinnamon and cream cheese and the perfect complement to the cupcakes.  There are chunks of pineapple and hints of coconut and zucchini in the cake.  They are healthy and come in under 200 calories.  Pineapple Zucchini Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting made the perfect birthday treat!

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Pineapple Zucchini Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Yields 18 cupcakes

Cake:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt  (optional)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini (squeeze out some of the moisture)
20 ounce can of pineapple tidbits or crushed in juice, drained (I used tidbits for chunkier pieces)

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 18 standard muffin cups with paper liners (fill the empty cups halfway with water). 
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, coconut, baking soda, salt (if using) and cinnamon.  Set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, stir together oil, eggs and vanilla until well blended.  Add zucchini and pineapple and mix until combined.
  4. Add zucchini mixture to dry ingredients and gently fold until combined.  (Note: Batter will be thick).
  5. Divide batter evenly among 18 muffin cups.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool completely on a wire rack.

Frosting:

8 ounces Neufchâtel (1/3 less fat) cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

  1. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. 
  2. Pipe or spread frosting on cupcakes, as desired. 

Note:  If not serving immediately, cupcakes/frosting should be refrigerated.  Otherwise, the frosting gets too soft.  When serving after refrigeration, let cupcake sit out for 10-15 minutes at room temperature.  (They are good straight from the fridge, however…if you can’t wait like me!)  🙂

Nutrition Information per Serving (1 cupcake and 1/18 frosting)
Calories: 190 ~ Fat: 6g ~ Carbs: 33.6g ~ Fiber 2.9g ~ Protein: 3.2g

Adapted from Skinny Taste

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Comments

  1. The pineapple zucchini combination was only introduced to me this summer but am loving it! Your cupcakes look delicious and you can’t go wrong with cream cheese frosting!

  2. Well done- nice that these do have a tropical flair but are still low fat and contain zucchini. They do look delicious and you added just the right amount of frosting on top-yum!

  3. Those sound amazing and healthy too! 😀 Minus the frosting…but still I bet they taste incredible!

  4. Pineapple, zucchini, cinnamon – so exotic!

  5. Oh wow, what a combination! I never would have thought up the zucchini part! Happy birthday!

  6. Not that the cupcakes don’t sound good too, but I could so just eat te bowl of frosting all by it’s lonesome goodness! I can never decide what I want for my birthday cake either…

  7. Alida – I LOVE that you added whole wheat flour to this. I would have to omit the cinnamon, but it sounds delicious! Beautiful cupcakes…

  8. Happy birthday! I am a big zucchini fan too, but would have never thought to choose it for a birthday cake. Now you’ve made me wonder why not! The cupcakes with that cinnamon cream cheese frosting look amazing.

  9. These sound SO good. I always love zucchini breads/muffins because they are so moist and I like adding crushed pineapple to my banana breads to make them moist as well. So I can only imagine how good these cupcakes must be.
    And I love that you spiced the cream cheese frosting. That’s a great idea.