Chocolate Almond Summer Squash Cupcakes

When I was in New York this past weekend, I was surprised to see that even the famed Junior’s Bakery has gotten in on the cupcake act. But surprisingly, I didn’t eat any cupcakes while I was in the city. Not from Crumbs. Not from Magnolia. None. I just didn’t feel like it.

But when I arrived home to the smiling faces of my kids, I wanted to make some cupcakes with them. Specifically, this recipe that I’ve been working on. A while back, I had this idea to put some grated summer squash into cupcake batter as a way to use up extra squash. After all, we put zucchini in bread, right?

I bounced the idea off Will and Paige … they were all for it.

So, we set about to make these. I finely grated the squash using a box grater (a food processor would work too). Then Will and Paige, added, mixed and prepared the other ingredients. Finally, the batter was divided into cupcake liners and baked. Frost with your favorite frosting and voila … delish cupcakes.

The chocolate creates this amazing bottom layer. Then there is the soft cake, sweet frosting and sprinkling of salty, wonderful crushed almonds. It’s an amazing and fabulous contrast. As for the summer squash, it melts into the background.

You may be surprised to see that I use a boxed mix for these cupcakes. Honestly, when it comes to cake, I prefer to start with a box. Why? In my experience, cakes tend to be finicky … it doesn’t take much to have a perfectly good cake turn into a scary dry mess. Boxed mixes practically guarantee batter success.