Chocolate Zucchini Cake

It was not only my weekly organic veggie delivery which brought me zucchini, but also a visit to my mother’s house and huge organic garden. It seems, zucchini never come in less then a flood

To reduce the amount of the green critters at least a little, I decided on this chocolate zucchini cake from epicurious.com – it has gotten 4-fork ratings all over, and now I know why…

No one would ever suspect this has grated zucchini in it! It is one of the most luscious, moist, tasty chocolate cakes ever! The walnuts and chocolate chips on top (I substituted 150 g of Ritter Sport semisweet chocolate, chopped, for the chocolate chips) result in a creamy-crispy topping to die for.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
( from Bon Appétit, November 1995)

serves 12

2 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini (about 2 1/2 medium)
1 6-ounce package (about 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter and flour 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter and oil in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract. Mix in dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions each. Mix in grated zucchini. Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts over.

Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan.

Unfortunately, this isn’t exactly low-calorie… but it contains zucchini, so it must be healthy !

Tags: baking, cake, chocolate, vegetarian, Zucchini