Hey, it’s us, the people that bring you veggies in your cake, yet it’s still not quite healthy. I know, we’ll have to answer for this later on, when, you know, we’ve kicked the bucket, but for now we totally did put zucchini in a cake along with flour, butter, eggs and sugar. And we likes it! Yes we do! Oh, and chocolate chips. Think that’ll make our flaming punishment worse in the afterlife? Only time will tell. For now, I don’t see any flames, though, so away we go with this cake!

Look, the truth is I rarely have to buy a lot of ingredients anymore when baking. SO I could totally be making much more eeevil things, right? RIGHT. At least we put veggies in it this time. Am I building a decent case here yet?

Oh, and this one was sister food blogging partner’s idea…so get ‘er!

Love ya, sis. Pinky swear!

Know what? We whipped this cake up sans stand mixer. Whisk it, folks. Whisk it real good. No, just ignore that pain in your arm. Cooking’s a lot like exercise, actually - no pain no gain.

You’re just exchanging one technique for another. Mix it now, folks. Yep, real good still! You’re almost there.

You buttered and floured your bundt pan, right? Were you too lazy to, like us? Yeah, just spray it with some Pam. NICE. Take that butter/flour combo.

Hey, baby cakes! Lookin’ good! But I’m sorry, pretty soon we’re going to have to slice you up and do a taste test. Get some rest till then.

The moment of truth. And the truth is that this is a mighty fine cake. The bonus is that it’s a mighty fine cake that is incredibly easy to make. It’s sis blogging partner’s favorite cake and now I see why. The zucchini, which you don’t drain off the excess water from, helps the cake stay moist. The chocolate chips are the perfect pocket of surprise. We discussed before doing a chocolate ganach to drizzle on top and I kind of wish we had. That’s the only thing I’d do differently next time. The cake itself is perfect. Pair it with your favorite coffee or tea for a perfect treat.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Slightly adapted from Bon Appétit, November 1995

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: About an hour Level: Easy 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 or pecans

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. Whisk sugar, butter and oil in large bowl until well blended, to a creamy-looking in texture. Add eggs 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in vanilla extract. Mix in dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions each. Mix in grated zucchini, chocolate chips and nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan. Invert onto a serving platter, slice and enjoy.

Notes:

Our cake actually took about an hour and ten minutes, so an extra twenty minutes than the recipe suggested. But that’s baking for you, it varies from oven to oven. Do keep a close eye on yours and adjust the time as necessary. Test your cake in several places with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. There were certain parts of our cake that were cooked enough at 50 minutes but others were definitely not done.

As mentioned above, we contemplated doing a chocolate ganache over the top and it would be soooo good. If you’d like to, you can check out how we made the ganache layer (ingredients are just the chocolate and butter, melted together) on these Peanut Butter & Fudge Brownies. Just drizzle it over the cake and let it cool before serving.

If you’re not a frosting type person at all, go sans ganache and you’ll still have an excellent cake. Enjoy!

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