You might be reading this and thinking has she gone crazy putting zucchini in chocolate cake, and your damn right I have, straight to the loony bin, over this cake!!!!! PSST- it has zucchini in it, ha ha ha (evil laugh) from our garden At least this was my sweet hubby DT reaction upon learning this cake indeed has zucchini in it. I am sure many of you have heard of the wonderful zucchini bread in fact I have made it before and turned it into not so successful baby teething sticks if your interested here is the recipe. Any-who, the concept didn’t seem like that far of a stretch for me, I mean chocolate cake is yummy, zucchini bread is yummy, this must be a win win situation. And it was. This cake is moist, dense (in a good way), slightly spicy and did I mention fairly healthy? I adapted this recipe from allrecipe.com and its a keeper, and a good fun way to get your fruits and veggies in.
Ingredients: 1 stick butter, 1/2 cup applesauce, 1 3/4 cups white sugar, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup Kefir or sour milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 1/2 cups grated zucchini, 1/2 cup ground pecans, 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cream together butter, applesauce and sugar
Then sift your dry ingredients Flour and salt
Nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, baking soda, and cocoa powder
To the butter sugar mixture add, Kefir or sour milk (to make sour milk, mix 1/2 cup milk with 2 teaspoons lemon juice and let stand 10 minutes)
Then add the eggs and vanilla and mix well
Then slowly incorporate your dry ingredients, be sure to scrape the sides down
Now go ahead and grate your zucchini and add it in
Along with 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and chopped pecans, mix a few times and add into greased loaf pans I used 4 mini loaves, but you could easily use 2 large loaf pans or a 9 X 13
Sprinkle more chocolate chips and pecans on top
And bake at 325 for 35- 45 minutes depending on your baking pan
Enjoy!
Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1/2 cup applesauce
1 3/4 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup Kefir or sour milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1/4 cup ground pecans (more to sprinkle on top)
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (more to sprinkle on top)
Cream together butter or margarine, applesauce and sugar, Add eggs, Kefir or sour milk, and vanilla. To make sour milk, mix 1/2 cup milk with 2 teaspoons lemon juice and let stand 10 minutes. Blend well. In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients together. Blend dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Add grated zucchini, chocolate chips and pecans and mix well. Spread in a greased floured 9 x 13 inch pan, 2 loaf pans, or 4 mini loaf pans . Sprinkle pecans and chocolate chips on top. Bake in a preheated 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) oven for 35-45 minutes.