Chocolate Zucchini Cake

By Lucy Olschan April 23, 2017

Prep Time : 15 minutes. Cook Time : 1h 15 min Yield : 8-10 servings Allergens : dairy, gluten

Ingredients

medium sized zucchini - 2
butter at room temperature - 8 tablespoons
flour - 2 and 3/4 cups
unsweetened cocoa - 1/4 cup
baking soda - 1 and 1/4 teaspoon
salt - 1 teaspoon
sugar - 1 and 1/2 cups
vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
eggs - 2
vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon
buttermilk - 1/2 cup
confectioners' sugar - 1/4 cup

Instructions

*If you don't have buttermilk on hand, which I never do , simply add 1/2 tablespoon vinegar to 1/2 cup milk and let sit for 15 minutes. Voila - you have 1/2 cup of buttermilk!

Grate the zucchini and, working in batches, put a small mound of the grated zucchini in center of a large square of double-layer cheesecloth (I use Bounty paper towel and never have any problems - cannot guarantee that other brands won't rip). Gather corners together and squeeze out as much water as possible from the zucchini. Transfer zucchini to a bowl and set aside. (Do not obsess about the amount of zucchini. This is a very forgiving recipe when it comes to the amount of zucchini.)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a deep 9" cake pan with butter (I always use Pam for baking - so easy to just spray and cakes never stick). Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together into a mixing bowl and set aside.

In another bowl, beat together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add oil, beating well. Beat in the eggs, add vanilla, reduce speed to low and beat in flour mixture and buttermilk in alternative batches. Stir in grated zucchini.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes (Start checking after 1 hour - baking time could be faster as ovens vary.) Remove from oven and set aside to cool for 15 minutes. Invert onto a rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar and enjoy!

So I am adjusting to my new life as a mommy to a toddler and a newborn. Love them both to pieces but they can be complete sanity and time mongers! Many adjustments had to be made in our lifestyle, starting with way to simplify and automate. Enter grocery delivery (not venturing to store with a toddler and a baby), Target’s (love that place to pieces) subscription service for household essentials (don’t wanna run out of diapers or toilet paper in the middle of the night), and, most importantly – meal kit delivery from HELLO FRESH. This place has saved my life and sanity. Those who know me are probably puzzled as I love to cook and know how to cook – why would I need meal kit delivery? For the following reasons:
1. I don’t have to go to the grocery store to shop. Box of fresh, delicious and high quality ingredients magically appears at my front door once a week along with great, easy to follow recipe cards (SAVE TIME)
2. The easy to follow recipes take only about half hour to cook start to finish (SAVE TIME)
3. I don’t have to come up with things to cook and get stuck in a rut (SAVE TIME thinking about what to cook)
4. They are delicious and work for me (I like new things), for the hubby (doesn’t trust new things) and even for our picky toddler (again, SAVE TIME as I don’t have to cook macaroni and cheese on top of what’s for dinner for us)
5. SAVE MONEY – honestly, I couldn’t get all this food at the grocery store for the same price

Do you see where I am going with this? I have now saved so much time that I managed to take care of both babies, work full time and return to my blog. Don’t worry, I subscribe to three meals a week from Hello Fresh leaving me plenty time to get some cooking done to share with all of you 🙂 In this next chapter of my life and blog, I will be focusing on great family friendly meals that the whole family with children can enjoy as to save all my fellow mamas time and sanity. If you’d like to check out Hello Fresh to see what it’s all about, you can follow this link for $40 off your first box. No catch. You can cancel any time:
www.hellofresh.com/?c=FZE2NG

Now to today’s recipe rich and moist chocolate zucchini cake. I absolutely love this cake. It is so rich, moist and very easy to make. The baby loves it and I don’t mind giving it to him as he also gets some veggies in it, but you can never taste or see the zucchini in this cake – ask my husband who ate it several times before I told him 🙂 The zucchini just makes it moist so that it doesn’t take any frosting which is a huge time and calorie saver. If you are really skeptical about the zucchini, you can use grated apples just the same. I have and loved it.

Print Friendly