If you’ve ever grown a garden then you know all too well how quickly zucchini squash can take over your life. This year we bought one little plant to put in our garden. One little plant! Five zucchini’s later, with more on their way, and I’m asking“what the he– are we going to do with all of this squash?” We are still trying to get rid of bags of shredded zucchini in our freezer (from year’s past) by feeding it to our chickens. And yet, we planted more??
Did I mention that I don’t really love zucchini either? It is a veggie that (in my opinion) is pretty tasteless. I’ve never known it to be the star of the show. Spaghetti sauce makes it taste better, batter and butter make it taste better, and then of course there is chocolate which makes everything taste better.
Optimal picking of zucchini is when they are small and don’t have gigantic seeds in them, similar to cucumbers, but you have to watch them closely because they can literally grow too big overnight. I might add that I’m not always good at picking them in their prime either.
The best way to use up those slightly bigger than you had planned on zucchini is to grate them up and make a nice bread or cake with them. And that’s exactly why this Chocolate Zucchini Cake came about.
This cake is super easy to make. It’s also super moist, on the sweet side, and the reason I skipped the frosting. Other than seeing a fleck of green every now and then, you will even forget that there is squash in it. If you have kids and want to sneak some veggies into their diet then this is one way of doing it. Just maybe not the best way.
Chocolate Zucchini Cake
1 stick (1/2 c.) margarine, melted
1 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
1/2 c. sour cream
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. grated zucchini
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Generously grease a 16×10 cake pan.
Put all ingredients (except flour) in a large mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly with electric mixer. Add flour and mix completely. Pour into prepared pan and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake. Cool completely before cutting. Sprinkle confectionary sugar on top and serve.
Any suggestions on how to use up all this zucchini? What is your favorite zucchini recipe?
THE JOY OF CAKING 