Adventures In Managing Abundance

Out where I live in the country, it’s not uncommon for people to leave their houses unlocked.  And while I locked my car religiously when I lived in the city, I can’t remember the last time I locked my car while it was parked at my house.  Except for a certain time of the year.  During the heat of summer, when summer squashes are at their peak, leaving one’s car unlocked risks the neighbors smuggling a big bag of squash into it.  There’s just so much squash!  No one can manage it all, so some of us have been known to sneakily pawn it off on our neighbors.

Now, I did learn my lesson years ago.  I don’t like squash in general, but I do have a use for zucchini.  It makes a lovely addition to breads and cakes.  But even a single zucchini plant will yield far more produce than I can use without smuggling it into some car a neighbor left unlocked and unguarded.  I just don’t plant zucchini anymore.  So when I needed one of those really huge overgrown zucchinis for a recipe, I checked with my favorite sister in law.  Unfortunately for me, she has also learned her lesson and no longer plants zucchini, although she did send me home with a bag of blueberries, a packet of Ragamuffin cookies (all tied up with string, even!), and a big bowl of fresh-picked plums.  Those plums are uh-may-zing!

I resorted to the grocery store and got the biggest zucchini I could find for my Chocolate Zucchini Cake recipe.  It’s absolutely delicious and if you didn’t know it had zucchini in it, nothing in the taste or texture would tip you off.  It’s so easy…first, scrape the seeds out of your zucchini and then grate it on the fine side of a box grater.  Grating it finely is very much part of what makes it undetectable in the final product.  Set the zucchini to drain in a colander.  If no water at all comes off of it, you might need to sprinkle a little water over it and let it drain a little longer.  The really huge zucchinis have plenty of liquid in them but the smaller ones tend to be a little more dry.

Next, whisk together your dry ingredients and set them aside.  In a stand mixer, beat together your butter and sugar, then add the eggs, then the vanilla, then the drained zucchini.  Finally, add half your dry ingredients, then your milk, then the rest of your dry ingredients.  Pour the batter into a greased bundt pan, level out the top, and then bake for 40-55 minutes.

Start checking your cake at 40 minutes.  Insert a wooden skewer in; if the skewer comes out clean or with a couple crumbs clinging to it, the cake is done.  If you see any batter or wetness on the skewer, pop it back into the oven for another few minutes.  Once the cake is done, let it cool in its pan for a few minutes, then tip it out onto a rack to finish cooling.  After the cake has cooled, mix up your glaze and drizzle it over the cake.  Et voila!  An attractive, moist, and delicious cake for you and your family.

A couple of notes:  First, if you wish to make the cake slightly more healthy, you can swap up to one cup of the regular flour for whole wheat pastry flour.  Don’t add more than a cup, though, or you’ll mess up the moisture balance and end up with dry cake.  Second, you can make a fancier frosting if you wish.  A cream cheese frosting would taste lovely.  But I personally feel that a cream cheese frosting is too heavy for this cake.  The glaze included in the recipe adds a little sweetness but doesn’t overpower the cake. You do you.

When I made this cake for the blog post, I did eat a piece of it, because it’s just too good not to.  Then I ate another piece for my health.  Because it’s full of vegetables, obviously.  But that’s a lot of cake for just me, so I took the rest to my favorite sister in law’s house.  I did not tell them what kind of cake it was and not one of them figured out there was about a pound of zucchini in there.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Click here for printable PDF of recipe

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:

2 1/2 cups flour*

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup cocoa

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup butter, softened to room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups finely shredded zucchini (from about 1 pound of zucchini)

1/2 cup milk, room temperature

For the glaze:

2 Cup powdered sugar

3 Tbsp milk

1 Tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Set the shredded zucchini to drain in a sieve over a bowl. If no moisture drains out and the zucchini feels dry, sprinkle some water over it and let the excess drain.

Sift together the flour, salt, cocoa, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon and set aside.

With a mixer, beat together the butter and the sugars until smooth. Add the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then mix in the vanilla and zucchini.

Mix in half the dry ingredients, then the milk, then the rest of the dry ingredients. Scrape down bowl and mix once more.

Spray the inside of a 10-inch bundt pan or tube pan lightly with cooking spray. Wipe off the excess. Pour in the batter and level it out with a spatula. Bake in the oven for about 40-55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes; turn out on wire rack to cool thoroughly.

Whisk together the glaze ingredients, adding in the milk gradually. Stop adding milk when you get the desired consistency. If the glaze is too runny, add some more powdered sugar. If too thick, add more milk. Drizzle glaze over cake. Cake will last 3-4 days tightly covered in the fridge.

NOTES

*can substitute up to 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour