Chocolate Zucchini Cake

‘Tis the season to be harvesting. In my case that has meant fennel, chard, basil, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant. . oh yea, and zucchini.The harvest has been light for most things this year. We’ve been slaughtered by slugs and snails. Zucchini must not be as delicious as the tomatoes are because they haven’t been bothered by a single critter.I’ve made some zucchini bread, roasted more zucchini than Tim probably cares to remember, and shredded some for the freezer to use for winter time zucchini bread. And yet there were several hulking zucchini still waiting to be used. And one still on my counter at this very moment that’s almost as big as my leg. True story!

The last few years I have been canning tomatoes but this year I’ve barely had enough to make tomato sandwiches. (Yum!) And then in stepped a lovely lady I know and donated tomatoes to the canning cause. Hooray! She herself has canned 100+ quarts of spaghetti sauce so far this summer. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

As a token of thanks, and to use up more zucchini, I made her this cake. And it was so good I made another.You’ll have to forgive these awful pictures. You would think that because I made 2 of the cakes I would have plenty of cake/time to take some decently lit photos. You’d be wrong.

We’ve been busily painting, cleaning, organizing, moving furniture, etc, all weekend and by the time I remembered I needed pictures of the cake to share with you guys there were only a few pieces left and it was dark outside. Which makes for dim photos when I am rushing. I guess you can take that as a testament of how good the cake is. Only a couple of slices left of two 9×13 pans!

The zucchini keeps this very moist and the cocoa plus a scattering of chocolate chips make the cake very chocolatey. If you are worried about tasting the zucchini, don’t be. It lends moisture and, I guess, fiber but you don’t taste it. I suppose you could use this cake to sneak a veggie in to the diet of an anti-veggie person. Plus this cake is super easy and quick so if you need a holiday dessert for today and have a glut of zucchini. . well, you’re welcome!

I’m exhausted from all the hard work we’ve done around our house this weekend and would love to just sit around eating cake but my newly acquired tomatoes call to me so first thing this morning I am ready to start canning. Thanks, A! Happy Labor Day!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

3 cups shredded zucchini

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips, optional

You can easily mix this up in one bowl. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 pan.

In a large bowl place the shredded zucchini. I shred it right into the bowl with my box grater. Add the egg, sugars, oil, vanilla. Stir well.

Add the flour, cocoa, baking soda & salt. Mix until everything is combined and moistened. Pour into prepared 9×13 pan. If desired, sprinkle the cup of chocolate chips over the top. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool and serve. I served mine with some cool whip but ice cream would also be yummy.