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Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe

You guys, I am flipping out about this Chocolate Zucchini Cake recipe. It’s chocolate-y. It’s moist. And it’s got that added healthy “halo” because there’s 2 cups of zucchini in there! (Although you’d never know it.)

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Chocolate Zucchini Cake – rich and luscious!

 

This comes from one of our favorite chocolate zucchini cake recipes that our mom used to make when we were kids. Sometimes we’d eat it when friends came over and we’d never mention the zucchini. Then we’d sit there and giggle, wondering if anyone would notice a stray green fleck. (Kids; what can you do?)

This is the perfect recipe to make during the summer zucchini season when you have more zucchini than you know what to do with. Plus, zucchini makes all kinds of recipes deliciously moist.

Mom’s original chocolate zucchini cake recipe called for a light orange glaze to go on top. But we wanted to “chocolate it up,” so to speak. So instead we turned it into a variation on a “poke cake.” That is to say, the kind of cake that you poke holes into after it’s baked and then you drizzle some kind of filling over the top.

The chocolate syrup seeps into the cake and makes it even more moist and intense.

Double the chocolate, double the deliciousness. Need we say more?

Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

A moist and delicious chocolate zucchini cake drizzled with chocolate syrup.

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword chocolate zucchini cake
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings 12

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup kefir (or buttermilk)
  • 2 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini (3 or 4 small zucchini)
  • 1/3 cup best-quality chocolate syrup

Instructions

  1. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and cocoa. Set aside.

  2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Gradually add the sugar, and continue beating while adding the oil. Stir in the flour mixture, 1/3 at a time, alternating with the kefir (or buttermilk). Fold in the zucchini.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased 13x9x2" baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 50 minutes (or up to 60 if necessary so that when you insert a toothpick it comes out clean). Let the cake cool.

  4. Using a fork or other utensil, poke small holes in the top of the cake, evenly distributed across the surface. Drizzle the chocolate syrup over the cake, making sure to let it run into the holes that you poked in the cake. Serves approximately 12.

A few quick notes: First, you’re going to love the cinnamon and nutmeg in this cake. At first you won’t quite be able to tell what it is that’s different. But it gives it a very nice fragrant, faintly spicy flavor.

Second, the original recipe called for buttermilk. When we were experimenting with this cake, we didn’t have buttermilk on hand but we did have kefir. We tried it and we loved, loved, loved the result. It makes the cake very rich and moist.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Last but not least, the ideal chocolate syrup is homemade chocolate syrup. But failing that, try to use the best chocolate syrup you can get your hands on. You’ll want that chocolate syrup to be just as delicious as the cake itself – a perfect match, in other words.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

P.S. Do you have some more zucchini you want to use up? Try our favorite Strawberry Zucchini Bread.

Blogger disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to our Amazon account.


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