Best chocolate zucchini cake

Perfect for picnics and covered dish dinners. No frosting needed.

Spray then dust two 8x8 square pans with cocoa. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 325°.

This is a Bake 2, Take 1 recipe or, a Bake two, Freeze One recipe. Repeat. And repeat again until first frost. The kids next door love this cake and want to "trick" their friends into eating it before they tell that is made with lots and lots of zucchini.

Grate or chop 3 zucchini about 6” long, or 2 ½ - 3 cups grated. Set aside.

Combine sugars, butter and oil. Cream together in large mixing bowl.

Stir in eggs, vanilla, buttermilk until well combined. Add to creamed mixture.

Measure flour, spices, salt, baking soda, and cocoa into a sifter. Sift into the bowl with the sugar and eggs mixture.

Fold grated zucchini and half the chocolate chips into the batter. Pour batter into prepared pans. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips on top and bake for 45 minutes, check with toothpick. Put cake back into oven, continue baking until toothpick comes out clean.

Notes

Use cocoa instead of flour to spray and flour the baking pans.

Substitute Greek yogurt or sour cream for buttermilk if you don't have buttermilk on hand.

Tip for using up zucchini while they are plentiful. Bake in two disposable 8x8-inch aluminum pans. Eat one, freeze one. Repeat.

Or, use a regular 9x13x2-inches cake pan instead of two 8-inch square pans. Watch carefully, do not over bake. (Easy to do when using thin aluminum pans.) Bake 45 minutes, check to see if a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake. If not bake 5 minutes more.

BE CAREFUL. Disposable 8x8-inch aluminum baking pans are very flimsy. Support the bottom of the pan when transferring cake to oven.

The cake is rich and moist and does not need frosting. The chocolate chips are a good looking topping.

If you do decide on a cake topper - Dust with a bit of powdered sugar or add a glaze.

For glaze – When the cake comes out of the oven, allow to cool 15 minutes. Mix and brush cakes with glaze. Allow to cool. Do not cover.

Crunchy espresso glaze

1/4 cup strong, hot coffee


1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1/3 cup granulated sugar


1 cup powdered sugar

Mix espresso into coffee. Whisk granulated sugar into coffee till sugar is dissolved. Mixed in granulated sugar a little at a time. (You do not have to use all the powdered sugar. Just keep adding sugar until the glaze is as thick as you prefer.) Brush on with a pastry brush.

This is the zucchini that got away. It's so big it stretches from end to end of the harvest basket. These monster squash are seedy, not good and almost impossible to cut. Pick these giant squash as soon as you discover them. Otherwise, the plant will have accomplished its job and stop producing little zucchini.

Get rid of this squash. Bury it in your garden, chuck it in the compost, or, if your neighbor leaves his car unlocked, put it in his backseat, on the floorboard. It could be weeks before he discovers it and by then, you will have forgotten about it. That perplexing look on your face will help convince him you did not do it.

Pick small and eat raw or lightly steamed, to bring out the the fresh, full flavor. They offer a moist crunchy texture to vegetable sautes. Some have an almost nutty flavor.Ddeep green, (almost black) fruits reach 7 or 8 inches long and about 2 inches in diameter

• Dark green - Black Beauty, Raven - compact plants, fleshy fruits.
• Pale green - Clairimore, Magda - light green,nutty flavor.
• Green striped - Tiger Stripe, Cocozelle - colorful, thin skinned, creamy texture.
• Golden Yellow - Gold Rush:classic AAS winner is compact and vigorous. Sunstipe beautiful light and dark yellow stripes.
• Round squash - Eight Ball, Round De Nice, small globe-shaped with typical zucchini flavor.