Zucchini bread, or zucchini cake? I’m calling it cake. I bought a nice 5 x 9 inch loaf pan for lemon ricotta cake and I’m determined to use it. I’ve used it for carrot cake, but I’m always looking for more loaf cake option. A couple of years ago I experimented with chocolate loaf cake recipes. They never worked out. My chocolate loaf cake attempts were either really dry or it fell in the center. I eventually gave up. Today I bought a zucchini with plans for regular zucchini bread, but I wanted something a little more interesting. My search for zucchini bread variations let me to this option. Chocolate in the batter, and chocolate chips mixed in – I was sure it would taste great. But would it be dry or fall in? I was super surprised to find it had done neither! I’ve finally found a chocolate loaf cake recipe that works! And it has zucchini! So it must be healthy, right? No matter, it’s a super easy chocolate cake recipe. You could sprinkle some powdered sugar on top to make it look more cake-like, or even smear on some chocolate frosting. I’m sure Tim will spread a slice with a thick coating of peanut butter and call it breakfast. And wouldn’t it be great with sliced strawberries on top? Or cherries?
Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 medium zucchini for 2 cups grated
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare a 5 x 9 inch loaf pan by coating it with cooking spray and/or a strip of parchment paper.
- Grate the zucchini using the large holes of a box grater, and set aside. The recipe needs about 2 cups, but a little more or less will work just fine.
- In a medium sized bowl, measure out the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
- Measure the vegetable oil in a glass measuring cup, then add the eggs and vanilla and stir until well combined.
- Add the egg/oil/vanilla combination to the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir until all the dry ingredients are moistened. It will be really dry at this point.
- Add the grated zucchini and mix until evenly distributed. The moisture from the zucchini should help the mixture look more like a really thick batter.
- Add most of the chocolate chips (a little less than ½ cup) and mix them into the batter.
- Press the thick batter into the prepared pan, and sprinkle any remaining chocolate chips over the top.
- Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (not including the chocolate chips).
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