CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE

If you have a glut of zucchini in the garden at the moment (or a neighbour with some!) and you are sick of making zucchini fritters and peperonata, then why not try something sweet? Zucchini are bland enough to work really well in cake batter. Together with the humble carrot, zucchini became popular as a cake ingredient in the 1980s (well that is when it first entered my sphere). I love a bit of retro baking, and if you do too, then this recipe may be right up your alley.

This recipe is based one I found online by My Darling Lemon Thyme. It is gluten free and deliciously moist. I sometime make it with a fancy icing (like in the photos), but other times just dust it with icing sugar or have it plain. It works so well either way. You can substitute the GF flours in the recipe for regular flours if you do not have a sensitivity to gluten. And if the zucchini are overly large and have seeds in the centre, scrape these out before grating them for the cake batter.

CHOCOLATE zucchini cake

125g butter, softened
200g brown sugar
3 eggs
75g almond meal
1 tsp pure vanilla essence
120g sour cream
150g gluten free plain flour
75g gluten free corn flour
40g bitter cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
375 g grated zucchini (keep skin on)
100g of 70% cocoa chocolate, chopped into small pieces

Butter cream icing (optional):
1/3 cup bitter cocoa, whisked to remove lumps
125g butter, softened
1 and 2/3 cups icing sugar, sifted
1/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence

zucchini flowers for decoration (optional)

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a springform cake tin 22cm diameter. Cream the butter and sugar until thick and creamy, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the almond meal, vanilla and sour cream and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and fold them through, then add the zucchini. Once the mix looks homogeneous, fold in the chopped chocolate. Pour into the prepared cake tin (it will be very thick) and pat down to smooth it off. Bake for 50 – 60 mins (you may need to drop the temperature for the last 10 minutes) until the centre of the cake is dry on top and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes.

For a very festive cake, make the butter cream icing by placing the cocoa and the chopped butter in the bowl of a mixer stand and beat until well combined. Add about 1/2 cup of icing sugar and a tablespoon of milk and beat on high speed for a minute. Repeat, beating for a minute after each addition until you have used up all the milk and icing sugar and then beat in the vanilla essence as well. If the consistency is too thick, add a splash more milk; if it is too runny, add a tablespoon of icing sugar. Beat another minute and check the consistency again. It should be easily spreadable but quite stiff. Ice the cake and decorate with zucchini flowers.