Project Pinterest: Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I tried something else from Pinterest! 

We've been attempting a little gardening this year, and have somehow successfully managed to grow (among other things) a very generous zucchini plant. It has been a fun and tasty adventure as we've tried to decide what to do with it all, because I just love the feeling of eating out of our own garden. We don't really know what we're doing at all and mostly learn by trial and error and Google, but it has been such a great experience to learn as we go, and now be at the point of actually producing something. 

Look what I grew!

Back to our zucchini plant. It has recently started churning out zucchinis at such an alarming rate that we have been forced to get a bit creative in the kitchen just to use it all. Which is why I knew that when it became my turn to host book club this week, there was no way I was going to allow eight people into my house without feeding them zucchini.

A few years ago, someone at a party gave me a slice of rich, dark, moist, fudgy cake and gleefully told me after a few bites that it had zucchini in it. I had never heard of such a thing, and would never have guessed from the flavor of the cake, and have been mildly intrigued by the idea ever since. So when I found myself with guests to serve and a 14 oz. (400 g.) zucchini on my hands, I knew what I had to do.

Enter the Chocolate Zucchini Cake, found here on Pinterest or here on Allrecipes.

After considering a few options, I went with this recipe because it had simple ingredients that I mostly had on hand, and seemed fairly straightforward to make. I'm not a great baker (too scatty!), and didn't want to try anything too ambitious.

Friends, it turned out great!

Yum!

It was nice and chocolatey, but not too rich. It used up about 3 cups of shredded zucchini, but I couldn't taste the zucchini at all. Somehow the zucchini just seems to melt into the cake, so there wasn't even any weird texture issues like I thought there might be. My book club ladies were all nice enough to ask for the recipe, which always makes me feel like I know what I'm doing. Win-win-win!

A few things:

• I baked mine in a bundt pan because they are prettier. Someone helpful in the comment section on allrecipes said to let it bake at the same temperature for 5-10 minutes longer than called for, and that worked great for me. 
• The recipe was very simple and straightforward, as I suspected. The most time consuming part is probably shredding the zucchini, other than that it's mostly a matter of chucking things together and mixing them up, which even I can handle. 
• Make sure you have plenty of time when you bake this cake. You can mix it up in about 15 minutes, but it takes about an hour in the oven, and probably at least that long to cool properly, especially if you're using something like a bundt pan. 
• The recipe says walnuts, but I used chocolate chips instead. Nuts are just too sketchy when you're not sure of everyone's preferences/allergies. And the chocolate chips worked really well. 
• A rookie mistake, but make sure you let the cake cool completely in the pan before you try to remove it. Also, make sure you spray the pan really well first. 
• If you fail to do those two things, the cake is moist enough to puzzle back together pretty well when the top 1/4 inch stays in the pan. You can cover your tracks pretty well with powdered sugar, and just call whatever irregularities are left "charming" or "rustic". 
• As rich as it looks, you might be surprised at how quickly you head back for seconds. It's rich in flavor, but doesn't feel too heavy when you eat it, if that makes sense. This might also have something to do with me being six months pregnant. 

So, definitely a recommendation from me, and something I'm sure we'll make again. I saw someone in the comment section say they had successfully made muffins with it, which I might try next time. I have no idea how well they might freeze, but that would be a great way to preserve the goodness for longer.

As always, if you end up making this yourself, please tell me what you think!