Chocolate and Zucchini Cake

Many years back, when I first came across the world of food blogs, one of the very first recipes I’d bookmarked was a recipe for a cake from Clotilde Dusoulier’s blog.

Last week when I was on my refrigerator-cleaning mission, I finally got around to making this cake.

You can find the original recipe here; I followed it closely but did make a couple of changes, the most important one being the addition of a good amount of orange zest. My husband does not care much for chocolate or any recipe using chocolate but he does like the classic combination of chocolate and orange flavors. It also happens to be one of my favorite flavor combinations.

Here’s how I adapted the recipe to make my version of the chocolate and zucchini cake:

*I used a lot of orange zest since  I think chocolate and orange are so perfect together.

* I decreased the amount of cocoa powder, butter and eggs.

* I used melted chocolate in the recipe

*I added buttermilk to the batter. 

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a cake pan. I used my bundt pan.

Mix together the following dry ingredients in a bowl-

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
•  ½ tsp salt

In another bowl mix together the following-

• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 6 oz semi sweet chocolate
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp orange zest (from 1 big orange)
• 1 tsp instant coffee granules
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup buttermilk

Combine the dry and wet ingredients together and mix well.

Grate 2 medium zucchini.  I got approximately 2 cups- a little more or a little less is fine. Squeeze as much water out as possible first and then add it to the batter. Give it a good mix. The batter will be relatively thick; if you have trouble bringing it together, add a splash of buttermilk.

Dump the batter into the greased pan and bake at 350 F for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.


Cool for 10 minutes; remove cake from pan.

The cake was absolutely fantastic- it had a rich chocolate taste and an  intense orange flavor that I was hoping for.  It was tender, moist and delicious- I’m definitely going to be making this over and over again!
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                        Chocolate Beet Cake

Update: I tried the cake recently using beets instead of zucchini. Although I was a bit skeptical about using beets, I decided to go ahead with it. The cake turned out to be very moist and delicious. I shared it with my co-workers the next day without telling them what was in it. Everyone loved the cake!