Make This Cake

I know. The title is a demand. And while I would normally avoid this sort of thing, I’m compelled this time. By the extraordinariness that is this cake. Bake it, and you will understand.

“Well, alright,” you think, agreeing to suspend disbelief for a while. “But what is it?”

Chocolate zucchini cake. (And I can’t even think of it without my mouth watering.)

“Zucchini?!” I hear out there, from some of you.

Or maybe not.

The combination of chocolate and zucchini as a concept is nothing new, of course. The blog has paved the way for chocolate-zucchini love nicely. But, if left to rely on my own ingenuity, it seems doubtful to me that I would ever have thought to combine the two in anything I am supposed to put in my mouth. Particularly cake.

Thank goodness for the two zucchini threatening to wither in my refrigerator. Thank goodness I don't have a favorite recipe for zucchini bread already on hand.

Thank goodness especially for the serendipity of internet searches. Because it just so happened that I had a jar full of Mayan cocoa loitering in my spice drawer, marking off the days until I became suddenly inspired by a recipe that matches its potential. I'm proud to say this recipe does it full justice.

And this cake well deserves to be every bit as popular as the blog. It is chocolate. It is spice. It is vaguely orangey. It is super-moist. It is everything autumn. And it is heaven.

I tried it out at one of the Sunday, family dinners we host over here, and dad helped himself to an astounding three slices. It is that good.

I add only one small note of caution: the recipe recommends adding nuts – pecans or walnuts, as your preference dictates. I opted for pecans this time, but, to be honest, I’m not sure I will again. I can’t say they added much to the overall experience. Though it could also be that I got my hands on some rather uninspiring pecans. Walnuts, I think, will steal the show next time. Or perhaps I will get very brave and go with no nuts at all. This is cake, after all – not quickbread. And I don’t think the nut-free variation will suffer one bit.

I’m reprinting the entire recipe here, but this is for convenience only. I've done no improvising or rewriting here. So all your laudatory, I-can’t-believe-I-ever-lived-a-complete-life-without-this-cake emails should be directed to the good folks over at Simply Recipes, not me.

While I'm on that: thank you, Simply Recipes. Thank you over and over again.

The Ridiculously Luxurious Chocolate Zucchini Cake

One quick word about the Mayan cocoa powder cited above. It is wonderful. And I harbor a strong suspicion that it made the cake the not-to-be-missed culinary feat it is. But note that it already has some cinnamon in it. So if you use it in your cake, I'd reduce the cinnamon you add here – maybe even by half.

2 1/2 cups regular all-purpose flour, unsifted
1/2 cup cocoa
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup soft butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon, and set aside.

Beat together the butter and the sugar until they are smooth. There is not enough butter here to get 'creamy,' but, you know, mix until well blended. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. With your trusty rubber spatula, fold in the vanilla, orange peel, and zucchini. Alternate the dry ingredients and the milk into the zucchini mixture. If you choose to include nuts, add them to the batter now.

Pour into a greased and flour-dusted bundt pan (not an easy feat, might I add, flour-dusting a bundt pan; invite your lovely assistant to help – bribe them with batter-covered spatulas if you must). Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Be careful not to overbake. Or underbake (heh heh); both are easy to do in a bundt pan.

Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes. Then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Oh – and now for the glaze! The glaze is made with 2 cups powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla, mixed all together until smooth. It is lovely this way, but I can't help but wonder what 1 teaspoon of Frangelico would do in place of the vanilla. If you try this (or any other spirited alternative), please let me know how it is.

Serve. And be prepared to dish out seconds.