Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Yes, you should microwave that.

Hi Bakers!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but in the history of home gardens, I don’t think anyone has ever grown ‘just enough’ zucchini. Based on the armfuls of fresh produce I’ve received from neighbors and strangers over the years, I think this to be true. This is the best kind of problem to have, but if you are stuck with a surplus that just won’t dwindle, then make this Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

Regardless of the terrible mom jokes I get out of it, zucchini cake is not entirely about trying to sneak vegetables on to your plate. If that were the case, a dense yet extremely fudgy cake as the vehicle kind of defeats the purpose. 

Despite the small load of chocolate chips, it’s actually quite a wholesome cake made with a whole pound of squash and yogurt. It’s these rather plain cakes that are no different than a super-sized muffin and could easily double as breakfast and an afternoon snack. The tangy yogurt whipped cream and crunchy sugar topping are the perfect accompaniments.

But back to the main purpose of our star ingredient - moisture. Zucchini is high in water content - its flesh melting into the batter when baked and leaving a super fudgy interior to the cake. The issue is that it is difficult to write a universal recipe that considers the different levels of moisture of various zucchinis. To rectify this, we squeeze out as much water from grated zucchini as we can. 

I read about another technique by Nik Sharma that extracts as much water as possible. This makes the recipe even more accurate, and what is baking if not a little scientific. Briefly microwaving the zucchini and tossing it with a little sugar draws out tons of liquid on its own. From there, get squeezing.

Now we still want a very moist cake, but not one that’s water-logged and soggy. I added plain yogurt along with the wrung-out zucchini - a far better alternative to squash water. 

Check out Nik’s Substack here:

Now let’s get to the recipe…