Incredible Chocolate Zucchini Cake
“Your chocolate zucchini cake needs tweaking.” My mom said to me, scraping the last few fudgy crumbs from her plate onto her fork. “What? What’s wrong with it!?” All of my other taste-testers had raved about this recipe and I’d already marked it down as being perfected. I was in love with the rich fudginess, the deep, decadent chocolate taste and perfectly balanced moisture, the ✨perfectly✨ complementary chocolate cream cheese frosting, and honestly I was just stunned that she wasn’t. “Oh, it’s delicious, it’s so good.” She cut another slice. “But I can’t taste the zucchini at all. Not even a little bit.” A wave of relief washed over me immediately. While my mother might disagree, you are not supposed to taste the zucchini in a zucchini dessert (or zucchini bread for that matter)! No, its purpose is to impart moisture, create a lovely texture, use up a surplus of (typically ridiculously large and prolific) garden squash, and, sure, even to sneak a healthy component to an otherwise indulgent treat. This recipe ticks all the boxes and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t patting myself on the back after trying my first bite.
Why you’ll love it:
Amazing crumb: Moist, without being wet or spongey (sometimes a tricky feat when adding shredded veggies to cake). The crumb is deliriously chocolatey, tender, melt-in-your mouth and so soft. Easy: No peeling the zucchini, no mixer needed for the cake, and no stacking, layering, or fussy decorating required. Incredible chocolate flavor: Blooming the cocoa by mixing it in steaming hot water (or hot coffee) intensifies the chocolate flavor (so helpful when making chocolate cake!). Perfect frosting: So far, every single person who has tried this cake has proceeded to rave about the frosting! It’s subtly tangy, smooth and creamy. I originally considered doing a simple ganache topping, but the chocolate cream cheese frosting complements the zucchini much better.
I’m so happy with how this cake turned out. It’s adapted from my chocolate zucchini muffins and double chocolate muffins, and the flavor is incredible. I promise no one will know there is zucchini inside (which is the whole point of the recipe–more on this below!).
What You Need
There are quite a few ingredients pictured below, but all but a few are pantry staples most bakers will already have on hand. Let’s talk a bit about a few of them.
Zucchini. There is no need to peel your zucchini before shredding it–yay! Make sure you do blot it after shredding though–we want to avoid adding too much moisture to our cake. Sour cream. A key source of moisture, flavor, and tenderness! Sour cream is one of my favorite ingredients to bake with. Full-fat plain greek yogurt would also work just fine here. Cocoa powder. Stick with natural cocoa powder here, as dutch process cocoa could cause leavening issues since we are using only baking soda. If you want to learn more about the science behind this, check out my posts on natural vs. dutch process cocoa and baking powder vs. baking soda. Hot water. Your water should be so hot it’s steaming (or boiling!). This is critical for blooming the cocoa powder and bringing out its flavor, similar to steeping tea or brewing coffee. Mini chocolate chips. A sprinkle of mini chocolate chips on top of the frosting adds a nice texture. You could also throw some chocolate chips in the batter (up to a cup), but there’s enough chocolate going on here that it’s not really necessary.
SAM’S TIP: If you’d really like to deepen the chocolate flavor, add a pinch of instant coffee or espresso to your cocoa powder and hot water mixture! This won’t make your cake taste like coffee, but it will intensify the chocolate flavor. Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Prep the Zucchini
SAM’S TIP: While you could use a box grater, I personally like using my food processor to shred my zucchini. Much like the carrots in my carrot cake, I first use the shred blade, then switch to a normal blade to briefly pulse the zucchini into smaller bits. If you do this too, be careful not to pulse too much, or you could make the zucchini watery. Of course, you could also skip this extra step and just use the hand grater, just note you may have more discernible pieces of zucchini in your cake.
Make the Cake Batter
Frosting
SAM’S TIP: While you can use a mixer for the frosting, don’t use it for the cake batter! If you do, you could end up over-mixing the batter, which can lead to a dense, rubbery cake. Would you like to see any other zucchini recipes? I’ve got one more coming later this month that I’m very excited to share! Enjoy! Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! Find over 500 of my baking videos for FREE on YouTube.
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