Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Chips

I was in the mood to bake a Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Chips this past Friday for the sole reason that I was just craving a really good chocolate cake! Probably not one of the best decisions I ever made and I ended up eating way too much, but damn people—it was GOOD! I felt like Miranda Hobbes from that Sex and the City episode where she’s obsessed with eating sweets and ends up baking a chocolate cake. Then—my favorite part—she leaves a voicemail on Carrie’s answering machine that said “Your good friend has just taken a piece of cake out of the garbage and eaten it. You will probably need this information when you check me into the Betty Crocker Clinic.” Thankfully, it didn’t get that far for me, but it was close!

what’s in a chocolate zucchini cake?

Your typically chocolate zucchini cake has your usual cake ingredients like flour, sugar, oil, eggs, milk, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and a little cinnamon. And then the key ingredient—ZUCCHINI!

This particular cake recipe includes the additional ingredient of chocolate chips to give it a little extra chocolate punch! This cake is moist, rich, and sweet, but not overkill sweet (which I like A LOT), and it’s slightly fudgy! Top it off, if you’d like, with the devilishly good chocolate frosting (adapted from “The Perfect Cake” book from America’s Test Kitchen) that I’ve included below in the recipe section. With all this chocolate, you’ll be in chocolate heaven!

baking tip

I used 3, 6″ x 2″ cake pans (alternatively you can use a 10″ tube pan, a 9″x13″ pan, or a bundt cake pan) to bake this cake. To retain some of the moisture from the cake, cool them upside down on a cooling rack still in their cake pans. This also helps with giving the cake a flat surface versus that dome shape we all love 😉 If you’re not going to be frosting the cake immediately after cooling it, you can flip them back over and store them in the cake pans tightly wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator.

Essential Baking Tools for Making the Perfect Cake

can you taste the zucchini in the cake?

Nope. Not at all! I’m serious! The only reason zucchini is used in this chocolate zucchini cake with chocolate chips recipe is to give it that extra level of moistness! Maybe to some it seems silly to include an ingredient that you never even taste just to give it moisture, but can you honestly taste any of the other ingredient that helps make a cake moist? And you can look at using zucchini as a healthy option to baking a cake with all the anti-oxidants and vitamins—see chocolate cake IS good for you! 🙂

Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Chips

• Author: Jennifer
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 50 minutes (allow 10 minutes for cooling)
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 1, 3 layer Chocolate Zucchini Cake 1x
• Category: Cakes
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: Dessert

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Description

This Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Chips recipe is SOOO moist, rich, and sweet, it will knock your sweet socks clean off!

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Chips

• 1/4 cup (or 4 Tbsp.) Unsalted Butter, softened
• 1/4 cup Shortening
• 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 Large Egg, room temperature
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup Sour Milk (see Notes below if you don’t have any sour milk)
• 2 1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
• 4 tbsp. Unsweetened Cocoa
• 2 tsp. Baking Soda
• 2 cups Shredded Zucchini (do NOT drain the liquid from the shredded zucchini)
• 6 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Chocolate Frosting

• 1 1/4 lbs (5 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened
• 2 cups Confectioners Sugar, sifted
• 1 1/2 cups Unsweetened Cocoa
• 1/8 tsp. Salt
• 1 cup Light Corn Syrup
• 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 lb. Chocolate, melted and cooled

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Instructions

Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Chips

1. Align your oven rack to the 2nd level position and pre-heat your oven to 325º.
2. Spray your cake pans with a flour-based baking spray, place a 6″ diameter circle of parchment paper in each pan, and respray the bottom with the flour-based spray. Alternatively, you can grease the pans with butter and coat in flour, but it’s important to still add in the parchment paper circles (it helps to release the cake from the pan).
3. If you have the Wilton Baking Strips, make sure they are wetted down and fitted to your pans. (Optional step)
4. In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Set aside.
5. Using your hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium- to medium-high speed, cream the butter, shortening, oil, and sugar together.
6. Add in the egg, vanilla, and sour milk, mixing until well-blended.
7. Switching your mixer speed to low, add in the dry ingredients a little at a time.
8. Mix in the zucchini and the chocolate chips until combined.
9. Pour the cake batter in only 1/2 way full, then place in the oven to bake for 50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake.

Chocolate Frosting

1. Using your hand-mixer or stand up mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (alternatively you can use the food processor – America’s Test Kitchen recommendation) on medium- to medium-high speed, mix the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt until well-blended. Scrap down the sides of the bowl as needed.
2. Add in the corn syrup and vanilla until just combined.
3. Add in the melted and cooled chocolate until smooth and fully combined.
4. Frost your cake once it’s completely cooled.

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Notes

• To make sour milk, you can add 1 1/2 tsp of lemon juice to your 1/2 cup of milk. Mix it up and let it sit for a minute before adding it into your mixing bowl.
• If you have the Wilton Baking Strips, make sure they are wetted down and fitted to your pans. See next note below for why this step is an optional one.
• I used 3, 6″ x 2″ cake pans (alternatively you can use 2 cupcake tins – also see video on How to Create a Sprinkled Heart on a Cupcake), 10″ tube pan, a 9″x13″ pan, or a bundt cake pan) to bake this cake.
• To retain some of the moisture from the cake, cool them upside down on a cooling rack still in their cake pans. This also helps with giving the cake a flat surface versus that dome shape we all love 😉
• If you’re not going to be frosting the cake after cooling it, you can store them in the cake pans tightly wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator.
• Cake recipe is adapted from the 2001, “A Taste of Bedminster Elementary” Cookbook.
• Frosting recipe is adapted from “The Perfect Cake” book by America’s Test Kitchen.

Keywords: chocolate zucchini cake, cake, chocolate cake, zucchini cake, chocolate zucchini cake, how to make chocolate zucchini cake, chocolate chips, chocolate zucchini cake with chocolate chips

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