Tag Archives: Desserts

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

02 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Food for Thought

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Remember that old commercial for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups? Two people—one eating chocolate, the other eating peanut butter—bump into each other. The chocolate gets knocked into the peanut butter, yielding a joyous discovery: the marriage of two perfect flavors. Well, whoever it was who decided that a marriage of chocolate to zucchini would be a wondrous thing had an equally excellent idea (although the creative soul probably didn’t earn a similar windfall).

It’s not that zucchini has much flavor to add to a chocolate cake. No, its contribution derives from the moistness it imparts, along with an intriguing hint of texture. I’m sure there are health benefits, too. At least, that’s how I justify a second helping. I’ve had this recipe in my collection since the 1970s. I know because it’s typed (TYPED!) on an index card yellowed with age and splattered with a dash of calcified chocolate batter. I most likely clipped the original recipe from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

I share this with you now because summer is the perfect time to bake this cake, when farmers’ markets are brimming with fresh zucchini.  Enjoy!

ChocZukeCakemiseenplacecrp1Chocolate Zucchini Cake

—Serves 12

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick)
1/2 cup canola oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 tablespoons cocoa*
3 zucchini, approximately six-inches long
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces*

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the sugars, butter, and oil.

Add the eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk, and stir well to mix. Sift together all the dry ingredients and then sift them into the mixing bowl. Grate the zucchini, skin and all, into the bowl and stir until blended.

GratedZucchiniPour into a greased and floured 13- x 9-inch pan. Sprinkle the top with chocolate pieces and bake in a preheated 325-degree oven for 45 minutes or until cake tests done. Serve the cake plain, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

* My baking chocolate of choice is Ghirardelli Chocolate.

Black-Bottom Cupcakes: A Scissor-Worthy Recipe

05 Thursday Jul 2012

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I actually remember the first time I ever made these cupcakes. It was the summer of 1976, and I was a lithe young thing who never gave a second thought to such concepts as carbohydrates, fat grams, or weight gain. Ah, the ignorance of youth!

I’m guessing at the recipe’s provenance, but it could have been clipped from the (Cleveland, Ohio) Plain Dealer. A recipe prowler even at such a tender age, I was organized enough to type my finds on 5×7 index cards, but not so organized as to include their origins for future attribution. My coinage of the term “scissor-worthy” was decades away. And, since the Internet as we know it was not yet conceived, it would have come as a surprise to me that someday I would be able to share this recipe’s glories with untold readers on something called a blog. Ah, the joys of food-time travel!

For some inexplicable reason, I craved these cupcakes yesterday, and so they became part of our 4th of July menu, which was shared at the home of friends. But you don’t need a national holiday to enjoy their deep, dark, chocolate-y goodness, or the richness of their moist texture. Check your pantry to make sure you have these ingredients on hand, because I promise you: you want to make these. And soon. Enjoy!

Black-Bottom Cupcakes

1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
2 and 1/3 cups sugar, divided
1 and 1/8 teaspoons salt, divided
1 6-ounce package of semisweet chocolate pieces (I prefer Ghirardelli’s)
3 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa (I used Penzey’s Dutch-processed cocoa)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups water
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, egg, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a small mixing bowl. Beat well. Add chocolate pieces and set aside.

Combine flour, cocoa, 2 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and soda. Add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. (Batter will be very thin.)

Place muffin liners in muffin pan. Fill each 2/3 full of batter, then drop a teaspoon of cream cheese mixture in the center. Bake at 350-degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on rack. Yields two to two and one-half dozen small cupcakes or one dozen large cupcakes. The recipe says that these freeze well when wrapped in aluminum foil, but for some reason, I’ve never had the chance to freeze them. I wonder why?