Pearl's Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Over the years, I've been playing around with different recipes for Chocolate Zucchini Cake, having tried ones that were firmer and more bread-like to ones that were almost pudding-ish. They all have their charms and sometimes it just depends on my mood. Lately though, I've been craving a moist, cakey slice with gooey melted streaks of chocolate running through it!

So I've come up with my favorite yet. And it's versatile as well. You can bake it in a bunch of different pan sizes (see below) and substitute ingredients. If you want to make it a bit healthier, sub half of the all-purpose flour with white whole wheat flour. I wanted a moister cake so I used all brown sugar, but you could sub part or all with white granulated sugar instead for a slightly more open and aerated crumb.

Pearl's Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Makes one cake (9"or 10" springform or 13" x 9" pan or 10" bundt)

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease your preferred pan (see above for sizes).

In a mixing bowl, cream:
1 cup light brown sugar (7.5oz/213g), or use half brown sugar and half white sugar
3/4 cup olive oil

Add and incorporate one at a time:
4 eggs

Mix in:
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium-size bowl, whisk together:
2 cups all-purpose flour (9oz/260g) or use half all-purpose and half white whole wheat
1/2 cup cocoa powder, not Dutch-processed (2oz/59g)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp espresso powder (optional)

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix just a minute or so. You should still have some visible dry ingredients along the side of the mixing bowl.

Add and mix until just incorporated, less than a minute:
3 cups grated zucchini (19oz/450g), about 3-4 medium zucchini 

Scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl to make sure all dry ingredients have been incorporated. Finally, throw into the mixing bowl and mix until just combined:
1 cup chocolate chips or 6oz/175g bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped 

Pour batter into greased pan. For the 9", 10" springforms and 9" x 13" pan, bake for 50 minutes. For the bundt pan, bake closer to 1 hour. Rotate halfway thru. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out just clean - no gooey batter, but not bone dry.

Remove from oven, set on a cooling rack for 15 minutes, then unclasp the springform or turn out the cake from the bundt pan. If using the 9" x 13" pan, you can just leave and serve directly from the pan.

Personally, I think it's fabulous without any adornments - well, maybe a scoop of vanilla ice cream! But feel free to shower with confectioner's sugar or spread with your favorite frosting.

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