Sunday, September 20, 2015

A Seasonal Cake



The Cake Slice Bakers are winding down on our current book The Southern Cake Book by Southern Living Magazine. This month we were able to choose between a Black Forest themed cheesecake, a Caramel Coconut cake which used brown sugar to get the caramel flavor, Baby Sweet Potato Cakes with a sticky Pecan glaze, or my seasonal choice, Chocolate Zucchini Cake. "Adding fresh zucchini to the batter yields luxuriously dense, moist results."

Due the the extreme heat we had a little while ago, the zucchini production slowed down, but I still have plenty and this cake was perfect for making cupcakes for a potluck I attended. I didn't bother with making the batter gluten free nor dairy free since I wouldn't be eating these, so I made it following the recipe in the book, except for the icing. I used my food processor to grate the zucchini, so some of the threads of zucchini were a bit long, but they all broke down and disappeared into the cakes, creating a nicely moist crumb. There was on slight variation - I used chocolate chips instead of chopping the chocolate and no one seemed to mind. I made cupcakes for ease of serving...and because they are cute! Look at the great crumb on the cupcake below.



According to my taste tester (Sweetie) these are delicious little cakes and don't really need any icing. For the cupcakes for the potluck I used a modern version of 7-Minute Frosting because I was using it for the sheet cake I also baked for the potluck (as the birthday cake requested), so I had plenty for the cupcakes. The fluffy white frosting made a nice contrast to the deep, dark chocolate cake of the cupcakes. From the looks of it I would imagine that the chocolate icing in the book is delicious, too.



I think this is going to be my go-to recipe for chocolate zucchini cake. It has great flavor, excellent crumb and texture, and uses up some zucchini, too! I did use a high quality cocoa and recommend that you do that too if you have some on hand. Party on.



7 comments :

  1. Oh yum! What a great idea to make them cupcakes and you decorated them so cute!

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  2. Elle this cake was delicious without frosting! Icing these with 7 minute frosting I'm sure was heavenly! Love this icing!
    Loved everything about this recipe!

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  3. Those look so fun Elle, love your choice to turn these into a cupcake.

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  4. Lovely way to present your cake... I would have done the same too!

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  5. Your cupcakes are very festive and that crumb sure does look moist. I haven't baked any sweets with zucchini this year and would love to try this recipe.

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  6. The FROSTING with the little candy corn just makes me want them NOW.
    And I don't even really LIKE candy corn anymore after the Best-Forgotten Gorging of 2010.

    ...cannot WAIT for this heat to let up so I can feel good about baking again!

    The Baby Sweet Potato Cakes sound like something I need to try - mainly because I just read a recipe for non-dairy sweet potato ice cream, and the sticky perfection of pecan pralines with that seem worth trying!

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  7. Oh that's very cool that you'd call this your go to recipe.. i love hearing things like that!! have a super day! Hazel x

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