Dark and green

What's dark and green and intensely chocolate all over?

This one-egg chocolate zucchini cake, which used some of our last zucchini harvest. Moist, tender, and deeply chocky. The grated zucchini melds with the chocolate and the batter so that you won't even see it after!

There are loads of zucchini cake and zuke&chocolate cake recipes on the Web and I based mine on that motherlode of information -- with one change: I was sure with that much zucchini in the batter you wouldn't need two eggs. And I was right.



One-egg chocolate and zucchini cake
Makes 3 loaves if you use 8x4 pans; also excellent as muffins

1 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup yogurt or buttermilk
2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini (about 2 1/2 medium), most of the water squeezed out
About 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour your baking pans. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter and oil in large bowl until well blended. Add the egg and beat well. Beat in vanilla extract. Mix in dry ingredients alternately with yogurt or buttermilk in 3 additions each. Mix in grated zucchini, chocolate chips and nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan.* (You can also sprinkle more chocolate chips and nuts over the cake before sticking it into the oven).

Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool cake completely in pan.

*Tip: Try to get the nuts and chips to the sides of the batter. I didn't do it this time but this extra step will increase the oohhh factor!

PS I know, I know. There are pumpkins in the background again. They're from our garden, a dwarf variety that probably is good only for show. I am excitedly waiting for true pumpkins to arrive in the market. Next year, H and I plan to have a real pumpkin patch.