Last week I was looking for a quick recipe to use up some buttermilk, and I came across a Chocolate Zucchini Cake recipe on epicurious.com. (I think the recipe initially caught my eye because I immediately associate the phrase "chocolate and zucchini" with the terrific food blog of the same name run by Frenchwoman Clotilde Dusoulier.) I love zucchini and I love chocolate, so I was curious to see how the two would go together.
I was not altogether happy with how the cake turned out. It was moist and the flavor was fine. Pure chocolate and not too sweet, without even the slightest hint of zucchini (if you click on the picture above to enlarge it, you can just barely make out some shreds of zucchini in the cake). But the topping was a mess. The recipe instructs you to sprinkle a significant amount of walnuts and chocolate chips over the top of the cake before you put it in the oven. The top surface ended up completely covered with nuts and chips, which posed quite a challenge when it came time to slice the cake. I tried to neatly saw through the chocolate chips and nuts, but a lot of them came loose and took hunks of cake corners and edges with them. This made for a very unattractive presentation, and if I ever make this cake again, I would probably either firmly press the topping into the cake batter before baking, or I would just mix the nuts and chips into the batter.
I was fairly unimpressed with this cake, although I suppose it's a neat trick to make a chocolate cake that has a few cups of vegetables hidden in it. But the flavor was nothing special and I think this cake would have been tastier (and more aesthetically pleasing) topped with a layer of chocolate frosting instead of a sprinkling of nuts and chocolate chips.
Recipe: Chocolate Zucchini Cake from epicurious.com.
I was not altogether happy with how the cake turned out. It was moist and the flavor was fine. Pure chocolate and not too sweet, without even the slightest hint of zucchini (if you click on the picture above to enlarge it, you can just barely make out some shreds of zucchini in the cake). But the topping was a mess. The recipe instructs you to sprinkle a significant amount of walnuts and chocolate chips over the top of the cake before you put it in the oven. The top surface ended up completely covered with nuts and chips, which posed quite a challenge when it came time to slice the cake. I tried to neatly saw through the chocolate chips and nuts, but a lot of them came loose and took hunks of cake corners and edges with them. This made for a very unattractive presentation, and if I ever make this cake again, I would probably either firmly press the topping into the cake batter before baking, or I would just mix the nuts and chips into the batter.I was fairly unimpressed with this cake, although I suppose it's a neat trick to make a chocolate cake that has a few cups of vegetables hidden in it. But the flavor was nothing special and I think this cake would have been tastier (and more aesthetically pleasing) topped with a layer of chocolate frosting instead of a sprinkling of nuts and chocolate chips.
Recipe: Chocolate Zucchini Cake from epicurious.com.
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