Hiding the Zucchini

I know the title sounds like a 14-year-old boy's euphemism, but it isn't meant to be. I really had a lot of zucchini to eat, and had to hide it in other foods to convince my doubtful family to ingest it. If you read The Value of a Mother-In-Law, you'll understand my husband's aversion to the squash. The boys have no such excuse aside from being little boys.

Fort Hill Farm came to the rescue with a great way to hide zucchini from the zucchini-defiant: Chocolate Cake. It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Who would ruin a perfectly good chocolate cake by hiding zucchini inside?

But it worked. It was delicious. And we ate it all up.

Here is the recipe as presented by Fort Hill Farm:

Moist Chocolate Zucchini Cake
From The Cook’s Garden by Ellen Ecker Ogden

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour 2 cups sugar
1 cup whole-wheat flour 8 TBSP (1 stick) unsalted butter (room temp)
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder ½ cup olive oil
2 tsp baking soda 3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp fine sea salt 1/3 cup sour cream or yogurt
3 cups grated zucchini
*Add some Chocolate Chips for a real treat!

Position a rack in the center of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and lightly flour a 9×13 inch rectangular pan.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the sugar, butter and oil together in another bowl until well combined. One at a time, add in the eggs, beating well after each addition. Gradually stir in the flour mixture, blending until just smooth. Stir in the sour cream or yogurt, then the zucchini. Spread evenly in the pan.

Bake until the cake springs back in the center, about 45 minutes. Cool completely over a wire rack.

Some things to note: I was staying at a rented beach house when I made this recipe. I only had white flour, I had no chocolate chips, I had no grater with which to grate the zucchini, so I chopped it very small, and the oven in the house had no discernible temperature settings- the numbers had been scrubbed off the dial, and the light did not turn on until the dial was turned to its highest setting (whatever that might have been). This recipe is very forgiving, because it was still very good, despite all the setbacks.

I did not take photos, but it looked just like a chocolate sheet cake with some very tiny flecks of green. Try frosting it to hide the green flecks. Or tell the kids they are "sprinkles".