chocolate zucchini cake.

When I was growing up - and still, really - desserts in my family meant chocolate. My mom is the baker, and if a dessert isn't chocolate, she's not really interested. (I come by my chocolate addiction honestly.) This is one of our old stand-bys: a not-too-sweet, wonderfully moist, easily-thrown-together chocolate zucchini cake that Mom has been making for as long as I can remember. Today, it marked the celebratory official end of a two-semester-long Samuel Richardson immersion. In fact, this hefty cake probably weighs almost as much as the unabridged Clarissa. Almost.


Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Adapted from Mom

8 tbsp. butter, softened
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. cocoa powder
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 c. buttermilk
2 c. coarsely-grated zucchini (about 3 small or 2 large)
2 1/2 c. flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg


1. Oven to 350F. Grease and flour a bundt pan.

2. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla, orange, and buttermilk, and mix until well blended.

3. Stir in zucchini.

4. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Stir into zucchini mixture until combined.


5. Pour batter into bundt pan; bake for ~40 min. or until inserted knife comes out clean. Cool on rack before removing cake from pan. (*Trust me: let it cool. I rushed things today and, well, the cake looked like I'd dug in ahead of time. Oops.)