This time of year, in our neck of the woods, zucchini are everywhere! They grow so fast and furious when the heat comes on and boy have we had the heat. We have been eating zucchini since May. I have been thinking about making chocolate zucchini cake for a couple weeks now. My mom used to make it for us every summer, and always from one of those huge zucchini that one day was too small to harvest and then somehow the next day, it seemed, the thing was as big as a small animal. One of those big guys will go a long way. This past week at the farm, we received EIGHT zucchini. Three of them were large. I have gone through the rest, but I kept back one that was big enough for this cake. Once Sammy found out what I was planning to use the last big zucchini for, he has been gently reminding me, every day, to MAKE THAT CAKE, already! I dug out my old school recipe book that is now in tatters, and opened it to my mother’s recipe, beautifully written in her own hand. I have been lugging this little recipe book around with me since I was a teen (many, many moons ago). Mom used to make the cake in a rectangular glass baking dish. I have grown quite fond of bundt pans.

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE

INGREDIENTS
For the Cake
2 cups sugar
¾ cup oil (I used melted coconut oil)
3 eggs (ours were fresh from the farm)
2 tsp vanilla
2½ cups flour
1½ tsp baking powder
1½ tsp baking soda
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup milk
2¼ cups grated zucchini

*I also add in 1/2 cup of sour cream because I like how moist my cakes are when I use the sour cream. It is not in Mom’s original recipe.
For the Chocolate Frosting
1 stick butter, melted
⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups confectioners sugar
⅓ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 325°.
Grease and flour a Bundt pan.
In a large mixing bowl, mix sugar, oil, and eggs together until creamy.
Add in vanilla, and mix until well combined.
In a smaller bowl, stir flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt together with a small whisk just to blend everything together.
Add flour mixture in with the sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla. Mix well.
Slowly mix in the milk.
After everything is well combined, stir in the zucchini.
Pour into bundt pan and bake for approximately 60 minutes.
Cake will be done when tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
*Check cake at 50-55 minutes
Chocolate Frosting
In a medium size mixing bowl, add melted butter. Mix in cocoa.
Next add in some powder sugar and then milk, then some powder sugar then milk. Repeat until all is well mixed. Mix on low speed. After frosting is well blended, add in vanilla. Makes about 2 cups of frosting.
Frost cake once cake has cooled.

Sammy and his buddies decided they could not wait until the cake was frosted… they wanted a warm slice and they deemed it delicious but better if I could get to frosting the thing, soon. That is why, in the pictures, there is a big chunk missing. I frosted a partially eaten cake. It wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last.

Just in case you forgot what all that chocolaty goodness looked like, here is a close up: