Hey Clotilde, I'm from the midwest and you are absolutely right about the zucchini problem: my grandmother put them in everything from lasagne to cakes to meatloaf when I was growing up. In fact, for the first five years or so that I was in Paris, I didn't touch the darn things, I was still so tired of them!

However, I never heard of a *chocolate* zucchini cake - what a great idea! Now THAT might have reconciled me to liking them when I was little!

Clotilde, what a wonderful combination. doesn't sound weird at all. I can just imagine the wonderful moistness of the cake from the zucchini, and of course, the unbeatable taste of chocolate! mmmm!
(sort of abit like a chocolate version of carrot cake I suppose, but with zucchini. and I like zucchini : ) )

I think this one will definitely have to go onto my ever-lengthening list of "to bake" cakes. : )
thanks.

It's not only the midwest. They love, love, love the Mediterranean climate of California (and gardeners always overestimate these things). Leaving bags of zucchini on folks' doorsteps was a done thing when I was a girl. I believe my mother forbade planting of it at our house because she knew that they would be gifted with it in season (esp. by my grandfather who would not take NO for an answer).

Sounds yummy! We had the standard zucchini bread which was very good (and froze well) but not as luxe as this sounds.

I must go put out eggs and butter to warm up for pound cake, which is what I am making. I have real Cornish clotted cream and raspberries to go with it.

This looks like a wonderful summer recipe, and I can't wait to try it. I'm hoping to even grow some zucchini of my own this summer!

Zucchini is possibly my favorite vegetable, but unfortunately it's difficult to come by and very expensive this time of year. I have a hard time paying $2.49/lb for something that people will be trying to give away in 4 months. So, I will wait patiently. But I'm excited by this recipe; I look forward to trying it!

I used to make chocolote zucchini cake as a teenager. It is one of my all time favorites but I haven't made it in in 20 years and I lost the recipe. Thank you so much Clotilde for this entry and recipe!

Having grown up in the Midwest, we learned to add zucchini to just about everything from soups to cookies after my mother planted a few seeds on the border alongside our house. Somehow, we missed mixing it with chocolate, though, so I can't wait to try this version. A recent Google search gave me the idea of grating, then freezing zucchini in 2 cup increments (I use ziplock freezer bags, making it as airtight as possible) for quick use in future recipes.... Lemon zucchini muffins for brunch? No problem. Thanks for such a wonderful blogsite, Clothilde. It truly is a treasure.

I grew up in the Midwest. Not only did I not like zucchini, but my mother used to make me distribute it to all of our neighbors. If they weren't home, I left it on their doorstep. This made me group These days I like zucchini, but I have trouble getting more than 4-5 zucchini per plant, because it keeps rotting. It makes me a bit sad.

If you liked the chocolate zucchini cake (one of my favorites growing up), you'll love zucchini bread. It's a quick, sweet bread, and it can also be made with chocolate. I can share a recipe if you are interested.

-alain

This looks great, Clotilde! I've never heard of chocolate zucchini cake before, or indeed, any cake/bread made with zucchini. This is turning my established view of vegetables upon its head!

Clotilde! I love love love that you made a chocolate zucchini cake, so clever and so fitting! The cake looks very yummy and my curiousity is such that I will try this over the summer once zucchini are in season. Thanks!

Bonjour Clotilde,
this is just too weird....
I mentioned to my husband today that I thought it strange that there was no recipe for Chocolate-Zucchini Cake on your site. He said: "you bake the best (sic) CZ cake in he world, send her your recipe!" So I sit down at my computer tonight, open your site and lo and behold.... your recipe looks very good.
As I have only very recently discovered food blogs, I am not sure what the etiquette is and if return recipes are accepted. I will take a chance, here is my version of a very good moist CZ cake:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup grates unpeeled zucchini
2 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
3/4 cup sour cream or creme fraiche
1/2 cup choco chips ( or a bit more!)

Beat oil & sugar, add eggs, mix well. Sir in vanilla & zucchini.
I another bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon & cloves. Add to creamed misture alternatively with sour cream, mix well, add choco chips.
Bake at 325 F (195 C) in a greased 9x13 pan for about 45 min. (it should be slightly moist in the center)
Eat or make a simple icing with icing sugar, hot water and a few drops of essence of rum.
Can be served as a dessert, sprinkled with raspberry couli and a dollop of whipping cream.
Since I grow Zucchini in my veggie garden, I usually make a big batch of this cake and put it in the deep freezer.

I hope you will try it some day.
Anne

hi clotilde! would really like to try this out ... but what is the difference between baking soda and baking powder?

clotilde -

just wanted to drop you a line - i made your fabulous cake 2 nights ago (late, which was a mistake for my general state of well-being, but passons - and it really is delicious. in fact, i have been inspired to organize a bake sale for my son's daycare, so we can bring in a local musician and have a little concert! i'd like to work a cake walk in to the sale; either raffle off a cake or have an auction with bids. i have to find an irresistible recipe! something that's really spectacular!

Clotilde - First of all your website is wonderful. I live in the San Francisco Bay area and have a similar philosophy around food!

I tried this recipe and everyone loved it. I think I'll add more zucchini next time. I used a very large zucchini which may have given it a different moisture content. My zucchini was 4 lbs! They grow them big here!

I'll have to try more of your recipes. Thank you!

Hi Clotilde - I found the recipe for C&Z cake! and have dedicated it to you :-)

i think that this cake looks wanderful and makes my mouth water by just looking at it. so WELL DONE

would you like to be my email mate? if so reply my names tasha, whats yours?
how old are you? do you live in dorset? if not were abouts do you live? i live in blandford, its a bit boring there.

Hi Clotilde!
I just want to inform you that your chocolate & zucchini cake was wonderful. I never thought zucchini would work in a cake, but this was among the best chocolate cakes I've ever tasted.
Since I found no coffee granules I used cappucino powder, but it was fine that way, too.
I have decided to try your other recipes as well.

I am addicted to this recipe, but zucchini is out of season in Wisconsin. So I substituted peeled, grated beets for the zucchini. The result was an extremely dense, moist cake with a hint of the earthy flavor of beets. I covered it with a chocolate glaze. It was really good.

This is the best chocolate cake I have ever baked... I made it twice: first time was good, but the second time was GRAND!
I used a whole bag of baking powder (since the flour mixture and the zucchini exceeded 500 grams), put less than 170 grams of chocolate chips and added some milk because I thought the batter was a bit too dense this time. Well, the result was a 7 centimeters-high cake (and a very good-looking one I have to admit) that impressed just everyone!
Thanks for this recipe Clotilde!

Hi Clothilde,
I plan to make this tomorrow - looks wonderful! I'm wondering about the type of brown sugar you use - cassonade? or where can you get light brown sugar in Paris?
Thanks for so many special recipes and stories...
Kathryn

Salut!
Just wanted to add that my mom made this cake once or twice when i was a kid, and I LOVED it. Haven't had, or thought about, it for over 20 years, and despite seeing the name of your blog, I still didn't make the connection until today... Thanks for rekindling a little bit of my childhood... zucchini are quite prolific in New England too.

Dianna, the receipe for the chocolate-zuchini cake looks good and no doubt would be moist.

Hi, I stumbled onto this blog, and I am only a recent cook(6 months or so?) b/c I moved out of home, and I really want to cook good food. This recipe looks delicious, and I have seen numerous others, but I am a lacto-vegetarian so I don't eat eggs( I cheat a bit in pastires, but I prefer not t ouse them in my cooking). Would anyone know of a good substitute for eggs in this recipe?

I'e made zucchini bread and zucchini chocolate cake for years and love this recipe too! Good for you in trying new things. At 62, I've found I really enjoy finding new takes on old recipes & this is no exception. Thank you!

I live in Tuscany and my l'orto is being taken over by zucchini. It's amazing! They almost double in size overnight! And I can't give them away because everybody else here has the same problem. So this cake was a real find. And totally decadent. The brown sugar topping is a nice touch. I didn't have hazelnuts and used toasted almonds instead. This is a beautifully rich and moist cake. Thanks!
Marta

I read the blog, I attended the Berkeley book talk, I bought the book, and recently, I baked the C&Z cake (in a 9.25 loaf pan). I received rave reviews (from family and new acquaintances)!

My husband and I chose chocolate zucchini cake for our wedding cake. The baker thought it sounded disgusting, but agreed to try it if we would agree to have some "normal" yellow cake as well. Of course the chocolate zucchini cake vanished as soon as it was served, and we were left with lots of yellow cake leftovers! CZ is a fabulous cake!

This was super-fun to make, and you're right, it doesn't taste like zucchini at all :) My only problem was that the cake is significantly taller in the middle than on the sides - so I had to bake it longer so it was thoroughly cooked in the middle - so the rest of it is dryer than it should be. Any ideas how to keep that from happening?

For a little extra flavoring, just add some pomegranate. You'd be surprised, and also it's good for you being a superb antioxidant.

I used to make this cake (without the coffee powder) years ago, but lost the recipe. I saw your book in a shop and was amazed that it was the name of the missing cake, so logged on to your blog. I was thrilled to find this favourite there and instantly emailed your link to my daughter who is a keen gardener. I haven't made it yet but plan to next week for my grand daughters birthday. Yippee

this cake looks great. i want to make a small cake (7 inch springform) and was wondering if i can just half this recipe. has anyone done this before?

thanks.

Hi Clotilde,

I've made this cake twice and it is truly amazing! I have to take it to work with me so I don't eat it all! Looking forward to trying other recipes in your book.

this is an amazing cake - i just made it. i also found your stories about growing zucchini absolutely hilarious.

Hi Clotilde,

I wanted to let you know that I made a vegan version of this cake by using non-dairy butter (Earth Balance brand) and Ener-G egg replacer. It was great! Everyone liked it (vegans and non-vegans alike).

Hi Clotilde!

I have been looking forward to trying this recipe for so long. It is absolutely fabulous! I love the topping and the addition of the chocolate chips. I revised mine a bit by substituting half of the butter for sour cream and it worked nicely.

Cheers,

Melinda

I think I'll add more zucchini next time. I used a very large zucchini which may have given it a different moisture content.

Hi Clotilde, I tried this recipe with substitutions (like whole wheat pastry flour, canola oil instead of butter and Ener-G egg replacer). The cake came out very well. Thank you very much for this interesting recipe. I've also posted it my blog today.

This looks absolutely delicious. I add zucchini (or courgette, as we call it here) to pretty much everything but have never got round to adding it to a cake. I've been making a great (even if I say so myself!) chocolate yoghurt cake recently so may combine the two recipes and see how that comes out.

Just one query; should you attempt to get the moisture out of the grated zucchini first, like you would for fritters, for example? Or is the slightly watery texture of zucchini (it's amazing how much comes out when you grate it and then queeze it in a teatowel!) exactly what makes the cake so moist?

Any responses gratefully received! L :)

Thank you for your response, Clothilde! I made this at the weekend and it went down a treat. I left off the topping in your recipe and added an American-style frosting of cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and cocoa, which I think went really well with the squidgy, not-too-sweet cake. The only thing I wasn't 100% sure about was the addition of chocolate chips; I didn't actually have chips so I just chopped some dark chocolate and added that. It it didn't melt into the rest of the mixture perfectly, so I ended up with slightly dry chocolate bits that were kind of neither one thing nor the other; maybe I chopped the bits too big, not sure.

I will definitely try it again and am also considering a courgette and carrot cake (with a cream cheese frosting, of course...most cakes I make are really just a vehicle for ganache or frosting...) - if anyone has tried something similar I'd be very interested to hear about it!

Made this last night, in a pinch when I couldn't get hold of my mom to get her recipe, and had a 40 cm zucchini to use somehow -- it's wonderful. Thanks, Clotilde!

I did squeeze the water from the zucchini and it was very moist. Didn't have hazelnuts on hand so used ground almonds on top -- still quite nice. Will try with hazelnuts next time.

This has become THE chocolate cake! The cake all other cakes have to measure up to now. Loved it, loved it, loved it!! Thank you so much Clotilde.

mmmm....! I made your cake this afternoon - windy and rainy Saturday after the market. I made it because the other day I realized I had too many zukes but today I went out in to the garden in my rubber boots and apron and NONE! I had one measly one on my counter. No matter - I made it with a cup of zucchini and a cup of grated carrot. No coffee crystals so used a vanilla lid of cold GOOD coffee and no hazlenuts so I used walnuts which I always have. It was SOOOOO good! And now I know I can make it with carrots which are always around!

I made this recipe for a friend who doesn't eat dairy (eggs are fine), and substituted 1/2 cup of canola oil for the butter. I also used a technique that works for carrot cake, where you blend the eggs and sugar in the food processor, then add the oil in a thin stream. I find this helps the ingredients emulsify well, resulting in a lighter cake. The results were smashing!

I'm making this cake for dinner guests tonight. I haven't worked with hazelnuts before and was kind of in the dark re. how to toast them. Maybe I'm being silly and I'm the only one who didn't know, but in case it could be helpful, I used this technique and it worked wonderfully.

As soon as I saw whole wheat and coffee (I have a recipe from a friend's mother that puts coffee in chocolate cake and I have done it ever since!)in the ingredients, I knew this recipe was the ONE!! Like you, I usually read several recipes and come up with a version of my own. No need to do this when I saw yours.

WONDERFUL recipe!!! I prefer spelt flour and instead of putting the full amount of chocolate chips in the cake, I used half in the topping. I chopped the nuts, sugar and ch. chips in mini food pro and it makes a really nice topping, although I might skip the sugar next time. Next time is coming real soon as I plan to make another two this week again. I doubled the recipe because my zuc was SO BIG. The recipe doubled very nicely!!

My girls were thrilled that they were eating zucchini in a CAKE!!

Thanks for such a great recipe ~ you have a new follower ;-).

I made this recently, so very good and went down a storm when I took it into work - no one would believe that it was the 'Courgette Cake' I'd been talking about.