Most chocolate cakes I have made have been less than satisfactory. Too dry or light. I like chocolate cake that is rich, rich, rich. If you're going to go there, you might as well go all the way.
With my mother's birthday recently on the calendar, it fell to me to make the requisite cake. She said she wanted chocolate. Very chocolate
So I dipped into old recipes and made her the chocolate-cherry cake my dear friend and midwife has made for me in the past. I have never had this recipe fail. Always a keeper of a cake. Hats off to my midwife!
Zuchinni Chocolate Cake
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups zuchinni (if using frozen zuchinni, thaw well and press out some of the excess liquid)
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
Beat the first four ingredients together. Mix the final four dry ingredients and add to the wet mixture. At this time you can fix it up a little. Brother-Bug likes to add some chocolate chips for an extra chocolaty treat. I think some chilies might be fun. Or nuts. Or ??? Add those in now.
This should make 2-3 nine-inch cake pans, depending on what additions (like chocolate chips) you were inspired to mix in.
Put the batter into greased cake pans. Bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and decorate.
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The classic that I love best with this is shown above. Simple and elegant. Cherries (a mixture of frozen cherries and cherry jam, heated with a little cornstarch to thicken it) and whipped cream. Real whip for my mom, no sugar.
You can decorate and stack it how you like. Toffee? Raspberry? Espresso? Frosting? Gnache? It's just the basic of basic fine chocolate cakes.
And you can feel good about eating it... because after all it has zuchinni in it, so it's like a vegetable, right?
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