Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Chocolate Zucchini Cake: Review of Sally’s Baking Addiction’s recipe

One evening I found myself with 2 zucchinis starting to look sad in my fridge. I’d bought a bag of them earlier in the week and suddenly found myself wondering how else could I possibly use up these last two? I’d run out of creative ways to sneak them into our dinner menu, and while my son did eat it (mostly…), I don’t think he’d be too happy to see them on his next dinner plate. So off I went to Google for a different kind of recipe that used zucchinis, one that I knew he’d be excited to try.

I’d heard of zucchinis being used in cakes so thought I’d run with that (afterall, I’m a baker), surely this is doable and my son would eat it – right? I Googled for “chocolate zucchini cake recipe” and off I went rummaging through the results.

As I’m sure many of you know, it can be quite overwhelming looking through stacks of results, and I usually narrow my options down based on reviews. On this occasion though, I decided to go with a website that I was familiar with – Sally’s Baking Addiction. I use her Salted Caramel Sauce recipe all the time (and it’s sooooo gooood!). So I felt confident that her Chocolate Zucchini Cake recipe should also be good.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I split the batter across 2x 7″ tins and cooked with cake wraps at 150 degrees Celsius. I loved how each cake baked flat on top – no torting required!

On this occasion I decided to pair it with chocolate cream cheese frosting – only because I just happened to have a block of cream cheese sitting in my fridge that I thought could help cut through the sweetness. I have to say, on that note, mission failed haha The richness of the cake paired with the richness of the frosting was quite overwhelming. Even a small teeny piece needed a cuppa to help wash it down. Next time, if I needed to pair it with something, I would opt for something less rich and less sweet, like some simple Chantilly cream or vanilla meringue buttercream.

Slice of Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Overall it’s a moist, delicious chocolate cake and a wonderful way to use up and sneak in some zucchini. If you wanted to tone the chocolate sweetness down a tad, you could even reduce or omit the chocolate chips (I did enjoy the extra texture having them in there though – so perhaps could sub with some chopped nuts instead). I would definitely recommend giving this recipe a try – I know I’ll be revisiting it again 🙂

Christmas 2020 – treats are coming!

Every year I usually do a Christmas markets, but things the way they are, I haven’t been able to do them this year. So instead, I’ve been working hard on this year’s Christmas treat lineup and I am so excited to share them with you this weekend! Everything will be limited in numbers (as I still have to work my day job and be a mum and get sleep somehow haha), so stay tuned so you don’t miss out! 🙂 xx

Full chocolate macaron shells

Chocolate Macarons

Thought I would share a recipe for chocolate macaron shells. I asked the All Things Macarons facebook group for advice on how to convert a regular mac recipe to chocolate – I was advised to try reducing the almond meal/flour by 5%, and to reduce the icing/powdered sugar by 5%, and then replace that 10% total with cocoa powder. This approach was successful for this recipe.

Full chocolate macaron shells

Chocolate Macarons (Shells)

A chocolate adaptation of the classic macaron shell
Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 14 mins
Resting time 20 mins
Total Time 50 mins
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine French
Servings 12 pairs

Equipment

  • Electric scales
  • 2x Mixing bowls
  • Food processor/grinder
  • Sieve
  • Small saucepan
  • Glass bowl
  • Whisk
  • Electric hand mixer
  • Spatula
  • Cookie tray/s
  • Baking paper, printed macaron template (5cm diameter)
  • 12" piping bag fitted with 9mm round tip

Ingredients
  

  • 45 grams Almond meal/flour
  • 36 grams Icing/powdered sugar
  • 9 grams Cocoa powder Dutch processed
  • 40 grams Egg whites Aged
  • 40 grams Caster sugar

Instructions
 

  • Follow the method in YouTube video https://youtu.be/n-BS0u3Kqsc - except use measurements in this recipe to get chocolate shells.
  • For additional tips, check out my other blog post https://www.anitaofcake.com.au/macaron-mania/

Notes

Additional notes:
For one batch I subbed out 10% aged egg whites for carton/pasteurised egg whites. The feet came out a bit smaller but were still full and successful
This recipe can be doubled to make 24 macarons (verified)
Keyword chocolate, cookie, macaron