Nice and Easy Chocolate Zucchini Mini Bundt Cakes

In Australia, we always seems to live in the opposite side of the world. While everyone is having a snowy Christmas, we are strangely having a sunny one.

Here I am watching our zucchini plants growing in our nice and sunny weather and would love to harvest our zucchini to make a chocolate zucchini cake for our countdown to the coming Christmas season.

Based on the list of ingredients in a fantastic recipe by Zoe Bakes, I've transformed her recipe to a super easy mix-and-bake one and I'm very happy that this transformation works very well for me.

This chocolate cakes are super moist with lots of zucchini in it. Surprisingly, all my hardworking "cake critics" can't tell that there are zucchini inside these cake until they were told and looked into the cakes with their extreme microscopic views. I've not tried baking this cake accordingly to its original recipe but I think my cakes are as good as a good chocolate cake should be.

These chocolate cakes are really easy to make!

Surprise! Surprise! There are lots of zucchini inside these cakes...

Watching my zucchini growing in my garden...

Love watching rays of sunshine shining on my plants...

A closer look of the cake...

Can you see any zucchini with your microscopic view?

Here's the recipe from Zoe Bakes.

(with my modification in blue)

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Dutch cocoa powder)
1 tsp baking soda (replaced by baking powder)
1 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature (replaced by rice bran or any vegetable oil)
1 cup brown sugar, well packed
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini, tightly packed
4 ounces (or 120g) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature
Confectioners’ sugar for the top of the cake 

(I didn't do this. Instead, I made a chocolate glaze for my cakes)

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan (or mini Bundt pans), set aside.

2. Cut the tops and bottoms of the zucchini off, and then cut into quarters. Remove the seeds if they are large and at all tough. This was only necessary for the child-sized squash.

3. Grate the zucchini using a grater attachment of a food processor.

4. Sift together the flour, soda (or baking powder), salt and cocoa powder, set aside.

5. In a stand mixer cream together the butter, brown sugar and sugar using the paddle attachment, until it is light and fluffy. Slowly add the oil, until it is evenly distributed. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Beat in the vanilla extract.

6. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the yogurt in 3 additions each.

7. Remove from the mixer and stir in the melted and cooled chocolate. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

9. Bake in the middle of the oven for about one hour or until a tester comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan until nearly room temperature, you should be able to comfortably handle it.

10. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve with fresh whipped cream or ice cream. This cake is even better the next day for breakfast.

My mix-and-bake modifications: 

Using half of the recipe, I've made 4 mini Bundt cakes (approximately 1 cup capacity each). 

I followed step 1 to 4 of the above recipe and stopped following from step 5 onwards.

Instead of using the creaming method, I mixed oil, egg, both sugar and vanilla extract together, then I stirred in the melted chocolate and the grated zucchini until they were evenly distributed.

Lastly, I added the dry ingredients alternately with the yogurt in 3 additions. Do not over-mix at this stage. I distributed the batter evenly into the cake pans

I baked my cakes at 160°C fan forced for 30 min or until a skewer inserted come out clean.

Here's my chocolate glaze for 4 mini Bundt cakes

(adapted from the book, Baking, from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan):

60g chocolate (70% cocoa), melted
2 tsp light corn syrup

Melt chocolate in a microwave. Stir in corn syrup. Using a spatula, spread the glaze over the Bundt cakes. The glaze will set in 10-15 min at room temperature.

Happy Baking

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