~ Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We dogs have created what has been said to be "The Best Chocolate Cake in Belize" by an anonymous source. (We promise it was not us.) We made it for our girl to present to Fabio for his birthday, which was in November. He says he does not like dogs, but we think he is playing hard to get, so we made him a cake.

One of the secrets to this cake is its Moistness due to zucchini. We did not think to Peel said zucchini so Fabio's first question was, "Oh a chocolate cake...with sweet pepper?!" He saw the Tinges of green therein. (We believe he found the information "No, it is zucchini" as strange as if we had said, "Yes it's green pepper.") Next time we will peel it.

This is also a good cake for masking Whole Wheat Flour. We made it with white but half whole wheat would do just fine. We started with a recipe from epicurious.com and Belized it with coconut oil and cutting the sweetness for Fabio, who does not like "Sweets" but loves this cake. We also used almond milk for the non-dairy diet Our Girl requires.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
(a.k.a. Fabio’s birthday cake 2012)
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup coconut oil (or other)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup almond milk + 1 tsp. lemon (or use 1/2 cup buttermilk)
2 cups grated zucchini or other tender summer squash (such as yellow)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
powdered sugar

Butter and flour 10 inch round pan.

Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter and oil in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Mix in dry ingredients alternately with almond milk in 3 additions each. Mix in grated zucchini, chocolate chips and nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake cake at 325 degrees until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan. Dust with powdered sugar.

Sincerely,

King Guthrie for Elias and The Gute (Hounds Who Cook)