About two days ago, I was scrolling through my news feed when a post from David Lebovitz popped up touting a tasty photo of a chocolate zucchini cake.  I’d had zucchini cookies before (yum) as well as zucchini bread (also yum), but never a chocolate cake with zucchini.  Given my chocoholic status, I decided this would be a perfect treat to make this week.

The recipe is from the blog, Seven Spoons.  I’m not terribly familiar with it, but after making this cake, I’m thinking I should subscribe.

There’s a short list of ingredients (below), which should be easy for just about anyone to find/use.  I halved the recipe the first time I made it (I wasn’t sure if I’d like it…and that’s a lot of cake for 2 people), but I think going forward I might make 2 and give one away or freeze one for later.

Ingredients (Half Recipe):

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour  I omitted this when I halved the recipe, as I didn’t have any on hand
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cups fine-grained turbinado sugar
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded zucchini

I’d say all the prep takes (maybe) 30 minutes and the baking is about 50 with a (suggested) 20 minutes for cooling.  It smells AMAZING.  And, honestly, it tastes even better.  This might be the most moist and absolutely delicious chocolate cake I’ve ever had.  One more time for emphasis – the BEST chocolate cake I’ve ever had.

If you’re vegan or tempted to try a vegan option, today I also saw a post from my friend Diane with this vegan option.  It’s mostly the same as the above but with a mashed banana (yuck…but I bet applesauce could work, too) instead of eggs and almond butter instead of the oil plus some cinnamon.  I’m tempted to try that one (too) and take it to my yoga instructor as a tasty surprise.

Either way, I recommend this as a great way to use some of that summer squash/zucchini – I think this will become a summer staple for me 🙂