Zucchini Fudge Cake, Vegan and Delicious

Yippee for summer! My Arizona garden keeps me in fresh veggies all year, but summer brings a glutton of squash, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. I pickle peppers and cucumbers several times over the summer,make sauces and can the tomatoes as well, but I can never find enough things to do with zucchini . Sometimes I can't even give it away! My husband is not a zucchini fan at all, or any other vegetable for that matter. He often doesn't even know when I sneak in veggies under his nose. It's much like issues moms of toddlers have, except mine will go head for the drive thru if dinner bombs. He will never turn down chocolate. Which brings me back around to zucchini!

I've tried countless recipes for zucchini bread some with chocolate. Most are quite good for me and the kids, but my hubby turns his nose up at the little green specks and refuses to even try it. I have come up with a great fudgy cake recipe, a mish mash of "rejects" that turns out to be moist, chocolaty, vegan and loaded with zucchini! Best of all it passed the test, it passed undetected!

Vegan Zucchini Fudge Cake   Printer friendly copy

Preheat oven to 350*, spray or oil a 8x11.5 pan for moist fudgy texture or 9x13 for cakeyer texture

2 cups Flour
3 Tbs Cocoa
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 cups shredded zucchini, a medium or several small
1/2 cup oil (I use 1/4 cup coconut and 1/4 cup olive)
2 tsp vanilla

Optional: 1/2 cup chocolate chips (vegan or not) or 1/2 cup chopped nuts

1. Shred zucchini with cheese grater or food processor. To be extra sneaky I go back over quickly with a knife to cut the longer pieces.  Set aside
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. Mix oil, vanilla and zucchini in a large bowl.
4. Stir dry ingredients into zucchini mixture until well blended.
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake 25-35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean

The varied cooking time depends on the amount of water in the zucchini. Use a toothpick in a few places to make sure you didn't hit a chip.