One way to guarantee kids eat vegetables is to cover it in chocolate. Obviously it's for a treat, or in my circumstance a trick as my twins refuse to eat zucchinis. They will willingly forfeit screen time just to avoid eating zucchini. Madness right? Hence why I hid the deliciousness of the zucchinis or courgettes in a cake. I was totally inspired by Sally's Baking Addiction, lots of very fab recipes there. This recipe is almost all Sally's, with my little spin.
Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
approx 3-4 cups of grated zucchini (squeeze some, not all liquid out)
1 cup dark cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 dark brown sugar
4 large eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla paste
2 tsp instant espresso powder/granules
250g dark mini choc chips
Frosting
Use whatever you like but I wanted something creamy to counter all the dark choc in the cake.
400g Better Crocker chocolate hazelnut frosting (you don't have to use all)
200g Cadbury dairy milk
a little drizzle of vegetable oil
1. Sieve flour, cocoa, bicarb, baking soda and salt into a big bowl. Then add coffee powder and mix, set aside.
3. Divide into 2 x baking pans or 1 large, whatever you want. Oven should be preheated to 180 degrees.
4. Bake for about 30-45 minutes depending on your oven. I would check with skewer from about 30 minutes. I think mine took a wee bit more time then the original recipe said. Let it cool before frosting.
5. Melt the Cadbury dairy milk with a little drizzle of oil, just enough to give it a nice runny consistency. I didn't really measure, sorry... maybe 3 tablespoons give or take.
6. Slap the hazelnut frosting between the cakes and drizzle the milk chocolate all over the top.
7. Shove in face!
