.................. Cooking with Barry & Meta: Chocolate Chip-Walnut Zucchini Cake . . . adding garden goodness to a Bundt cake

Chocolate mint (yes, it tastes like chocolate)
sets off the base of this Bundt cake.

No matter how many times we search the zucchini plants, invariably we manage to miss a squash or two that then grows to monstrous size! At that point, there’s nothing to do except cut them open and slice out the spongy center and seeds. What’s left is grated goes into cakes and breads, or it can be added to spaghetti sauce or casseroles.

In this case I made cake and then I turned my Grandma Newell’s cocoa frosting into a glaze that encases the surface yet still shows off the chevron pattern imprinted into the cake’s surface by the Bundt pan.

Chocolate Chip-Walnut Zucchini Cake Make one 3-quart bundt cake

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour plus additional flour for dusting

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs @ room temperature

2 cups coarsely grated zucchini (8 oz.)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup chopped walnuts + extra for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Using a paper towel, carefully grease Bundt pan with solid shortening, being sure to cover every surface well. Then dust with some flour, dumping out excess.

Make sure all ridges and indentation of the cake pan are smeared with a light coating of solid shortening.

Then add flour, swirl around in pan and dump out the excess.

2. Combine and whisk dry ingredients in a bowl: 2½ cup flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.

3. Beat together butter and brown sugar in bowl of an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes; then beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to medium and add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down side of bowl occasionally, then beat about 2 minutes more.

Butter & brown sugar have been combined.

The batter thins after the eggs have been added.

4. Reduce speed to low and add ALL but ½ cup of the flour mixture, mixing until just combined.

Incorporating the flour mixture.

5. Toss zucchini, chocolate chips, and walnuts with remaining ½ cup flour mixture and add to batter —batter will be very thick.

Tossing the ingredients in flour helps to distribute them throughout the batter.

This is definitely a thick batter . . . it's actually more dough like in consistency.

6. Spoon batter into Bundt pan; use a silicon spatula to push batter into place and to smooth top. Bake in middle of oven, rotating pan halfway through baking, until side begins to pull away from pan and a tester comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes total.

Cake is ready to go into the oven.

I use a Bundt Cake Baking Thermometer to check the doneness; this device is inserted in the cake -- if it turns red, the cake is done.

7. Cool cake in pan on a rack 30 minutes, then invert rack over pan, then invert cake onto rack.

8. Cool completely and cover with Old-fashioned Cocoa Glaze. Sprinkle chopped walnuts across the top of cake.

Cake keeps 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature.

Old-Fashioned Cocoa Glaze

1 heaping cup of powdered sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1½ teaspoons vanilla

5 to 6 tablespoons milk or enough to create a glaze-like consistency

1. Sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa.

Instead of a sifter, I push the powdered sugar and cocoa through a fine mesh strainer.

2. Using an electric mixer, combine sifted sugar and cocoa with the butter; add vanilla.

3. Slowly add as much milk as needed to create a glaze-like consistency. In this case, I wanted it thin enough to show the chevron patterns imprinted in the cake but thick enough to encase the cake.

The glaze-like consistency of this icing means
that the chevron design of the cake still shows through.

Recipe without photos . . .