Chocolate zucchini cake with chocolate sour cream icing.

Regardless of your sentiments toward it, zucchini is an unmistakable icon of mid to late summer. Despite it's Italian-sounding name, zucchini is native to Middle America. It was further cultivated in Italy and then was introduced to the United States near the turn of the last century. Today, they are widely cultivated around the world.

This year, only one of our two zucchini plants grew; however, it's been quite proliferative. We've given multiple zucchini away and have prepared others on the grill, sauteed with tomatoes and onions, and grated up in cake. Over the past few years, this chocolate zucchini cake has become one of our favorites. Here's how we put it together.

Ingredients:

• 12 tablespoons butter (1.5 sticks)
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups grated zucchii
• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

2. Beat in the eggs one at a time until the mixture is thoroughly combined

3. Mix in the cocoa powder, vanilla extract, salt, and baking powder

4. Fold in the zucchini.

5. Stir in the flour

6. Stir in the chocolate chips until everything is combined

Hint: I use my stand mixer and reduce the speed after the eggs have been added. I also find that the creamed butter and sugar can sometimes settle at the bottom of the mixer so I use a rubber scraper to make sure the eggs have been thoroughly combined into the butter/sugar mixture before proceeding to the next steps.

7. Thoroughly grease and flour the bundt cake pan. Sometimes I will also add in a little cocoa powder with the flour.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes or until it tests done. If you have a cooking thermometer, a general rule of thumb is that a bundt cake is done at about 200 to 205 degrees Fahrenheit.

9. Let the cake cool for about 10-15 minutes and then turn it out onto a cooling rack.

10. Let it cool a little more and then frost it while still slightly warm.

Note: If you want a traditional zucchini bread loaf, 2/3 of this recipe will make a loaf that will fit in a typical 5 x 8 inch loaf pan.

Frosting ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 4 tablespoons sour cream
• Splash of vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar to get the frosting to your desired consistency (approximately 2 cups)

Instructions:

1. Beat the cocoa powder and sour cream together (I typically use a hand mixer). Expect this mixture to be fairly thick.

2. Mix in the vanilla.

3. Mix in the powdered sugar until the frosting reaches your desired consistency.

4. Frost the cake while it is still slightly warm.