Chocolate zucchini cake - with walnuts

Today I looked at my 3 little zucchinis and needed to use them up. I bought one too many thinking I can keep grilling these things until the end of time. Well, my taste buds decided to prematurely protest, and we are no where near the end of time yet. So here I am trying to find a reasonable zucchini recipe. Zucchini... cake? How about that?

Now by my hesitation hope you can appreciate my confusion. I'm not one to put vegetable in.. dessert, hello carrot cake. Why? They don't seem like ingredients that would go together. Well, the hubster has recently tried someone else's zucchini cake and raved about it. I guess sometimes the most seemingly unlikely combinations can be great. One thing is for sure, my zucchinis are screaming to be used up, and I'll never know until I try it. And look, I'm not ok to be on my death bed wondering what if I tried zucchini cakes. Annnnd here we are.

Zucchinis are high on vitamin C, B6, and potassium, along with a few other vitamins. They apparently are also loaded with antioxidants. Typically I write this info to entice you to give the ingredients a try. Today I'm writing this for myself, because I honestly don't know how this is going to turn out. I don't like or dislike zucchini but something tells me that this recipe is going to be nothing like my grilled zucchinis that my mouth got sick of. Also, fun fact, first time ever, I am writing this as I just finished prepping the ingredients, shoved it in the oven, and awaiting to see how it turns out! So really this is a recipe/reaction/review, and hopefully doesn't turn into confusion and regrets at the end. Aren't you curious how this is going to end? I am! 

What you need:

- 2 cups of flour

- 1 3/4 cup of sugar

- 3/4 cup of unsweetened coco powder

- 1 tsp of baking powder

- 2 tsp of baking soda

- 1 tsp salt

- 2 tsp of cinnamon

- 3 eggs

- 3/4 cup of unsweetened coconut milk

- 1 cup vegetable oil

- 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts

- 3 cups shredded zucchini (turned out to be 2 and half small/med zucchinis)

Recipe: 

- Mix flour, sugar, coco powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in large bowl.

- Add eggs, coconut milk, and oil. Mix until smooth.

- Pour zucchini and walnuts in and fold gently until evenly mixed

- Grease/butter rub the baking pan, I used my 9x13" massive pan. Pour batter in, smooth the top so it's even, and bake at 350F for 50 min.

Wow the result was a really moist, very chocolate-y delicious cake! Seriously they go well together.

Note:

- the original recipe inspiration can be found here: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/17643/chocolate-zucchini-cake-iii/

- I made a number of edits: I only had 3 eggs, the 4th egg I figured was liquids so I substituted with 1/4 cup of coconut milk.

- I only used 1 cup of oil, and substituted the 1/2 to coconut milk.

- I cut the sugar down a bit again. though this time I wish I didn't. It really is a cake that's not too sweet, and since the cocopowder has no sugar in it either, it can get a bit bland. No matter. Wanna know how to fix a cake that's not as sweet as you wanted? I found a cool fix!

How to fix a cake that's not sweet enough:

- when baking from scratch, I have the tendency to cut both oil and sugar from the original recipe. I feel like it could be "healthier" since I can control the amount and actively reduce it. Well, it works most times but other times I find I have gone overboard and wish my cake is just a bit sweeter. Here's what you do.

- 1 part water 1 part sugar, this makes a simple syrup. In this case, I used 1 tbsp of sugar melt into 1tbsp of water for each quarter of the cake. 

- brush the simple syrup on top of the cake. Let it sit for 15 min until the liquids are absorbed.

- 2 big benefits: sweetens the cake. moisten the cake. Yay!

Hope you enjoyed this work-in-progress reaction post. And hope you find my above "trick" useful. Let me know what you think by dropping me a line in comments. Cake cheers!