Amongst the various arts of cooking, I enjoy baking the most. I bake when am happy, I bake when am sad, I bake almost all the time. Baking is therapy, the most magical stress buster & energizer. Above all, it’s so much fun to whip up magic in the oven.

Baking runs in the family, my mother was an amazing baker herself. Our childhood memories are filled with the aroma of freshly baked cakes & cookies. Those timeless Pound cakes and butter cookies of her’s are just as fresh as a memory yesterday. And now I watch my children baking some yummy goodies. As I am writing this post, my daughter is creating her magical oats chocolate chip cookies.

This recipe came to me when we had a surplus of Zucchini in our garden in Cairo, I had discovered a multitude of way to use this humble summer squash in soups, stir-frys, zoodles, crumb fries, crusted and you name it and have tried it all out, and almost all the attempts were loved at home. This was another super healthy addition to my list of healthy bakes. I had found this recipe from the internet and have tried and modified many times with different ingredients too, after all, isn’t our kitchen a big experimental lab.

Taking you straight to the recipe, keeping aside the many stories that I would have otherwise written here….

This cake tastes best when it is cold..or even fresh out of the oven… glazed or no glaze… This cake just tastes good in any way that you would love to have. So be ready to whip up the magic.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake with walnuts, cranberries & chocolate chips

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups regular whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 cup oil/soft butter ( u can substitute it with coconut oil/canola oil)
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons grated orange peel
• 3 cups coarsely shredded zucchini (from about 1 pound of zucchini)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• A handful of chocolate chunks/choco chips
• Handful chopped cranberries/sultanas
• Glaze (directions follow)

Glaze:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 Tbsp milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C

1 Set the shredded zucchini to drain in a sieve over a bowl. If no moisture drains out and the zucchini feels dry, sprinkle some water over it and let the excess drain.

2 Vigorously whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl, and set aside.

3 With a mixer, beat together the butter and the sugars until smooth. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. With a wooden spoon, stir in the vanilla, orange peel, and zucchini.

4 Alternately stir in the dry ingredients and the milk into the zucchini mixture, including the nuts with the last addition

5 Spray the inside of a 10-inch bundt pan or tube pan lightly with cooking spray (or grease with butter). Wipe off the excess. Pour in the batter and use a rubber spatula to level the top of the batter. Bake in the oven for about 50-55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean (test at 45 min). Cool in pan 15 minutes; turn out on a wire rack to cool thoroughly.

6 Make the glaze by mixing together the glaze ingredients. You can easily do this by hand with a whisk or a spoon. If the glaze is too runny, add some more powdered sugar. If too thick, add more milk. Drizzle glaze over cake.

This is a fairly large cake. Cut in thin slices to serve.

I have replaced the brown sugar with powdered jaggery, Butter with coconut oil, Orange zest with lemon zest & even cranberries with sultanas. So feel free to change as per the supplies available in your pantry. Believe me, all the versions will be just as delicious as it could be.

Recipe adapted and modified from simplyrecipes.com