Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Sourdough Zucchini Chocolate Cake

I feel as if I am creating a database of sourdough cast-off recipes. I have so many sourdough recipes here that I wonder if a person who maintains a sourdough reads them, they will probably never throw the sourdough discard or cast-off. Last year, I had planted zucchini plants and got tired of finding ways to use them up. This year, I decided not to. But for some reason, I cannot resist buying these when I go grocery shopping. I picked a bag of 6 zucchini for a 1.50 dollars. That is a steal. And it was perfect timing for me to try this cake that I had bookmarked a while back since it was time to feed my starter. I used whole wheat flour and if you use all purpose flour, you will get a fluffier cake. And this is not a very sweet cake at all. If you like your cake to be sweet, increase the sugar to 1 1/2 cups. This actually serves very well as a snack cake or a coffee cake.
One Year Back - Hawaiian Cobbler Adapted from here.
Ingredients:
Sourdough Starter - 1 cup (unfed at room temperature - 100 % hydration)
Sugar - 1 cup
Canola Oil or vegetable oil - 1/3 cup
Egg - 1 large at room temperature
Whole Wheat Flour - 1 1/2 cups
Dutch Processed Cocoa or natural cocoa - 1/2 cup (I used dutch processed cocoa)
Zucchini shredded - 2 cups (I kept the skin on)
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Vanilla - 2 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 Celsius). Grease and flour a 10 cup bundt pan. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa. If there are any lumps in cocoa, sift and remove them. In another bowl, whisk together sugar and oil. It will be like sand. Add the egg and continue to whisk. Add the sourdough starter and mix. Now, add all the dry ingredients and stir. Batter will be very stiff. Don't worry. The moment you add the zucchini, it will loosen up  a bit. Stir in the vanilla and shredded zucchini. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45 - 50 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioner's sugar or pour a very thin glaze made with about 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar and couple of TBSP of milk to the pouring consistency.

Enjoy.

15 comments:

  1. Yum Champa, I have always wanted to try veggies in a cake, but never did except of course carrots. This looks superb.

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  2. Superb......zucchini in a cake seems incredible!!!!! Lovely cake!!!

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  3. Very tempting and fabulous cake.

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  4. wow..zucchini cake looks great..soft and yummy cake..

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  5. Gorgeous cake, lovely texture and simply delicious..

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  6. Lovely combo! I keep seeing Zucchini in many blog posts across the blogosphere! Looks awesome!

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  7. delicious combo !! lovely and wonderful !!

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  8. Looks to yummy. Nice way to incorporate zucchini.

    Vardhini
    VardhinisKitchen

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  9. well baked! never tried zucchini in bakes. Thanks for the recipe

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  10. The cake looks so yum n perfect ..

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  11. That cake sure looks very inviting..I finally found that zucchini is available at our vegetable place..so can try this sometime..

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  12. All your sourdough cast off recipes have been really inspirational, since I don't have the heart to throw it away and your recipes come to the rescue. Zucchini and chocolate is such a delicious combination. Looks yummy.

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  13. Wowzers this cake was a HUGE hit when I took it to my friends this morning, so moist it was like a brownie without all the calories and fat. The Kids loved it, will be definitely baking it again, thanks for sharing such a delicious recipe. Lainie Anderson - Australia.

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