Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Have you experienced the great and powerful August explosion of zucchini? If you have any sort of garden whatsoever, chances are you’ve planted zucchini and know what I’m talking about. It takes a lot of creativity and fast cooking to keep up with the superman of the garden! Chocolate Zucchini Cake is one of my little solutions to the ever-present problem of being overrun by zucchinis. Every August, I gear up for the daily onslaught that’s sure to come. That is, until this year…..

I have an awesome little kitchen garden outside my door, and I get really excited each spring to fill the raised beds with veggies and herbs, and then nurture them along all summer. There’s nothing like eating fresh produce that you’ve grown right outside your door! This year, I planted all my fave staples: several varieties of tomatoes, basil, oregano, thyme and parsley, two types of lettuce, sweet and hot peppers and zucchini.

Oh the zucchini! A few years ago, we started “Zucchini Wars” in our neighborhood. Basically, when we found a gigantic zucchini that had sprouted overnight in our yard, and we already had three more sitting on our kitchen counter, we plucked it out of the garden, crept to our neighbors’ house in the dead of night and left it on their porch with a Yoda-inspired note that read, “Begun the zucchini war has!” And thus it began.

Neighbors creeping around night after night in their pjs, with giant squashes tucked under their arms, neighbors awakening to find huge surprises on their porches. I was really, really excited for our “war” this year! I had big plans. But things didn’t quite go as I thought. Yes, the tomatoes are lovely, the peppers are ripening, the lettuces are finished (and were delish), BUT my token zucchini plant turned out to be…NOT a zucchini.

Oh, sad and confusing day when I first examined the first of what I thought would be lovely green zucchinis. Nope! Not green. Yellow. The nursery got it wrong somehow. I’ve got a nice yellow squash growing in my zucchini patch. Of course, I love yellow squash. BUT the zucchini bread, zucchini fritters, grilled zucchini halves, and the chocolate zucchini cake…will be made from zucchinis I have to BUY. So sad. And we will not be participating in this year’s zucchini war. So so sad. Next year, I might just have to plant TWO zucchinis for a little insurance. And you know what will happen then…..