- Today we're making a chocolate cake
that is one, gigantic
two, fairly pretty I think.
But three, has a dark dark secret,
it's filled with zucchini.
So if you have a child or
significant other at home
who's like, "I've never eaten
vegetables, I hate them."
you can feed them this and
they'll be none the wiser.
But you can slyly think you
have had vegetables, fool.
Really pretty, so fast and easy
let's get started.
I'm adding three cups of
all-purpose flour into a large bowl
that is under a sifter and over a scale,
this is 360 grams in
case you're measuring.
There we go.
This cake has a lot of zucchini in it,
but I don't wanna taste zucchini,
it's not a zucchini bread,
it's really for the moisture.
So I'm using a full cup of cocoa powder.
It'll be very dark, very
rich and very chocolatey.
One tablespoon of baking soda.
three quarters of a
teaspoon of baking powder.
Three quarters of a teaspoon of salt
and one and a half teaspoons
of optional espresso powder,
but this makes a big difference,
really ups the chocolate ante
and I think you're gonna love it.
All right, let's sift
it and then whisk it.
Very chocolatey.
Lot of lumps.
Look at this, nobody wants this.
That's what the sifter's for.
Cocoa powder's great when you mix it
with a lot of other ingredients
but when you bite into
a giant chunk of it,
it's not so charming.
Give it a quick whisk.
And we can set it aside.
Now it's time for those wet ingredients.
But first, before we
do the wet ingredients,
me need to prep those zucchinis.
So, I need about four and a half cups,
that should be three medium zucchini,
maybe half more, let's find out.
Cut the tops off, trim those bottoms.
And now we're just gonna grate it.
You can use a regular cheese grater,
no need to go extra fancy and fine
it'll kind of melt together in the oven.
Just watch your fingers.
I swear I've cut myself so
much more often on a grater
than with a sharp knife.
If you're trying to sneak
these zucchini into your cake
you might wanna peel them, otherwise,
just leave the peel on,
it doesn't make a big difference.
But if someone doesn't
wanna eat any veggies at all
and they see little bits
of green in the cake,
the game will be up.
Okay, it does not look like much now but,
that's a lot of zucchini.
Okay, we'll measure it out to
make sure we don't any more.
If you're a little bit
short it's totally fine,
don't worry about it.
Okay, that is one cup, two cups,
three cups and change, one
more zucchini on the way.
(upbeat music)
Four and a half cups of
freshly grated zucchini.
Let's wipe this work surface off
and then get to the wet ingredients.
Into the bowl of my standing mixer,
I'm adding in one and a
half cups of vegetable oil.
Hmm, vegetable oil.
Half a cup of sour cream.
One and a half cups of granulated sugar.
One packed cup, so
that's packing it down in
of light brown sugar, plop.
I'm adding in a tablespoon of vanilla,
as measured by my eyes.
And six whole eggs at room temperature.
This is ready to mix up
until it is a completely homogenous
and interestingly colored mixture.
I'm adding my scraping paddle attachment,
any paddle attachment will do though.
Start on low.
Increase speed carefully.
And let it run for a minute or two,
you can just walk away, come right back,
check your email, whatever you'd like.
Okay, my mixture is nice and homogenous,
time to add in all that fresh zucchini.
Hmm, you won't taste
zucchini in this cake,
I promise you that.
At most, you'll get the most
faintest botanical hint,
no one will know, except for seeing
a little green flecks in your cake.
Okay, let's dump that all in.
Zucchini's full of water.
Mix it up on slow.
Now it's time to add in our dry mixture.
I'm just gonna dump it all in,
you could add it in slowly if
you prefer for some reason,
but dumping works as well.
Carefully dump it, I don't
wanna spill this on my counter.
So let's mix on low.
I will be covering this with a tea towel.
I actually do have those
little plastic attachments here
that are supposed to stop the things
from spraying up at you,
but they've never worked in my opinion.
If they work for you, use one of those.
(upbeat music)
Wow, tea towel doesn't do
a hundred percent either.
(upbeat music)
Now it's time to add
in one and a half cups
of chocolate chips, optional.
You don't have to but I wanted to anyway.
So one and a half cups.
Stir them in.
That's good.
So we're going to finish this off by hand.
There might be a couple
stray little pockets
of flour hanging out at the bottom.
Hmm, this batter, look at this beautiful
dark chocolate batter.
It's like a brownie almost.
So, this is actually a big
triple layer eight-inch cake.
If you've watched my videos,
you know I usually make
little tiny six-inch cakes.
They're perfect for a small family
or someone who lacks
portion control, like me.
Because they're big layers,
I'm using parchment rounds
that I just cutout out of parchment paper
to go on the bottom right here.
I just buttered the pans really quickly.
This will make your
cakes release in a snap.
You could either flower your pans,
leave them just like this or
add a tiny bit of cocoa powder.
Just kick it around the sides
and it'll really help the cake release.
Now I'm ready to measure out
three equal-sized layers.
Get that batter there.
I wanna say it's like 600 grams each-ish.
Maybe about less, like 590 or 580.
Oh no, definitely more than 600.
That's a lot of batter.
That's a little bit less
than 800 grams of batter
in each pan, that's a lot of batter,
but this is a lot of cake.
Pop on some cake strips, if you use them,
you know all about it.
If you don't, these are the
magic little wet fabric bands
that give you perfectly flat cake layers.
Click up here to find out how to use them,
how to make your own and how they work,
it's a fun video to watch
and it actually passed one million views,
my highest video ever.
Pretty surprising to be honest.
All right, pop the last cake strip on
and then these are ready to
go into the oven at 350 for
probably about 40 minutes,
'cause this is a big cake.
For the chocolate shards on top,
I'm melting about half
a cup of dark chocolate.
The first step is to give it a nice chap.
(snapping)
Ideally, I want these shards to temper.
So the chocolate will
melt and re-crystallize
in a way that has a nice
shine and a good snap.
But if that doesn't happen
because it can be a little finicky,
especially if you're at home
without the thermometers and everything,
I have a cheat for you.
So, (clicks tongue)
let's see how this goes.
(snapping)
Gonna transfer this to a bowl
and start microwaving it.
The best way is to use a double boiler.
Blah, blah, blah, simmering water.
But I just don't feel like it right now.
So I'm gonna do it the bad way
which is to give it short
really low-power bursts
in your microwave, it'll melt slowly.
But first, let's reserve, I don't know,
maybe about a quarter or a third of this.
This is our special chocolate
we will melt back in later.
You'll see what happens.
So I've given this about
three 30-second bursts
at half power, so I'm
gonna melt the chocolate
until it's just melted.
And then stir in this finely chopped
or like you know, chopped cool chocolate
with the correct crystal structure
and then it should be magically tempered.
If it's too cold and it's not gonna melt,
you can go ahead and either use a heat gun
or your microwave again
and like a really short
burst of low power,
but just try and be patient.
You'll see that chocolate will melt.
This takes a minute, you
have to keep stirring it.
Then we're gonna dump it out
onto some parchment paper
and make some magic happen.
Pour that tempered chocolate
onto a piece of parchment paper
and spread it out with an offset spatula.
It get some nice interesting edges
because those are the parts
we're gonna be looking at.
Let the chocolate set.
It only will take a few
minutes on a cool countertop.
But if your chocolate isn't
tempered, don't worry.
You can still save it by
sprinkling some cocoa powder on top
it gives it some more visual interest
and no one will see the
chocolate's dull and not shiny.
Once your chocolate's set,
start snapping pieces randomly,
you can have big ones, small ones.
Any kinda shard you want.
And then just set them aside.
For the buttercream, I told
you this is a big cake.
So I don't wanna hear any guff.
I'm using a pound and a half of butter.
Here you go, here you go,
here you go.
Oh, let's cream this up for just a minute.
(mechanical buzzing)
Okay, it's creamed up.
So I'm gonna add a
teaspoon of salt in, hmm.
A third of a cup of cocoa powder.
You could sift that if you want to,
but living dangerously today.
Let's give this a mix.
(light music)
All right, that looks good.
Let's scrape the bowl down.
Look at that beautiful color.
Okay, it's a little bit more of a whip.
It's really cold.
(mechanical buzzing)
All right, now I'm gonna be adding in
between a pound and a half and two pounds
of confectioners' sugar, bit by bit.
I'm also not gonna be sifting this,
because there's no piping happening today.
Do a couple batches
until it's all mixed in
and you're satisfied with the sweetness.
Nope.
Nope, nope, nope, nope.
We're gonna use a tea towel.
Better.
(light music)
Mixed up some very strong
espresso over here,
a little bit for me, a little bit for you.
So add in about a teaspoon or so.
Scrape that bowl down.
A little bit more sugar.
Don't get caught up on the
ingredients you're adding in,
'cause you're not eating it all, I hope.
Unless it's your birthday,
and you can do whatever you'd like.
(mechanical buzzing)
Right, looking pretty good.
I'm gonna add in a splash of cream.
A little more espresso.
Let's give it a taste.
Hmm, that's really good.
Now, it's time to make
that chocolate ganache.
So let's heat up some
cream in the microwave.
To make the chocolate ganache,
I have three quarters of
a cup of dark chocolate
mini chips, anything is fine.
And one third of a cup
of hot scalded cream.
Pour that on top, swirl it around a bit.
And let it sit there for a minute,
just walk away, let it do its thing
and when we come back,
it'll be nice and ready.
It's been a minute, so
let's give it a whisk
and see how it is.
It might not be warm enough,
maybe it needs a little
tiny zap in the microwave.
But, maybe it's ready.
It's gonna look crazy for a second,
but then it'll all come together
and be this silky dreamy
chocolate ganache.
This looks really liquidy now,
but probably just the right consistency.
But I think that when we use it,
this'll be just right,
look at that, beautiful.
Okay, time to assemble.
To decorate that cake, I'm
piping on a thick layer
of that delicious chocolate
frosting onto the first layer.
Add the second layer on and repeat.
Cover the cake completely in buttercream
and now, it's kind of up to you.
You can either have a thick
wonderful layer on the outside
or you can scrape it away for
a semi naked cake, like I am.
Smooth the side of the
cake using a bench scraper
and then the top with an offset spatula.
It doesn't have to be perfect.
Most of this is is gonna
be covered up anyway.
So feel free to make some mistakes.
Pour that decadent ganache
on top, smooth it out
and then add a few more strategic drips
if you wanna have that nice
drippy cake look like I did.
The final step is to add those
beautiful chocolate shards
on top of the cake.
Just press them in, create a pattern.
I really love the way that
nice dusting of cocoa powder
added some visual contrast to the cake.
That was such a fun cake to decorate
and my favorite part was
the chocolate shards,
this tempered so nicely.
Can you hear that?
Perfect chocolate temper.
Okay, now for a bite.
What?
That's really good.
The cake is just right, so
chocolatey, not too sweet.
So moist, it's so moist
you wouldn't believe it.
You can't taste the zucchini.
But you understand,
it's this thing different about it.
It's really, really nice.
It's like the mouth feel is so great.
I hope you guys make this recipe.
I hope I don't have
chocolate stuck in my teeth.
And if you like my videos,
hit that like button and subscribe.
Bon appétit.
Okay.
- [Cameraman] Just that
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- If you like my videos,
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and bon appétit.
