Kat’s Chocolate Zucchini Squares with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing-The Best-Ever Recipe For Your Extra Zucchini

Every year I plant zucchinis in our backyard garden and every year I seem to end up with more than I can use, but this year has really been something else. I literally have a countertop full of zucchinis.

This is maybe a third of the zucchinis that I have to cook up. I have no idea how I’m going to deal with all of them!

I’m not sure how I’ll use them all, but I do know many are going to be used to make my very favourite zucchini recipe of all time: Chocolate Zucchini Squares. Whether or not you like zucchini, you will LOVE this recipe. And if your kids turn up their noses at vegetables, it’s a great way to sneak a little extra nutrition into their sweets!

Chocolate Zucchini Squares with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

Cake Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1 ½ cups salad oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¼ cup cocoa
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Beat together eggs, oil and sugar.
2. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and cocoa until well mixed.
3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well.
4. Add vanilla, zucchini and nuts, if desired, and mix well.
5. Pour into greased and floured 15x10x1 inch pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for thirty minutes or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.

Icing Ingredients:

• 3 oz. cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup butter, softened
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 2 tbsp. cocoa
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

1. Blend together all ingredients until creamy. Spread on cooled bars.

Freezes well.

When the batter is fully mixed, it really doesn’t look all that appetizing. But just wait until it comes out of the oven!

While the original recipe uses a jellyroll pan for the squares, I find it much more effective to double the recipe and pour it into three 13x9x2 inch cake pans instead. The disposable foil pans are available at most grocery stores, cost only a few dollars and give me the ability to freeze pan after pan of Chocolate Zucchini Squares without spending a fortune on bakeware.

Doubling both the batter and the icing makes the perfect amount of cake to fill three 13×9 inch cake pans. One to eat and two to freeze; that’s my motto!

In addition to being absolutely delicious, these squares freeze beautifully. The zucchini keeps the squares nice and moist even after months in the freezer and unlike some cakes and squares, these can even be iced before they are frozen so that your treat is ready to eat as soon as it’s thawed.

I have yet to meet anyone that doesn’t love this recipe; men, women and children of all ages find it absolutely irresistible. The squares taste a great deal like rich, fudgy brownies and the zucchini is undetectable.

Seriously, doesn’t that look delicious? No wonder my family can finish a full pan in a day!

The only downside? After doubling the recipe and making three big, moist, delicious cakes, I used a grand total of TWO zucchinis. One was a big one, but…well, did you see the pile?

If you have a surplus of zucchinis and you’re wondering how to use them, you really have to give this recipe a try. Having a few pans of these chocolaty treats in the freezer is always a good idea! And if you do try it out, let me know how they turned out! I’d love to hear if your family loved them as much as mine does!