The last few weeks my recipes have been heavily influenced by my farm share, as it should be this time of year. Two of my most popular posts, chocolate dipped strawberry creamsicles and lavender marionberry mason jar pie have both been born from farm share goodies. So when I found zucchini in my crate this week, the wheels in my head started turning. I played around with different ideas all week and yesterday I went to work in the kitchen. The result: a moist, rich chocolate espresso cake.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil two half pint mason jars.
In a medium sized bowl combine wet ingredients (oil, sugar, molasses, flax egg, instant coffee, vanilla, and zucchini), stirring together until uniformly mixed.
In a separate bowl combine the dries (flour, baking soda and powder, and salt). Add dries to wet and mix together. Do not over mix. Fold in chocolate chip.
Fill 1/2 pint jars between 2/3 and 3/4 full. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until knife comes out clean. Allow cake to cool at least 30 minutes before removing from jar.
Enjoy with a fresh cup of coffee.
Thanks for stopping by! The Sweet Life is a vegan food blog combining my love for good food, beautiful pictures, and compassionate eating. I am a long time vegan, trained in both photography and French Patisserie, excited to share my passions. Take a look around and enjoy The Sweet Life
This cake looks divine! I just found your site through bittersweet. It’s adorable and so helpful! All your recipes look delicious! Thanks for the great blog, I’m glad I found it.
I’m so glad you found me! And glad you like it too. Keller me know if you ever have any questions
Yummy! I look forward to enjoying these very soon– Thanks!
thank you, and i hope you do!
Wow that looks so awesome, I’ve seen and done a few individual cakes before but NOT with zucchini! Such an awesome idea!
So it’s safe to put a mason jar in the oven for that long?
The zucchini makes it so moist and delicious and a great way to use up extra harvest.
Mason jars do fine in the oven, at least I’ve never had a problem. And I’ve baked at higher temperatures than this cake.
This makes me want to go out and buy coffee grounds, even though we don’t drink the stuff. Looks fab!
The prospects of this recipe excite me greatly! …except I was taken aback when I saw you’re using instant coffee. Why not fresh ground bean? And if one could/did use fresh ground bean, how do you think the measurement would alter?
By the way, I came to your site by way of Homestead Survival on facebook…immediately bookmarked you. Thanks so much for sharing!
Hey, I’m glad you found me! i use instant coffee because it dissolves better in the batter. If you were to use regular coffee I would suggest grinding it up very fine (like espresso fine) so that it disperses well. I would also change the amount to 2 tbsp since regular isn’t as strong. let me know how it goes!
Sarah – I finally got the time to make this and…my goodness it’s wonderful!!! We loved it! The zucchini made for super moist cakes and the flavor balance was superb. I did use cocoa flavored coffee bean ground espresso fine and it seemed to work well; although, as I continue to make this recipe I think I will let the coffee be my variable and see how it changes things…everything else I’m leaving exactly as you laid out. And the flax egg was super cool to see come together – looking down into my mortar at seeds floating in water I had no idea what to expect but as I ground it up and it gathered that sticky consistency I was elated! Thanks again for an awesome recipe. And since I now have molasses and you’ve just posted about molasses cookies, I know how I’m spending my Sunday!
I love getting comments like this! thank you for making me day. I’m glad it worked out well and it’s great to know the finely ground coffee worked. I’ll probably try it that way next time. Hope you like the molasses cookies.
Beautiful! I am SO going to have to make these now (and then some more because these will be inhaled before they get out of the oven!). I just recently discovered your amazing blog through another blog and you have been duly crammed into my overstuffed rss feed reader. Thank you for sharing your amazing recipes with us as a long standing vegan who lives in Tasmania a.k.a. the meat eating capital of Australia, I salute you!
I’m glad you found me! and well done representing vegans in Tasmania…must not always be easy.