Bottle Gourd Chocolate Cake

New Year...new outlook towards life...new resolutions...and a new you...is what we all have in our minds. But do we need excuse of new year to start something which is good for us...No... Each day is a new day which brings lots of hopes, promises and good things in life, and the resolutions are meant to be broken..so do not make resolutions but make good choices and take decisions which have positive effect in life. 

I used to make resolutions every year but now have stopped making them cause I know I will not be able to stick on even a single of those. But I have promised myself to try to live each day to its fullest, to spend more quality time with my DH, play lot more with my daughter and make more new friends but cherish the old ones for ever :)

I am a big fan of veggies in baked goodies, earlier I have made a beet bundt, carrot muffins and even a savoury pumpkin scone, so now this time I sneaked bottle gourd in chocolate cake. The cake turned out to be super moist and no body could guess that bottle gourd was in it..hehe (evil smile).

I dressed up the cake with chocolate sauce and it was divine.

( Recipe inspired from goshthatssovegan)

Ingredients:

For the Cake-

All Purpose Flour- 1 Cup

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder- 6 Tbsps

Sugar- 1/2 Cup + 2 Tbsps

Baking Soda-1 Tsp

Instant Coffee Powder- 1 Tsp

Salt- 1/8 Tsp

Canola Oil- 1/4 Cup

White Distilled Vinegar- 1 Tsp

Vanilla Extract- 1 Tsp

Water- 3/4 Cup (Approx)

Bottle Gourd- 1 Cup grated and packed

For Chocolate Sauce-

Sugar- 1/2 Cup

Soy Milk or Dairy Milk- 1/2 Cup

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder- 1/2 Tbsp

Salt- A Pinch

Vanilla extract- 1/4 Tsp

All Purpose Flour- 2 Tsp

Procedure:

For The Cake-

• Preheat the oven at 180 Degrees C for 10-15 minutes.
• Grease a cake tin with oil and line up with a parchment paper then grease the top of the paper with oil and keep aside.
• Grate the bottle gourd and measure 1 cup packed and keep separate.
• Sift all the dry ingredients ( flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, coffee, salt) together in a large bowl.
• Make a well in the centre and pour the wet ingredients ( oil, vinegar, vanilla, water) in it.
• Mix all the ingredients together. 
• Squeeze out water from the gourd and mix the grated gourd in the prepared cake mixture. Stir gently till everything is combined.
• Pour the batter in prepared cake tin. Choose a cake tin so that batter is more than 1/2 in the tin.
• Bake the cake in the preheated oven at 180 Degrees for 35-38 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. I baked the last 10 minutes with the top of the cake covered with aluminium foil.

For Chocolate Sauce-

Combine all the ingredients together in a saucepan and mix well so that there are no lumps. Boil the sauce for   

about 2 minutes in slow heat. Remove from heat. The sauce thickens as it cools. If the sauce gets too thick then add in more milk and heat it up a bit.

Pour the sauce on the cake and serve warm.

Sending this cake to Veggie/ Fruit A Month- Bottle Gourd which is a brainchild of Priya of Mharo Rajasthan and currently being hosted at my space.

Also linking this to Cooking Concept's Chocolate Fest.

Vardhini's Bake Fest #3 hosted at Pumpkin Farm.

Srivalli's Chocolate Mela

Vardhini's NewU event

Suma at Veggie Platter's Cook Eat Delicious Desserts event.