Zucchini Chocolate Cake** 

w/Toasted Pecans and 
Mini-Chocolate Chips

This recipe is for the cake on the left side...

  Below:  More of a close-up of this cake...

Before starting to make this cake, toast 
the pecans* (the directions are at the bottom).

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 and 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup canola oil (I use the Smart Balance brand of blended oils)
• ---
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ---
• 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• ---
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• ---
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• ---

• 1 cup (or 6 oz.) miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted (directions below)*

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees.  Lightly coat a 9x13-inch baking pan with cooking spray (I used a glass dish)
2. In a large bowl, beat sugar and oil on medium speed for 1 minutes.
3. Add eggs, applesauce and vanilla; beat 1 minute longer.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa (sifted to eliminate lumps), baking soda and salt; add to the sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating ONLY until blended.  
5. Stir in the zucchini.
6. Pour into prepared pan or dish.  Bake 20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven long enough to sprinkle on chocolate chips and toasted pecans on top.
8. Bake 10-15 minutes longer or until a toothpick inserted into a spot without chocolate chips comes out clean. To retain moistness, do not over-bake.
9. Completely cool in pan on a wire rack before cutting.

 * TOASTING PECANS: Lightly spritz a baking sheet with non-stick spray. Spread the coarsely chopped pecans on the pan and toast them in a 350-degree oven just until they become aromatic, about 5 minutes.  Watch the time carefully so they don't end up being scorched. Set aside and let them cool while you prepare the cake batter.

(The specks showing in the ice cream 
are from the vanilla beans.)

** This recipe came from here:  

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/yummy-zucchini-chocolate-cake

Zucchini Chocolate Cake *

w/Hershey Chocolate Frosting

Blame it on the ZUCCHINI!!-- because of the 

extra zucchini I had here, I got a bit 

carried away with baking 

cakes yesterday.  You think?  

I took two of these to a picnic last night.  

(All three are zucchini-laced cakes!)

Our new family favorite of the three is 

actually the one in the middle with the "whitish" 

frosting which starts with a yellow cake mix and 
spices, topped with a cinnamon'y 
cream cheese frosting (I will post that
recipe separately).

For this post,...

HERE is the recipe for the one 

on the right (shown below) which is also a 
"keeper/repeater" kind of cake recipe.

(OOPS!-- Because I took this cake to the picnic, 

I did not get a picture of a cut piece!)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

----

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use an oil called Smart Balance)
• 1 and 3/4 cups granulated sugar

---

• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk OR 1/2 cup sour milk (I used buttermilk)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

---

• 1/4 cup cocoa (I run through screen strainer to make it lump-free)
• 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

---

• 2 cups zucchini, grated
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 coarsely chopped walnuts (optional).  I added these.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cream butter, then add oil and sugar-- beat together at least one minute.
2. Add the Eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla (mix well)
3. Whisk together and then add the cocoa, flour, baking soda, and salt.  Mix ONLY until blended in. 
4. By hand, stir in the grated zucchini. 
5. Also, by hand, fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
6. Pour into greased/floured 9x13" pan (I used a glass dish).
7. Bake at 325-degrees for "about" 1 hour, or until a "toothpick test" shows no cake batter on it.  (To retain moistness, be careful to not over-bake.)  

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FROSTING:  My favorite chocolate frosting recipe which I added is as follows--

 "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting-- this is also found on the back of the Hershey cocoa container:

Ingredients:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
2/3 cup sifted Hershey's cocoa
3 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Directions:
1.  Melt butter.  Stir in cocoa.
2.  Add powdered sugar, milk and vanilla, beating on med. speed until it is of spreading consistency.  Add more milk in very tiny quantities, if needed (I didn't need more milk.)  Makes about 2 cups of frosting.

This recipe was adapted from the following site:  http://www.food.com/recipe/zucchini-chocolate-cake-18693

Fudge Pudding "Lard" Cake w/Glossy Chocolate Icing

This is a real "from scratch" cake (a VERY "scratchy-scratch" kind of recipe!)  I say this recipe has more "strange" (to me) directions than I have ever seen or followed before today.  I know there are much easier ways to make a cake, but, just for today, I wanted to do this... just the way they said to! 

I got this recipe from an old "freezing and canning" book published in 1973-- it was among a compilation of recipes put together by those at the helm of the old Farm Journal-- a magazine that many of us farmers regularly subscribed to.  Even as a very young girl, I always looked for the "recipe section" in it.  Yes, ...this recipe calls for LARD!!!   

When the use of Crisco and Canola Oil, etc. was being "pushed" (pushed A LOT!), LARD was given a bad rap!  A really bad rap!  These days, that "bad rap" is unraveling (actually, it is reversing!). Today, when I googled "lard benefits", ONLY 1,620,000 sites popped up for one reason or another.  You can read and decide for yourself if you would ever care (dare?) to use lard.  Check it out at:

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=lard%20benefits 

BUT!, ...today's lard which is sold in the old-time and similar-looking green/white-colored Armour brand box is NOT what it used to be.   Read on that container and you're likely to see that the "hydrogenators"  have even "hydrogenated" today's lard-- and, the "hydrogenation" part is what I want to get AWAY from!  

A while ago, to get around that "hydrogenation" issue with most of "today's" store-bought lard, I picked up some pork fat from a local butcher and home-rendered my own.  I store it in glass jars and in the freezer-- just like my mother always did!  (Rendering it out wasn't anything hard to do, but it did take up a good bit of time.)

IF you REALLY like CHOCOLATE, you could pour "extra" of the glossy frosting on top of a piece and let it be all runny like this:

Read through the entire recipe (including the directions) before starting.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/3 cup lard, room temperature
• 3 squares unsweetened chocolate
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups sifted flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt lard in a 3 qt. saucepan over low heat.  
2. Add chocolate blocks to the melted lard over low heat and stir together until melted.  Remove from heat.
3. Separately, mix 3/4 cup sugar and cornstarch thoroughly.  Stir this into chocolate mixture until well blended.
4. Add the first 1 cup of milk; stir and cook over low heat until smooth and thick.  Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.  (Set pan in cold water to speed cooling.)
5. Sift all of the remaining dry ingredients together 3 times.
6. Add 1/2 of this sifted mixture to the thickened chocolate mixture, blend and beat only 1/2 minute (75 strokes).  
7. Add 3/4 cup milk and blend. 
8. Add remaining sifted dry ingredients, blend; beat just 1 minute (150 strokes).
9. Add eggs and vanilla, blend and beat just 1/2 minutes (75 stokes).
10. Bake in a paper-lined 9x13x2" pan in moderate oven (350-degrees) for about 35 minutes, or according to how your oven bakes.  COOL.
11. Frost with Glossy Fudge Frosting (it is more like a ganache).  The recipe is below, but first make this syrup:  

BASIC SUGAR SYRUP

FIRST, while the cake is baking and cooling, mix up this BASIC SUGAR SYRUP which will be used in the frosting.  To make this, you'll need: 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water.  Boil sugar and water together for just one minute.  Pour into jar.  Cool, cover and refrigerate this.  This will make about 1 cup of "basic sugar syrup".

GLOSSY FUDGE FROSTING

Actual Frosting Ingredients and Directions:

1. Melt 2 tablespoons butter over hot (not boiling) water.  Remove from heat before the water boils.
2. Add chocolate chips to butter over hot water and stir until melted, and well blended.
3. Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4. Add just 1/3 cup of the cooled "Basic Sugar Syrup" very gradually, stirring after each addition until blended.  Mixture will become glossy and smooth.
5. Remove from hot water and cool until of spreading consistency. 
6.  Spread thinly over cake.  Apply quickly by pouring a small amount at a time on top of cake, near the edges; as it runs down the sides, you can leave "as is" or spread it with a spatula.  (Might work better to frost the top of the cake last.)  This frosting recipe should be enough for two 8" layers, or one 9x13x2" pan cake.

P.S.  This recipe makes opening a box of cake mix and a can of ready-made chocolate frosting look super easy and very tempting, huh!!!!

Brownies, warm, or cooled...........

IF you like 'very chocolatey' (fudgey) chocolate brownies, these are great!

WHOA!!!!--  If you google 'recipe brownie', you will likely come up with  11 MILLION, 3 HUNDRED THOUSAND websites to choose from.  So, take your pick-- or, keep the recipe you already have and like.   I don't claim it to be better than every other brownie in the world, but the recipe I do like is shown  below in this posting...

By lining your baking pan/dish with foil/parchment paper that has 'lift edges' (as pictured below in this post), it is super easy to lift brownies out of the pan while they are still warm.  Almost any frosting put on the top of a 'warm one' will quickly soften and run over the 'cliffs' like this....

OR, as shown at the beginning of this post, let the brownies cool and frost them with the same frosting for this effect...

TIP:  If you don't want your brownies to be cake-like, don't use an electric mixer-- the hand-stirring method makes a more fudge-like brownie.  Just one bowl and a spatula/wooden spoon will do.

8x8 OR 9x9-inch baking pan/dish (I used 9x9-inch)

350° oven

INGREDIENTS: 

• 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate (I measured out and used 4 oz. of Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips)
• 1/2 cup melted, or very soft butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, as is.
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray OR grease/flour an 8×8 or 9×9 inch baking pan/dish.  IF it is important to you that you end up with clean/sharply cut edges on the brownies, prepare pan as in the following picture so you can lift them out after baking.   It maybe isn't necessary, but I also lightly spray the parchment paper.

After baking, you can cool them for a while in the dish and then, using the paper edges, lift them out, put 'em on a flat surface  (a cutting board, etc.), frost them and put into the freezer for about two hours (today, I put these on our -9 degree porch for an hour).  Cut with long knife........ and, they'll end up all perfect/pretty!

Back to the main directions...

• In medium/large microwave-safe bowl, melt unsweetened chocolate (check and stir after each 30-seconds).
• Add butter and sugar to the melted unsweetened chocolate and stir until well blended.
• Add slightly beaten eggs and vanilla; stir until evenly blended. 
• Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir this dry combination into the liquid mixture.  Stir gently and only long enough to fully incorporate.
• Stir in semi-sweet chocolate chips.
• Stir in chopped walnuts, if desired.
• Spread evenly into the prepared (sprayed, or greased/floured) pan. 
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until toothpick comes out with just a hint of a 'crumb' sticking to it.  (Toothpick should not be 'covered with brown', and it should not come out totally 'clean'.)  
• Cool before cutting into squares. (Or, lift out while warm by using 'parchment paper or foil liner with lift tabs' and cut as directed above.)

Frosting (more of a ganache):

Mix together the following...

• 3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (melted)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature 
• If you want the frosting to be thinner, carefully add milk/cream-- only 1 teaspoon at a time.

Frost brownies while they are still warm IF you want this to run over the top and sides. 

Frost when cool IF you want it to stay on the top, as is usual.  OR,.......... don't frost, at all!

It's -9 degrees here right now, with a windchill of  -20!  Hot chocolate (brown!) and brownies (another brown!) seem so right for today.

Versatile Brownies (Add what you like!)

Serves about 16


INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

You can add 1-2 cups of various chips (semi-sweet chocolate, white, butterscotch, peanut butter) or raisins, or chopped maraschino cherries, or chopped nuts, or M&M's, or Reese's pieces, or miniature marshmallows, or chopped candy bars, or ???.  Add whatever you like!

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

2.  Grease an 8-inch square pan or line with foil.

3.  In a medium bowl, combine melted butter and cocoa and stir until cocoa is dissolved.

4.  Add sugar and mix well.

5.  Add eggs one at a time and stir until well combined.

6.  Stir in vanilla, flour and salt until you no longer see any flour (do not over mix).

7.  Fold in "your favorite additions"!

8.  Spread in pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes.

9.  DO NOT OVER-BAKE-- your brownies will come out dry.  Adjust time/temp according for your oven.  If you do the knife/toothpick test, it should come out WITH MOIST crumbs, not totally clean.

10.  Cool completely before cutting into squares.

11.  For vegetarians, don't use marshmallows.

12.  For double recipe, bake in 9x13-inch pan and add 5 minutes to baking time.

Paula's Quick Brownies

Paula gave me this ingredient list for the brownies she makes.  Quick 'n easy... and good.

INGREDIENTS:

2 sticks softened butter
2 cups sugar
4 whole eggs, slightly beaten
1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup cocoa
1 and 1/2 cups flour
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add eggs.  Mix.  Add the baking powder, salt and cocoa.  Stir in.  Lastly, add the flour and nuts (optional).  Stir only long enough to incorporate.

Bake in greased 9x13-inch pan at 350-degrees for about 30 minutes.  Check for doneness with a toothpick.  (Don't over bake.)