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

"Spiced" Zucchini Cake 

w/Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting**

(This posted recipe is for the cake shown in the middle!)

Because of having a lot of zucchini, I made

three cakes yesterday.  This is the third time

I've made the one in the middle (shown below).

In other words, this one is already a favorite of

those who have had a piece.

Because I took this cake to a picnic, I do not 

have a photo of it after it was cut.  

CAKE INGREDIENTS:

• 1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist yellow cake mix
• 3/4 cup milk (I used whole milk)
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3 eggs (I used large eggs)
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (This amount is not overpowering.)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini (about 2 medium)
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

FROSTING INGREDIENTS:

• 1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I first run it through a sifter, or screen strainer to get rid of any lumps.)

DIRECTIONS for the CAKE:

1. Heat oven to 350-degrees.  Spray only the bottom of a 9x13" pan (I used glass) with cooking spray.  (Doing it this way and the regular way, I had equally good results with spraying the bottom and the sides of the glass dish.)
2. In a large bowl, beat cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes.
3. By hand, stir in the zucchini and walnuts.
4. Pour batter into pan.
5. Bake 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  (Don't over-bake.)  Remove from the oven to cooling rack.  Cool cake completely-- at least for one hour.*

DIRECTIONS for the FROSTING:

1. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter with electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth.  Beat in the cinnamon and vanilla.  
2. On low speed, beat in the "sifted" powdered sugar until frosting is smooth and creamy.  Spread frosting on cake.
3. Cut into 4 rows by 3 rows. 
4. Cover and refrigerate any remaining cake.

* Not following the instructions about letting the cake cool in the normal way, and because it was bedtime, I put a cover over the cake when it was still sitting on the cooling rack and barely out of the oven for 15 minutes.  As you can guess, condensation formed on the underside of the cover and that "rained" onto the cake.  What looked like a "mistake" ended up to be something we like-- I ended up with a very dense, very moist cake that goes so well with the cream cheese frosting!  I intend to make that same "mistake" each time I make this cake.


**I found the original recipe for this cake right here:  http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/zucchini-cake-with-cinnamon-cream-cheese-frosting/8e2f59f5-2766-47e7-80e1-b930cc559912?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=07_2016_standard

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.)  

``````````````````````````````````````````````````````

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

Zucchini 'n Stuff Muffins

I've made these with using honey instead of sugar; bananas instead of butter or oil; wheat flour in place of some of the white flour; gluten to add 'lightness'; wheat bran to add fiber; and chocolate chips ... for 'just because'.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups grated fresh zucchini
• 3 small bananas, mashed (equals 1 cup)
• 1 cup honey
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup wheat bran
• 2 teaspoons wheat gluten
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Another option:  You can omit chocolate chips and/or walnuts, and add 1 cup of raisins OR dried cranberries instead.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees (175-degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine the honey, eggs, mashed bananas.
3. Stir in the grated zucchini.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the two flour(s), wheat gluten, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.  
5. Stir the dry mixture into the zucchini mixture.
6. Add walnuts, chocolate chips if using.
7. Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with a little butter or vegetable oil spray.  Use a spoon or 'cookie scooper' to distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups, filling the cups up to within 1/2" of top.
8. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown, and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 t0 30 minutes.  Test with a long toothpick or a thin bamboo skewer to make sure the center of the muffins are done.  Set on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.  Remove muffins from the tin and let cool for another 20 minutes.

NOTE:  If you are including walnuts and other 'good stuff', you will likely have more batter than is needed for just 12 muffins.  I got 15 of the LARGE-sized muffins from this batch.

Zucchini Brownies

It is not a mistake that this recipe does not call for eggs.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 and 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• ....
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  
2. Grease and flour a 9 x 13" baking pan/dish.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla, and the 2 cups shredded zucchini until well blended.
4. Combine the 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Stir into the sugar mixture.
5. Fold in the walnuts (optional).  Instead of folding the walnuts into the stiff batter, I just sprinkled them on top before baking and then gently pressed them in a little bit with the back of a spatula.
6. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the pre-heated oven until brownies spring back when gently touched, OR until a toothpick comes out clean.  Do not over bake.

FROSTING?????  IF you want to put a frosting on these, melt together 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder and 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter. Set aside and let this cool.  In a medium bowl, blend together 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup milk, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.  Add this to the melted and cooled cocoa/butter mixture.  Mix/beat well until very smooth.  Spread over cooled brownies before cutting into squares.

Carrot and Zucchini Bars* w/Cream Cheese Frosting

This recipe is a KEEEEEEEEPER!!  
I think this is more like a snack cake than a bar.
It is moist AND ... SO good!

INGREDIENTS for the Bars:
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 small pinches of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (some may prefer to use cinnamon in place of the ginger)
...
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used Smart Balance blend of oils)
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
...
1 and 1/2 cups finely shredded  carrots (I used a "fine grate" disc on my food processor to get this done.)
1 cup finely shredded zucchini (If using larger zucchini, cut in half and remove seeds/dry stuff.  I do not peel it.)
1/2 cups chopped walnuts (or pecans?), optional

INGREDIENTS for the Cream Cheese Icing:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

..........................................................................................

DIRECTIONS for making the bars:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground ginger).  Set aside.

In a "quite large" mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, oil, honey, eggs, and vanilla extract.  Whisk until well mixed.  Set aside so the sugar granules can better dissolve while you grate the carrots and zucchini.

Grate the carrots and the zucchini.

Dump the well-whisked dry ingredients AND the grated carrots AND the grated zucchini AND the chopped nuts to the "wet ingredients" in the large mixing bowl.  Using a wide spatula or wooden spoon, GENTLY stir or fold these ingredients evenly into the wet ingredients-- to have the finished product end up lighter, do NOT over-mix/stir.

Dump finished batter into the prepared pan/dish, like this... 

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, which is about 25 minutes.  Coming out of the oven, mine looked like this... 

Place the pan on a wire rack and cool completely.

DIRECTIONS for making the icing:
Using an electric mixer, beat the softened cream cheese until it's smooth.  Add the powdered sugar and vanilla extract.  Beat together until all is VERY smooth and creamy-like (2-3 minutes?).  Spread evenly over the cooled bars.  

The bars can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature OR in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.  These also FREEZE very well!

*Recipe, with a different kind of icing, was adapted from website of 
http://realmomkitchen.com  And, before that, it came from  the
Better Homes and Gardens website at
 http://www.bhg.com/recipe/bars/carrot-and-zucchini-bars/

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread* (actually, it's more cake-like!)

If you are "into" CHOCOLATE, 
you will probably like this.  

If you are NOT, ...do NOT make this!!!

"Double Chocolate" =  very CHOCOLATE'Y!!

In addition to cocoa, each loaf 

has a whole cup of semi-sweet 

chocolate chips in it! (To make it with "less of strong chocolate", use milk chocolate chips, or leave 'em out altogether.)

INGREDIENTS:

The following ingredients make just ONE of the 8x4-inch loaves.  Double all ingredients to make two as shown above.

1 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (I used Hershey's cocoa)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder (I use aluminum-free)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

...

2 large eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used Smart Balance blend)

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup honey (I used honey fresh from our son's beehives)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

....

2 cups shredded zucchini (If using larger zucchini, cut in half and remove seeds along with its "drier stuff"-- I don't peel it.)

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips.  (Use milk chocolate chips IF you would rather have a more mild chocolate flavor!, or leave the chips out altogether.)

 I love nuts! and I would like to have put some in here, ...but not every family member likes them as much as I do!  Besides, my pan was FULL ENOUGH without anything else being added.

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 350-degrees.  Spray an 8x4-inch loaf pan with non-stick spray.  I also cut a long/thin piece of parchment paper that will go down the end, along the bottom, and up the other end.  I spray that, too.   It seems to take the "hope" out of removing the loaf when it's done.

• In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda).  Make sure everything is very evenly mixed together. (It's not necessary, but I also ran this dry mixture through a strainer-type sieve to get rid of any small lumps that could be in the cocoa,)  Set aside.

• In quite a LARGE bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, brown sugar, honey and vanilla extract.  Once this is mixed together, I like to let this stand for a few minutes so that the liquid (eggs and vanilla) can sort of "melt" the granules of brown sugar.   Maybe five minutes, ...and then I whisk it for a little bit, again.

• NOW, I dump the bowl of whisked together "dry ingredients" into the large bowl  of the whisked together "wet" ingredients.  Before stirring, I also dump the grated zucchini and the chocolate chips on the top of all.   At this point, I start stirring/blending/folding with a wide spatula or wooden spoon.  I just want to make sure things are blended together-- over-stirring may cause a drier/tougher loaf than I want.

• Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.  When I saw how much batter I had in comparison to the size of the smaller loaf pan, I thought I would surely be in "trouble" because the batter came to 1/2" from the top of the pan.  I was picturing a serious kind of "bake-over" in the oven, but,... it didn't happen.  All was well.  

• Bake for 65-75 minutes, or until a toothpick (or thin sharp knife) inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached.  Depending on your own oven, and especially if you will be using a DARK kind of loaf pan, you might want to put a baking sheet on the rack that's below the rack you're using-- this may keep the bottom of your loaf from getting too dark before it's done.  My pans were "light colored", so I didn't have to do that.  Some bakers say the baking time may also have to be decreased a little if you are using a dark pan (a glass loaf dish, too?).  You know your oven better than anyone else-- bake accordingly.

• Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely before slicing-- sometimes, it's hard to wait for that!!!  Store leftovers at room temperature, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap.  (I'm one who likes "cold cake" and I will also eat other things in their "cold state", also, so,... I like to store this in the refrigerator.)

*This recipe came from the website of King Arthur Flour.

Lemon Poppy Seed Zucchini Quick Loaf *

The one and only ZUCCHINI plant in Pam's garden 

is very, very productive!  This makes me want 

to find all kinds of ways to use what it's putting out!

I LIKE Lemon!

I LIKE Poppy Seed!

I LIKE Zucchini!

I LIKE Bread!

So,... I put 'em all together and have this!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 and 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant lemon pudding mix
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

....

• 4 large eggs
• 1 and 1/4 cups milk (I used whole milk)
• 1 cup canola or vegetable oil (I used "Smart Balance" oil blend)
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract

....

• 2 cups shredded zucchini  (If using larger zucchini, cut lengthwise and scrape out the seeds and fibrous "stuff", then grate.  I did not peel it.)
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 350-degrees
• Set oven rack to second-lowest position
• Grease two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans (I also put a piece of parchment paper in the bottom of each.)

• In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, dry pudding mix, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

• In another bowl, first whisk the eggs; add milk, oil, lemon juice and lemon extract. Whisk together.  

• Using a wooden spoon or spatula, gently stir the "wet ingredients" into dry ingredients JUST until moistened.  (Like when making muffins, do NOT over mix this batter.)

• Fold in the grated zucchini, poppy seeds and lemon peel.

• Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick or thin wooden skewer inserted near the center comes out clean.  In my oven, I needed to bake these two loves for about 1 hour (or 60 minutes).  

• Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

* This recipe comes from the website of Kittencal's Kitchen (a while back, when I sent her an e-mail and asked if I could make some of her recipes and post them in this blog, she wrote back and said "yes".   Thanks, Kitten Cal!

Today, while making this, I thought of Wayne's late Aunt Alma-- 

I think she was 'the' expert when it came to making any

 kind of poppy seed cake and, of course, her 

poppy seed Czech-style Kolache pastries.

                                  M-M-M, goooooood!

Today, before my little helper friend got the word 

"zucchini" down, she said to me, "I've never 

had 'zoonie' bread before!"  

Actually, ...me neither! (LOL!!)

Donna's Zucchini Bread

Last night, while we were away, Pam baked six loaves* of this very tasty zucchini bread.  They were so beautiful, and the house smelled so-o-o-o-o-o-o-o great when we opened the door.

(Photo by me, Doris)

This is the recipe I got from Donna in the 1980's, and it's been my 'go to' ever since.

Preheat oven to 325-degrees and grease two 8"x4" loaf pans.

INGREDIENTS:
3 eggs
3/4 cup oil
2 cups grated zucchini
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
~~~
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 
3 cups all-purpose flour
~~~
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
~~~~

DIRECTIONS:

Beat eggs, add oil, zucchini, sugar and vanilla.  Mix well.

Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Divide for two small loaf pans (8"x4").  Bake at 325-degrees for 45-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Butter crusts.
......................................................
* Pam made 4 batches of this dough at a time and poured 3 and 1/2 cups of batter into each 9x5-inch loaf pan that were sprayed with Pam (baking variety) that has a combination of oil/flour in it.  By baking in the larger loaf pans, they get done in about an hour (because ovens vary, test with a toothpick stuck into the crack on its top).   She ended up with six large-sized loaves.  Remove from pans, butter the top, and cool on rack before packaging for freezer.