I've gotten to the point where the zucchini is starting to take over the kitchen. When you find wayward zucchini hidden inside your box of raisin bran, in the dog's food dish, and piled in mounds on every counter top, you know it's time to take action.
OK, so it hasn't really gotten that bad yet, but I could see where things were headed and I decided to take matters into my own hands. After zucchini bread, stuffed zucchini, ratatouille with zucchini and zucchini in my stir fry, I was completely sick of zucchini. I finally decided it was time for the ultimate in food disguise mechanisms. Sure, cheese covers over a multitude of wrongs, but even that was starting to wear on me. It was time for the big guns. It was time... for chocolate.
The following recipe was taken from Garden and Hearth and it's fantastic. I took some to the pool yesterday and offered it to a friend's kid. I said, "B, would you like some zucchini chocolate cake?" She looked at me funny, but nodded. I gave her a piece and she scarfed it right up. Her mom asked her later, "So did you notice the zucchini in the cake?" She turned and looked at me in awe and said, "I thought you were kidding!" Honestly, you don't notice the zucchini except that the cake is moister and there's an occasional green sliver of zuc. skin popping out.
Ingredients:
* 1 cup butter
* 2 1/2 cups sugar (I used sucanut.)
* 4 eggs
* 2 tsp. vanilla
* 2 tsp. baking powder
* 1 tsp. baking soda
* 3/4 tsp. salt
* 3 cups plain flour (I used ground hard red wheat.)
* 1/2 cup baking cocoa
* 1 cup milk
* 3 cups zucchini grated (any summer squash is fine)
Directions:
Mix the butter and sugar until creamed. Add the eggs and vanilla until blended. Add in the dry ingredients and milk. (You're supposed to alternate but I just toss it all in at once.)
I'm making my second cake already because the one I made two days ago is long gone.
