Chocolate and Zucchini Cake

According to a number of cookbooks I've read recently, it used to be far more common to put vegetables in sweet cakes.  It makes a lot of sense, not only because this was one way to sweeten batters before sugar was widely available and affordable in Europe, but also because the moisture in the raw vegetables leaks out as the cake bakes, and makes a very moist texture.  Carrot cake seems to be the only cake of this type to have survived, except for this recipe we have been making for a few years now.  When I first heard of it, I thought it would taste terrible, but you can't taste the zucchini, and believe me, once you try it, you'll be pondering other ways to include vegetables in your cakes!

Chocolate and Zucchini Cake

125 g butter
1 c brown sugar

½ c white sugar
3 eggs

2½ c flour

1 t vanilla

½ c plain yoghurt

¼ c cocoa

2 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

½ t mixed spice

½ t salt (if using unsalted butter)

3 c grated zucchini

Beat butter and sugars, and then add eggs, one at a time, with a spoonful of the measured flour (this stops the eggs curdling).  Add the vanilla and yoghurt and mix well to combine.  Sift in dry ingredients, add the zucchini, and mix well until thoroughly combined.  Bake at 170°C for ~45 minutes in a 25 cm tin.

Variations:  Omit the cinnamon and mixed spice if desired.  Add ½-1 c of chocolate chips before you add the dry ingredients, to make it even more chocolatey.  Swap the yoghurt for about half as much sour cream for a lovely tang (if the mixture becomes too dry, just add a small amount of milk to make up for the yoghurt).

I did have a photo of this cake, but it came out terribly and the cake didn't survive long enough to take another.  I will pop one in next time we make it!

Another Absence

Hi!  The weather has been so depressing here lately that I haven't been motivated to do much other than cook and sew and crochet.  This is why last week's Links of the Week have come out today (and have last week's date on them).

I have finished my friend's birthday present scarf, and have to finish edging it, then block it, then send it.  The copies of my thesis that I had bound weeks ago are still sitting on the floor behind the couch waiting to be sent.  My gnome picture that was the stitch along at Feeling Stitchy LAST month, is still going (I even finished a whole flower yesterday), but I have realised that the beads we got at Spotlight last week are too big to use for everywhere I wanted to put a bead, so when Mum goes to the hospital for x rays (her doctor thinks she might have arthritis!) on Monday, I will tag along and pop into Spotlight again for some smaller beads.

I made a recipe from World of Cake that, if I had followed the instructions properly would never have worked (please people, check your quantities before recipe books go to the printer!) because it listed 1c of flour for about 3 or more cups of liquid, and assumed a bread-like dough would result.  Three extra cups of flour were, luckily, in the cupboard.  I made another recipe from that book and it turned out fabulously, so I stand by my claim that the book rocks.  I made this (delicious!), and also these (best chocolate chip/chunk biscuits ever!).

And today I am listening to hours of podcasts, broken up by listening to Bjork.  I will try to be better about posting more regularly again.  I was doing so well, too!  What are you up to?  Is anyone reading this enjoying the freezing weather here in NZ?  I'm sure we could amuse ourselves by asking everyone we talk to how many layers they're wearing (thermal singlet, t shirt, two jumpers, two pairs of pants, socks, thermal socks,...  does a wheat bag count as a layer?)!

Quick Book Review - Miss Hope's Chocolate Box

This is a pretty little book, so pretty that I didn't just scan the recipes to keep, but the little retro pictures along the way.  This book is about chocolates - truffles, palmiers, fudge, and little cakes - so I might as well stop trying to convince you to read it because you've already gone to the library/book shop/wherever you obtain books.  If you're still here, I don't know why, but let me continue.  Miss Hope is very funny, and her humour extends past her introduction into her delicious-looking recipes.  I haven't tried any as yet because most of the ones to my taste require a sugar thermometer, and the only one I can find is in Stevens and is $16+.  I do, however, want to try the Black Forest Fudge that doesn't need tempered chocolate, but it asks for glacé cherries which I can't stand.  So I have to figure out a substitute.  I could see myself buying this book because it has a rather wide range of yummies, not just truffles, just baking, or just fudge; and because it is just so pretty (and naughtily funny)!

Visit their website here and see all the kinds of lovely things we in New Zealand are missing out on!