every summer i plant zucchini seeds rotating their position to minimise disease and pestilence..this year i planted them where i had just dug up my garlic on the premise that garlic acts a soil tonic..at the time of planting i also dug in a large bag of pigeon poo..there's a pigeon person living near me and i've been lucky enough a couple of times to be driving past when he has been putting free bags of it out onto his nature strip..anyway when the innocent first leaves emerged i let the plants know who was going to be boss this year..me..but i'm not sure whether they just didn't take heed or whether maybe..just maybe..all my preventive care and fertility rites have back fired on me..
as any zucchini grower knows this vegetable is particularly prolific..but mine are beyond prolific..they are positively fecund..for instance, on several occasions i have noticed premature zucchinis too small to pick grow overnight into monsters..you'd think i'd learn..
anyway..all these zucchinis i'm producing have to be used..every summer i make at least one huge tray of moussaka in which i add zucchini along with potato and eggplant..and i also make the ubiquitous zucchini slice..but because i have been wanting to expand my zucchini repertoire, over the last few months, i've been keeping an eye out for other zucchini recipes..and one that piqued my interest recently was for a chocolate and zucchini cake by the 'shady baker'..and today i decided to make it..i've included the recipe here because i've changed it a little..
chilli chocolate zucchini cake
ingredients
185 gms softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp salt
method
grease and line a 30 cm x 20 cm sandwich tin
preheat oven to 190 deg c
sift dry ingredients
cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
add eggs one at a time beating well between each addition
add half of the sifted dry ingredients and half of the milk and mix gently
add remaining flour mix and milk and mix until flour just incorporated
mix in grated zucchini by hand
spoon into tin and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until cooked when tested
allow to cool for 15 minutes and then carefully remove from the tin onto a cooling rack
when cool serve in squares dusted with icing sugar and a spoon of mascarpone
note: cake may be iced as desired
comments: the cake has a moist not overly sweet crumb and it cuts into well formed squares..the chilli is discernible with a pleasant slight heat..the sweetness of the mascarpone works well because the cake is not very sweet..
unfortunately the cake didn't really make much of a dent in my zucchini supply because i still have four quite large ones to deal with..
as any zucchini grower knows this vegetable is particularly prolific..but mine are beyond prolific..they are positively fecund..for instance, on several occasions i have noticed premature zucchinis too small to pick grow overnight into monsters..you'd think i'd learn..
anyway..all these zucchinis i'm producing have to be used..every summer i make at least one huge tray of moussaka in which i add zucchini along with potato and eggplant..and i also make the ubiquitous zucchini slice..but because i have been wanting to expand my zucchini repertoire, over the last few months, i've been keeping an eye out for other zucchini recipes..and one that piqued my interest recently was for a chocolate and zucchini cake by the 'shady baker'..and today i decided to make it..i've included the recipe here because i've changed it a little..
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chilli chocolate zucchini cake
ingredients
185 gms softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp salt
method
grease and line a 30 cm x 20 cm sandwich tin
preheat oven to 190 deg c
sift dry ingredients
cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
add eggs one at a time beating well between each addition
add half of the sifted dry ingredients and half of the milk and mix gently
add remaining flour mix and milk and mix until flour just incorporated
mix in grated zucchini by hand
spoon into tin and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until cooked when tested
allow to cool for 15 minutes and then carefully remove from the tin onto a cooling rack
when cool serve in squares dusted with icing sugar and a spoon of mascarpone
note: cake may be iced as desired
comments: the cake has a moist not overly sweet crumb and it cuts into well formed squares..the chilli is discernible with a pleasant slight heat..the sweetness of the mascarpone works well because the cake is not very sweet..
unfortunately the cake didn't really make much of a dent in my zucchini supply because i still have four quite large ones to deal with..
Thank you for your comments and link! Very kind! I am so pleased you enjoyed the recipe, I am going to try it also with the chilli kick :) My zucchini crop is also ridiculous...they are just so prolific!
ReplyDeletePS I really love your blog...so pleased to meet you :)
ReplyDeletethanks jane for the inspiration to make the cake..and for your kind comments..
DeleteI receive zucchini from my neighbors. Next year I will give this one a try. But I want to ask what is srf?
ReplyDeleteit's good to hear from you notesfromrumblycottage..srf is self raising flour..sorry about that..
ReplyDeleteLovely, lovely moist looking cake. I love zucchini, usually drowned in garlic and olive oil but I'm happy to eat it with chocolate and chilli as well :-)
ReplyDeletei wish we lived close enough so i could give you a few of my zucchinis to drown in garlic and olive oil..
DeleteThat's a great looking cake! I wish we had a garden full of zucchini right now. It is really cold outdoors this week. I was thinking of you as I was looking at Moomin paraphernalia and they had some lovely tin mugs with moomins on and I thought they would fit right in with your collection x Joanna
ReplyDeletehi joanna..it's great to hear from you..it's a challenge for me to keep up with my zucchini crop at the moment..but it's fun thinking of ways to use them..and those tin cups sound really cool..
DeleteZucchini are notorious for catching you out. I love their prolificness and luckily also love courgette soup! I have made a number of courgette cakes and everyone has been a success. Yours looks really good and I like the addition of chilli.
ReplyDeletethanks for visiting choclette and for your comments..i've looked at a few other zucchini cake recipes and i've seen some where nuts and spices are used..but i need to check your site to see what you've done..
DeleteJane, I'm so impressed - I'm starting to think we're the only people who can't grow zucchinis well. We managed just a dozen or so from our three plants, and now they're dying off already. I wonder if it's all the rain we're having - we've had very little sunshine at all. Your cake looks wonderful! :)
ReplyDeletei think you're right celia..one of the few plants to survive in my garden on the 47 deg c day in feb 2009 was the zucchini..it did flag in the heat but perked right up with a deep watering..so on that basis i think they just love the heat and i've noticed in the humidity they tend to develop mould which probably compromises their productivity and leads to an early demise..:)
Delete