Summer birthday cake

We've celebrated several birthdays around here in the past little while, and our favourite zucchini chocolate cake always makes an appearance for these occasions.  We usually add 2 eggs to the recipe for a lighter cake that rises well, but this time we modified it with banana in place of eggs for a vegan version.  We've made it with gluten free flour in place of wheat for a GF version, and used chocolate-avocado-maple icing for a sugar-free version.  Any way you make this cake it always turns out perfectly, and uses up a good load of zucchini which is in abundance at this time.

100-Mile Desserts: Zucchini Muffins

Here is a 100-Mile recipe for simple, sugar-free, delectable zucchini muffins using local ingredients. It's zucchini season and if you grow them in your garden you are probably looking for new ways to use them up. They can also be shredded and put in the freezer for winter baking. Zucchini adds amazing moist texture to any baking - cakes, muffins, breads...(and of course these are easily embellished with other non-local ingredients like nuts, raisins, dates, chocolate chips, or cocoa - once the 100-mile diet challenge is over).

Zucchini Muffins
2 cups light spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup milk
1 cup maple syrup or honey (or half and half)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup applesauce*

* I actually didn't have enough applesauce, so I used 1/3 cup yogurt and 1 egg instead and they came out nicely. A touch of cocoa would be lovely, as zucchini and chocolate go nicely together. If you are using spices, then cinnamon, cloves and ginger is a nice compliment to these muffins.

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Line two muffin pans.
2) Mix dry ingredients in one bowl. In another bowl combine syrup/honey, milk and oil. Pour wet into dry and stir well to combine. Then add in zucchin and applesauce and mix in gently.
3) Divide batter into 17-18 muffin cups (makes about 1.5 dozen medium sized muffins, or 1 dozen large muffins).
4) Bake for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned and firm on top.

Maya's Birth-Day Zucchini Cake

Baby Maya slept for almost 8 hours straight this past night (from 10 pm - 6 am), and is napping beside me again. Being a little more rested myself this has given me the impetus to rush around a bit today, working on this blog, cooking zucchini soup, harvesting basil to make pesto, drying calendula & hot cayenne peppers, hanging laundry outside, and supporting Greg on the strawbale construction, all at the same time!

Speaking of recipes that use up profuse amounts of vegetables, here is a zucchini cake recipe from my mom that is so moist and chocolatey that it can easily replace any other version of a chocolate cake fit for a birthday celebration. No one will ever guess zucchini is the secret ingredient! We made it just after Maya's birth, as zucchini was in abundance in our garden at that time. It may well become her traditional birthday cake for each end of July. Today (mid September) we still have zucchini in hoards, popping up unexpectedly every other day when I happen to move one of the zucchini leaves aside to discover it. I decided to make up the zucchini cake again, as well as zucchini chowder, zucchini bread, marinated zucchini, zucchini & fresh egg pizza, and more shredded zucchini to put away in the freezer! We'll be grateful for it in February.

Here's the zucchini cake recipe for all you chocolate lovers who want to get some of othe benefits of vegetables and "eat your cake too":

Maya's Birth-Day Zucchini Chocolate Cake
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1 3/4 cups white sugar
2 cups grated zucchini (add this at the very end)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk

Mix all above ingredients except zucchini in large bowl. In separate bowl mix:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
5 Tbsp cocoa
1 Tbsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional

Add 2nd bowl to first and beat. Then add zucchini.
Put into greased 9x13 glass baking dish.
Top with:
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup nuts, optional

Bake at 325F for 45-60 minutes, until knife inserted comes out clean. Serve warm or cold.