Recipe #3 Chocolate-zucchini Cake

The garden in Tavistock produced a wonderful harvest and one of the bountiful fruits was zucchini. The Summer Romanesco zucchini was planted from seed (ordered from Delta, British Columbia). The picture above is one of many zucchini flowers from our garden. The flowers make a delicious appetizer when dipped in a light batter and deep fried. Although the zucchini plant has many uses, our favourite has been this amazing brownie like treat. After a long search, we favoured this recipe from "The Bon Appetit Cookbook", page 522.

Chocolate-zucchini cake

2 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/3/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter (I use becel margerine)

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use sunflower oil)

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini

1 cup semi sweet dark chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour 13x9x2 in baking pan. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter, and oil in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Mix in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions each. Mix in grated zucchini. Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts over batter.

Bake cake until tester comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool completely in pan. Enjoy!