Beginning last week, the zucchini plant in my garden started bearing fruit. Thus far I've made sautéed zucchini rounds, zucchini bread and zucchini chocolate cake. That might be enough zucchini for some folks, but I was hoping for much more.
I'm the sort of person who likes to buy several pounds of a fruit or vegetable that is in season, much more than Dan and I could possibly eat before it all spoils. Then, I sift through my pile of cookbooks searching for ways to use it all up.
I had come across some zucchini recipes I was excited to try: soup, a walnut bread, etc. Mostly, I just want an excuse to bake another Zucchini Chocolate Cake. My, it was so good. The zucchini made the cake incredibly moist. I didn't even bother to ice it. Though Dan turned his nose up at the idea of putting zucchini in a chocolate cake, he was impressed by the results. Unless you grated the zucchini by hand or someone you trusted swore she put it in the cake, you wouldn't believe it. You don't taste the zucchini at all.
The recipe I used can be found here. Though the instructions didn't specify, I finely grated the zucchini and drained off the excess liquid. I also made a change to the list of ingredients by adding 1 teaspoon of espresso powder. I learned that little trick from Ina Garten. She always adds coffee to her chocolate recipes to enhance the flavor of the chocolate.
Well, here's hoping the current orange blossoms on the plant bear more squash.
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