Zucchini Spice Cake Recipe

A Flavorful, Moist Cake with Pineapple Cream Cheese Icing

Jul 28, 2008 Theresa Bledsoe

Zucchini. If you're in a quandry about how to use up your supply of this garden vegetable, try the following recipe for a rich, moist, deliously different cake.

If you, or anyone living near you has a vegetable garden, chances are good that you have an ample supply of zucchini on hand during the summer months. This wonderful plant is so prolific that it can make virtually anyone feel like a successful gardener. Figuring out what to do with the bountiful harvest, however, is another story.

Fortunately, zucchini is extremely versatile. It can be added to vegetable soups, chopped into spaghetti sauce, and sliced or shredded into salads. It can be breaded and fried, stuffed and baked, or simply grilled. And if you want to get even more creative, it can be sliced lengthwise and used as the basis of lasagna in place of regular lasagna noodles.

But, if you really want your zucchini to get attention, try using it in a dessert. It's high moisture content makes it a winning ingredient in cookies, muffins, and cakes, resulting in a dense, delicious finale to your meal that others will rave about.

The recipe below makes a wonderful, rich dessert that's sure to get noticed at home, at family gatherings, or at pot luck meals.

Zucchini Spice Cake

3 cups peeled and grated zucchini (approximately 1 pound)

1 cup ground walnuts

1 cup flaked coconut

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 Tablespoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottoms and sides of two-10 inch round pans. Add 2 teaspoons flour to each pan. Gently tap pan to evenly coat bottom and sides with flour. Invert pan and discard excess flour.
  2. Combine zucchini, walnuts and coconut in medium bowl: set aside.
  3. Beat together eggs, oil and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended. Beat in granulated sugar. Gradually add combined dry ingredients, mixing well after each addition. Stir in zucchini mixture. Pour evenly into prepared pans.
  4. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool layers in pans on wire racks for about 10 minutes. Loosen edges, remove cake and place on racks to cool completely.
  5. Fill and frost cake. Pineapple Cream Cheese Icing works especially well with this cake. (See recipe below.)

Note: To simplify this recipe, try baking it in a 9x13 inch pan and adjusting the baking time as needed.

Pineapple Cream Cheese Icing

1-8 ounce package cream cheese, softened

1 stick margarine, softened

1-8ounce can crushed pineapple, drained well

1 pound (approximately 41/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

  1. Beat together cream cheese and margarine in a large bowl until creamy. Blend in pineapple.
  2. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency.

Frozen Zucchini

Want to extend your use of zucchini to desserts throughout the year? Simply grate and measure an appropriate amount of zucchini into ziploc bags and freeze. Before preparing your desert, place the bag into a bowl to thaw. Use the entire contents of the bag as you would use fresh zucchini.

The copyright of the article Zucchini Spice Cake Recipe in Seasonal Cooking is owned by Theresa Bledsoe. Permission to republish Zucchini Spice Cake Recipe in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.