Tag: baking

I have a dear friend, a neighbor of ours.  His name is Bob and he’s a widower in his nineties.  Visiting him is like having an extra grandpa, and I treasure our friendship with him.  For years now we’ve been having neighborhood birthday parties for Bob, and we only serve one thing:  chocolate cake.  That man LOVES chocolate.  His kitchen counter ALWAYS has a box of See’s chocolates on it, and he opens the box to offer a chocolate to all his visitors.  It’s very sweet.  All these years later, Bob and chocolate cake sort of go together.  But no chocolate cake is complete without the best chocolate frosting.

This is our family’s favorite go-to chocolate frosting recipe.  Quick, simple, yummy every time.  It’s great on cookies, cakes, or whatever you need chocolate frosting for.


Best Chocolate Frosting

1 pound powdered sugar

1/2 cup softened butter

1/4-1/2 cup cocoa  (I usually use closer to 1/2 cup)

1 tsp. vanilla

1/3 cup milk

 

In a bowl, whip butter for 4-5 minutes.  Add vanilla and milk and beat until light.  Add cocoa, then add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well.  Frost and enjoy!

{frosting shown here on my chocolate zucchini cake }

Enjoy!

When you’ve got zucchini all over your kitchen counters, a chocolate zucchini cake is definitely in order, wouldn’t you think?


Chocolate Zucchini Cake Ingredients:
2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

4 eggs

3/4 cup applesauce

3/4 cup vegetable oil

3 cups grated zucchini, with peel

 

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour a bundt pan (or a 9×13 inch pan will work as well).

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  In a smaller bowl, beat together eggs, vegetable oil and applesauce until well combined.  Add to dry ingredients.  Stir to combine.  Add grated zucchini and stir until zucchini is well distributed.  Fill bundt pan and bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool for 15 minutes and invert onto cake platter to remove from bundt pan.  Cool completely and frost with your favorite frosting.  (I used this one, our Favorite Chocolate Frosting ).


Add a little homemade vanilla ice cream and you’re good to go!

If I have more zucchini than I know what to do with, I sometimes grate it and freeze in quart sized bags.  For this recipe, I freeze 3 cups grated zucchini and write both the measurement and the recipe it’s for on the bag.  That way we can enjoy it during the winter, too!

HH