Wacky Cakes

Until Boy #2, we used box cakes. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting is my favorite. I miss the taste and the idea that it's more convenient. For a while, we did angel food cake mix since it was dairy and soy free. It's hit or miss if we can find a mix without corn product.

We finally decided it to bite the bullet and figure out how to make cake from scratch. We've tried a few recipes, but the only one I wanted to keep around was the chocolate wacky cake recipe I found at sweetlittlebluebird.com. The boys like it as cupcakes topped with raspberry or orange jello frosting. Mmm...

We tried the vanilla once, but it was bitter. Then tried the vanilla again, but as a platform to rework the guava/mango orange cake recipe for the boys. The flavor was fine, but the cake was gummy in the middle and hard on the outside. Next time, we'll try the lemon cake recipe instead, since it is similar to the mango orange flavor we were going for.

Chocolate Wacky Cake

Vanilla Wacky Cake

Lemon Wacky Cake

Zucchini Brownies

While perusing Mindika Moments, I found this little gem of a  recipe. My favorite dessert? Brownies!! Another great way to use our zucchini, satisfy my sweet tooth, and it's safe for the 3 Allergics.

I tried the recipe the night before I was taking it to a post baby blessing luncheon. Really?! New recipes need to have a test run before taken places. Silly me! The batter was really thick and didn't want to move around. Rather than shove it into the corners, I just baked it, thinking it would ooze out to the ends. That's what my usual batters do. I was wrong! I had a brownie blob in the middle of the pan. At least, it was delicious and easy to cut into appealing squares. 

Since then I've made it a few times: plain (without any nuts) and with pecans in the batter. Both ways are delicious. 

1 ½ C. sugar

½ C. oil

2 C. grated or puréed zucchini

2 t. vanilla

2 C. flour

1 t. salt

1 ½ t. baking soda

½ C. cocoa

½ C. toasted pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a jelly roll pan (10 x 15 1/2) with aluminum foil. 

In a mixing bowl, combine the sugar, oil, zucchini, and vanilla. Mix well.

Add salt, baking soda, and coco, then mix. Add nuts here for a nutty brownie. Add flour, mix until moist.

Pour batter into jelly roll pan then spread it out an oiled spatula. The batter is a sticky beast 

Bake at  for 20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. 

• Baking times may vary due to the water content of the zucchini. If you use a bigger zucchini, which has more liquid in it, the brownie batter will take longer to bake. 
• You can use a tea towel to squeeze the extra liquid out before adding the shredded zucchini to the batter. 

Remove and allow to cool.

Frost with chocolate frosting (recipe below) and top with nuts. We skip this part

CHOCOLATE FROSTING
½ C. butter; softened
1 lb. powdered sugar
½ C. cocoa
1 t. vanilla
¼ + milk
1. In a mixing bowl combine the butter, sugar and cocoa.
2. While mixing add the milk until the frosting reaches desired consistency.
3. If you accidentally add too much milk, add more sugar to compensate.

I put some coconut pecan frosting on top and it was yummy! Jake has requested that the next batch have more zucchini, and pecans, and that I bake them in a 8 x 11.5 pan. He likes them a little thicker.