Kids Can Make ... Zucchini Cake


Gingerbread for wimps.

Zucchini bread with zing.

Kids can make ... zucchini cake. 

Hmm ... that might work. I like the poetic feel of it, anyway. Maybe I should write the whole post in rhyme? Uh ... no. What am I thinking? I'm obviously not spending enough adult-to-adult time. 

Anyway, this is a lovely muffin / cake recipe that includes *veggies* and tastes a touch like gingerbread. Perfect for Christmastime!



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Kids Can Make ... Zucchini Cake
makes 2 medium cakes or lots of muffins

The time
10 min prep + 40 min baking + cooling

The ingredients
2 organic eggs, beaten
2 c milk
1/2 c olive oil
3 Tbs molasses
1/2 c rapadura sugar
3 Tbs fresh ginger, grated
3 med zucchini, grated
1/2 tsp nutmeg (ground)
1/2 tsp clove (ground)
1 tsp cinnamon (more if you like)
2 c wholemeal flour
2 c unbleached plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

*As always, use organic ingredients when you can, particularly the eggs - then you can be sure the hens were happy. 

**Don't be scared by the number of ingredients here - wait till you see how we just lump them all together and stir ...

The process
1. You preheat the oven to 160C (350F) while your kids mix the eggs, milk, oil, molasses, sugar and ginger together in a large mixing bowl. Then add the grated zucchini and mix.

2. You oil a couple of small cake tins (or line them with baking paper) while your kids measure out the spices, flours, baking soda and powder and salt into the same mixing bowl where all the liquid ingredients are. Stir, just until combined.

NOTE: You may have to police this part a bit ... we don't want the batter overmixed, or it won't rise up so nicely. Just stir to combine thoroughly.

3. Pour the batter into the cake tins - half into each if you can. Put in the oven and bake for 30-40 min, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. How long you bake will depend on how shallow your cake tins are, so start pricking them when the top starts to look solid.

4. When they're done, take the cakes out of the oven and let them cool on your benchtop for a few minutes. Then take the cakes out of the tins and finish cooling them on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container in the fridge, or ...

5. Serve with butter or ice cream or whipped cream or lemon curd. 

And if you serve them with butter, try to use a gorgeous wooden butter pat you got at the thrift store. Yep - it's dish of the day time! But first, let me tell you how much this costs.

The cost
You get 2 cakes here. I put one into the freezer and the other got used up for morning teas / Nelle's lunchbox / dessert over the week. Each cake cost me about $5 to make - and was 100% organic. I did manage to use marked down organic milk and marked down organic zucchini, so I felt pretty thrifty!

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Dish of the Day

I walked into a thrift store the other day, and found so many gems that the little old ladies in there were running out to me with more items - yet to be priced and shelved. I felt a bit like a superstar! (It was great.) And this lovely wooden butter pat was one of the items I bought. For $4. 


And check out my little photographer! 


Have a lovely, lovely week!
Amanda xx

Comments

  1. Gorgeous post, and photos. Your little one is so sweet.
    My Flea Market Find

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  2. A wooden butter pat. Patter pat - it evens sounds buttery. Yum.

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  4. I'm a real fan of both zucchini bread and gingerbread so I will definitely be making this recipe! Thanks.

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  5. Oh yum. Yum, yum, yum. Love zucchini bread, so this I must try. Sweet photographer, too. :)

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  6. YUMMY... BUTTER! I think trader joe's is selling a cute little cheese dish for like $5 (that comes with cheese).

    Is this similar to making carrot ..bread? (cake?) I love veggie breads. mmm

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  7. Jess, I hope you enjoy it! I can't wait to see what you're coming up with for Christmas :)

    Alyssa, Yes my little photographer was hilarious - butting me out of the way! I haven't checked her photos ... wonder if she has any better than mine?

    Karen, It's definitely like carrot cake! But with zucchini, of course. You might even try the carrot-gingerbread combo ... betcha it'd be great.

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  8. Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!

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  9. My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!

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  10. @Anonymous
    Thanks! Your cousin sounds pretty smart ... :)

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  11. Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!

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  12. Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!

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  13. I agree with the comment about not turning up on search engines. After a long time searching organic recipes your site has turned up and it's totally terrific! Congrats!!!!

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  14. I love this cake.... Would this recipe work well for muffins also??

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  15. Oops... I think I've answered my own question... there it is, right up there in the heading! Ok, here I go... I'm off to make muffins with this recipe!

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  16. I just made these babies and they are the best muffins I ever made! I only had 2 zuchinis so used a carrot aswell, and didn't have any clove either - cooked em for 30min n ate three in a row, hot n with butter, mmm!!! Extra stoked cos I've got a 9 week old n these were kinda time delayed - got all the ingredients out at 11am n didn't get to make em til much later, pulled them outta the oven at 12pm! Also love how you don't muck around, a double batch *is* the recipe - you speaka my language!

    Have just found your blog and am loving it. Cheers :) :)

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  17. @naomi Thanks, Naomi! I've been sending these in Nelle's lunchboxes lately - straight out of the freezer, so they melt by lunchtime. Double-batch = more time :)

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Thanks for commenting! Amandaxx