As my son and I were driving to town the other day we noticed three adorable children at the side of the road selling vegetables. My kids and I always stop and support young roadside entrepreneurs. (It is a joke in my family that I actually paid a dollar for a plain old rock while driving through Iowa—a young man was selling them as paperweights.)
These three had a cooler full of veggies, or let me clarify, a cooler full of the dreaded Zucchini! Their mom is clearly no dummy….she either had to give it away or get these cuties to sell it. I will admit only to you that I paid two bucks for a zucchini.
One of my friends is a very good chef, an inspiration to me as she has a palate that is both interesting and diverse. Well I must tell you I wept inside when yesterday she told me she was baking chocolate cake with zucchini!
It has always been my contention that chocolate and zucchini should not share the same sentence let alone the same batter bowl. What fun is licking that spoon if you might get a chunk of zucchini stuck in your teeth?
And P.S. if I had a nickel for every time I told you you can’t even taste the zucchini in a recipe I would have a dresser full of nickels!
Between you and me, I could die a happy, happy woman if I ate a piece of chocolate cake each and every day for the rest of my life. I could not resist the smell of freshly baked cake so I made the leap and I tried her zucchini laden chocolate cake.
I will not say that I liked it or that it was delicious… of course both would be true. So I am breaking down and finally giving you backyard gardeners what you’ve asked for all these years…zucchini chocolate cake recipes.
You can make it into loaves, Bundts or 9 by 13s…go nuts and use up some of that crazy vegetable. But let me tell you this, don’t come crying to me when you’ve gained 10 pounds trying to cover up the taste of zucchini with lots of chocolate, sugar and butter!
There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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