If you have ever planted one zucchini plant in your garden, you will know that one plant can feed a neighborhood for the entire summer. Why is it that this plant can produce 10-15 huge zucchinis in one week? Why can’t it be a more appealing fruit like a pineapple. I would love to have 10-15 fresh pineapples come off of my zucchini plant in one week. Why does it have to be zucchini that takes over the entire garden?
I feel like planting a zucchini plant should almost be a crime because people start sneaking around and leaving zucchini on porches and in cars and leaving them in baskets by the side of the road. “Free – Please take some… Please!” Even mothers start hiding zucchini in every dish they can get away with. It started with bread and now has moved to cakes, pancakes, meatballs… etc.
This year we planted one plant. It is now huge and producing many zucchinis a week. I try to pick them while they are young and little, but somehow, I still end up missing one and finding it later when it’s huge.
Small zucchinis are perfect for steaming and eating as a vegetable, making zoodles with and dicing into other vegetable side dishes. Large zucchinis are best for peeling, seeding, shredding, and adding into breads and other baked goods.
Once the zucchini gets too big, it’s best to just make a boat out of it and send it down the river.
This is our favorite chocolate zucchini cake. I have already made it twice this summer. It’s delicious! And if you think like my husband, it’s nutritious too because it has zucchini in it, so you can eat your cake and get your veggies too!
I added Flaxseed to the recipe and it was great! It’s completely optional, but if you are like me and bought a huge bag of flaxseed from Costco and are looking for recipes to through it into, give it a try!
First step make sure you have all the ingredients and grate the zucchini. If you have more than 2 cups, you can freeze it in freezer bags in 2 cup increments so you can make this recipe again in the winter. I use a kitchen aid mixer with a grater attachment to grate the zucchini. Works like a charm!!!
You don’t have to put this cake in a bundt cake pan. I did for fun. You can make it in a couple loaf pans, a 9X13 cake pan, or even as yummy muffins.
Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 4 Tbsp cocoa
- 2 Tbsp ground flax seed (optional)
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Cream together butter, oil, sugar and brown sugar.
- Add eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk.
- In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Then add to creamed mixture.
- Add grated zucchini and chocolate chips, stir well.
- Pour into a greased pan. (Bundt pan, 9×13 inch baking pan, 2 loaf pans…)
- (Option 2: save brown sugar and chocolate chips until the end. Mix together and sprinkle over cake batter.)
- Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.
Enjoy and serve on something pretty!
Here are some of my favorites:
Olaf “In Summer” Party
With the release of Frozen 2 this past month, everyone is loving their favorite characters again, especially Olaf. I wanted to share a birthday party from June of 2014.
My daughter and her best friend both wanted a Frozen Birthday party. The problem was they both had June birthdays. How do you do a Frozen birthday party in the summer?
You throw an Olaf “In Summer” combined birthday party.
As Olaf would say in Frozen 2, “I’ll Bring the Snacks!”
My friend painted this amazing Olaf stand up on a cardboard box. The kids all loved him and had to have their pictures taken with him.
She also made this great Olaf piñata from three balloons, paper mâché and pipe cleaners. Isn’t she amazing?
I made a cake using fondant for the first time ever. It was actually very easy.
Using the left over fondant, I rolled little Olaf snowmen for the tops of the cupcakes. For those who have more time, you can really make them look a lot more like Olaf with a few more details. Like a cute little carrot nose and some hair and eyes. But I was running short on time and the kids loved the cupcakes just the way they were.
Sorry for the poor lighting from 2014. Olaf would say, “Because when you’re older, absolutely everything makes sense.”
The kids were invited to come in their swimsuits. We had a kiddie pool, slip and slide, and other fun water games for them to play. We also had my mother’s professional ice shaver for some great snow cones.
If you want an amazing gift that keeps on giving, give them this snow cone maker!!! We gave it to my mom for Mother’s Day with my siblings a few years back and it was the best gift we ever gave her. Everyone loves to have a snow cone at grandma’s during the summer and you don’t have to have little frozen cups of water just for it. It uses any ice you have from your freezer or a bag of ice from the store. I HIGHLY recommend this!