Zucchini Strawberry Cake

Zucchini week has ended up turning into zucchini month, but life happens.  We finally got some good news and found tenants for our home in Humboldt.  We spent the last week sorting everything out and moving the last bit of our stuff, so this post has happened much later than I planned.  Anyway, on to the zucchini!

Yesterday I harvested the last of the zucchini, and believe it or not, I felt kind of sad.  It’s the one crop in the garden that you can count on to produce all summer long.

I couldn’t wait to make this cake!  It started as a batch of squares I made for a funeral.  I really liked them, but thought they would make a much more exciting cake.  The only fancy ingredient you’ll need is some almond flavouring.  Everything else you likely have in your pantry.

You will need:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup shredded & peeled zucchini
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs (mine were really small, so I used 3)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp almond extract

Whisk it all together in a mixing bowl and divide between two cake pans.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  You should end up with two cakes like this:

When the cakes have cooled, spread strawberry jam on one, and stack the other on top.

Originally when I first developed this recipe, I used only a tiny bit of butter in the icing and the jam ended up colouring it very bright pink.  With more butter this time around, the pink is much softer and the icing is better tasting.  For the icing you will need:

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 bag (about 4 cups) icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp strawberry jam
• water or milk to desired consistency, about 1/4 cup or less.

Ice your cake, and voila!

This post is the last in the Zucchini Week Series.  I hope you’ve tried out some of the recipes and used up your zucchini!  Let me know in the comments which one was your favourite.