Chocolate Cake IS Serious Dessert Time!

I have been MIA from my scrap room this week.  Family and work have kept me busy, which was nice.  But I have no such excuses for today. I have spent a big part of the day in the kitchen and I enjoyed every moment (except for the milk splash).  I made a layered salad as a side dish for dinner, which is done is staged steps.  And then I moved on to dessert!   I made this FABULOUS Chocolate Zucchini Pecan multi-layer cake!

For those who may be wondering, I am going to be including an occasional recipe here on my blog.  In addition to paper crafting, I also really enjoy cooking.  I am currently especially enjoying baking, but I will add other recipes as time passes. 

And speaking of baking, I love chocolate cake.  Chocolate cake is the stuff of serious dessert time!  And this cake is better than most.  The layers are sweet and moist.  The zucchini cooks nicely so that it is not screaming "veggies hiding here".  And the nuts are a nice flavor and texture addition.   And the frosting.  OH MY GOSH!  Fluffy, sweet, and creamy.

I am including the cake recipe below, include my adjustments.  This cake would be great with several different types of frosting.  I went with flour paste based frosting, one and one-half batches of my recipe (posted previously).  Yummy.

Chocolate Zucchini Pecan Cake
Ingredients:
• 3 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1.5 teaspoon baking soda
• 1.5 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup (1.5 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3 cups grated unpeeled zucchini (about 2 1/2 medium)
• 1 1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Prepare three 9-inch cake pans with butter and flour.
Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl; set aside.
Beat sugar, butter and oil in large bowl until fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract. Mix in dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions each. Mix in grated zucchini. Mix in chopped nuts. Divide batter evenly into prepared pans.

Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.  Cool cake completely in pans.
-Prepare frosting-

Remove pans and bring to room temperature. Frost each layer as you add it to the cake plate.  Spread remaining frositng on the sides of the cake.

Cake and Frosting Recipes - From Last Weekend

The cake I made last weekend is just crumbs in the platter now, but I was asked by a few of you to share the recipe.  I changed the original recipe in that the recipe called for seedless raspberry jam filling, but my dh prefers strawberry so I used strawberry preserves.  Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly.  This is my version of the cake recipe (Name changed to reflect our preferred filling). One more note, the frosting recipe is for a two layer cake.  I would suggest making 1.5 batches of the frosting for better coverage on your cake.

Strawberry-Laced Vanilla Cake

1 1/2 Cups of Butter, softened

1 1/4 Cups of Sugar

3 1/3 Cups of Cake Flour ( or 3 cups of all-purpose flour) * I used cake flour

2/3 Cup of milk

1 Tbsp of Baking Powder

1/2 tsp of Salt

1 1/2 tsp of Vanilla Extract

1/4 tsp of Baking Soda

4 Large Eggs

1 12 oz. Jar of Strawberry Preserves

Frosting (Recipe below)

Grease and flour three nine-inch round cake pans.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl with mixer on LOW speed beat butter and sugar just until blended.  Increase mixer speed to HIGH and beat for ten minutes, scraping bowl often.  Add to the bowl:  flour and the next six ingredients (though the eggs).  Mix on LOW speed until well mixed.  Increase mixer speed to high and mix for two minutes, occasionally scraping the bowl edges.

Spoon the batter evenly into the three prepared pans.  Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and cool in the pans for 10 minutes.  Remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the frosting (recipe below). 

Using a serrated knife, cut each cake layer in half horizontally to make six cake layer.  Assemble as follows:

Place the bottom half of a layer with the cut side up on a cake plate.  Spead 1/3 jar of strawberry preseves over the layer.  Top with the cake top half layer; spread with frosting to cover.  Top with the second cake bottom half and agains spread with 1/3 of the jar of preserves.  Top with the second top half layer and again spread with frosting.  Repeat for the last two layer, ending with frosting on the top of the cake.  Spread the remainging frosting around the sides of the cake.  Enjoy!

Whipped Frosting

1/4 Cup of Flour

1 Cup of Milk

1 Cup of Butter

1 Cup of granulated Sugar

Dash of Salt

1 tsp of Vanilla

Prepare the flour paste:

In a small sauce pan combine 1/4 cup of all purpose flour and 1 cup of milk.  Whisk to blend.  Over medium high heat cook mixture until thick and smooth.  Set aside and cool completely.

Prepare Frosting:

Beat 1 cup of butter for four minutes.  Add 1 cup of granulated sugar and beat for an additional four minutes.  Add the cooled flour paste and beat again for four minutes.  Add a dash of salt and 1 tsp of vanilla and beat to mix well. 

Frosting will be light and fluffy, like whipped cream.