RECIPE : SUSAN'S STRAWBERRY ZUCCHINI CAKE

Susan Nicholson

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This is a cake recipe I came up with the other day. My daughter wanted "something sweet," so I checked to see what was in the refrigerator. I had strawberries from a local farm but not enough for shortcake. I saw lots of zucchini in there, but I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of good old zucchini bread, tasty though it may be. I have a great recipe for chocolate zucchini cake, but I wanted to use those strawberries before they went bad, so I decided to invent my own cake recipe. The cake I made was very moist and dense with wonderful red splashes of strawberry throughout. I used a yellow-skinned zucchini so you really couldn’t see the zucchini in the cake, but you could certainly use a green-skinned zucchini. My daughter thought the cake was "yummy." Friends who tried it gobbled it up and declared it "Delicious!" Enjoy.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 cup grated zucchini
1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped fine
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 chopped nuts (I used half pecans and half almonds)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan.

Beat eggs, oil, and yogurt together.

Add dry ingredients, then spices and flavorings. Beat 2 minutes.

Blend in nuts and zucchini.

Finally fold in strawberries.

Pour into Bundt pan and bake for 1 hour or until top is golden and cake begins to pull away from sides of pan. 

Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes before removing from pan.

Cool completely before dusting with confectioners’ sugar.