This week is my husband’s birthday. I could tell you many stories about him but this is a recipe column so I will stick to telling you about his gardening expertise and sharing a fabulous, out-of-this-world birthday cake recipe.
Chuck loves gardening. He was literally in “hog heaven” when we moved onto 6 acres at CG Lake in 1989. In the middle of the acreage was a house a shop and some trees. That’s it. The terrain practically cried out for his tender loving care. Fortunately, he had some experience to do so.
As a young boy, every summer he helped tend his Grandpa Sautner’s many fruit trees and big vegetable garden. In the seventh grade he joined an agricultural program at school and was soon earning money by mowing lawns and pulling weeds for elderly neighbors at 50 cents a job! Later, as a teen he helped in his uncle’s Yucaipa peach orchard.
Wherever we have lived, Chuck has grown a vegetable garden. After we moved to Oregon he signed up to become a Master Gardener through the OSU program taught at the Eugene Fairgrounds. He graduated in 2001 and has been using his extensive skills ever since with plantings of a vast variety of trees, flower gardens and of course, a vegetable garden.
He has also volunteered his help around town. About 20 years ago, he planted and tended the original one-acre vegetable garden for Community Sharing. He also tended the Daugherty Memorial Garden at First Presbyterian Church. And every summer, he plants a Kaiser garden extravaganza.
The two of us can only eat so much and lots of what he grows is given away or shared with alert early birds and other critters. Springtime, he grows unbelievable lettuce and we always make strawberry freezer jam. The birds usually get cherries and pears before we do and we freeze lots of blueberries and marionberries. We can lots of the soon to be ripe tomatoes and yes…we have cucumbers and more zucchini than our neighborhood can eat!
Chuck doesn’t really like zucchini but he grows it for me.This year, our zucchini have flourished in great abundance and they’re not at all what we expected. Their pretty yellow and green orbs have white stripes.
Now, in honor of the birthday boy, I’m only printing one recipe. It’s a chocolate cake dessert that is to die for! The only drawback (if you want to call it that) is that it calls for 16 ingredients—one of them is zucchini. Be sure that you set everything out on the counter that is called for. Otherwise, you’ll get lost wondering if you have everything!
Trust me. This is a great recipe. Enjoy! And Happy Birthday Chuck!
CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE
With Brown Sugar Streusel Topping
1/2 cup butter (can substitute applesauce)
1/3 cup coconut oil (or canola/vegetable oil)
1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded zucchini
TOPPING:
1/2 cup sliced almond
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9X13-inch pan with cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer cream together the butter, oil and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix. Add 1/2 of the buttermilk; mix. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Add the remaining buttermilk and mix followed by the last of the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Stir in the shredded zucchini.
Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the almonds and chocolate chips. Finally, sprinkle the brown sugar on top of everything.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs (don't over-bake). Cool before serving 12 people.
“Keep it simple and keep it seasonal with Betty Kaiser’s Cook’s Corner”
9/3/2020 Cottage Grove Sentinel Newspaper
