The zucchini plants in my garden patch have become so waterlogged from the recent rain that I had to pull them out of the ground. So there is no bountiful crop from my veggie patch to write home about. But thanks to my local fruit and veg shop selling kilo bags of zucchinis for $2, I have had a plentiful supply of zucchinis.

What To Do With A Veggie Crisper Full Of Zucchinis?

Make zucchini cake! I finally decided to try a recipe I have been dying to make – Zucchini and Orange Cake. This recipe comes from the Women’s Weekly “Creative Cooking on a Budget” cookbook, which I’ve had on my book shelf for ages and love it for its simple recipes.

Ingredients

• 185g soft butter
• 2 tps finely grated orange rind
• 1 cup caster sugar (I used raw caster sugar)
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ cup grated zucchini (I used 1 medium and 2 small)
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 1 ½ cups self-raising flour

Method

– Preheat oven to 180 degrees

– Beat butter and sugar together till light and fluffy

– Add one egg at a time, beat each one in

– Mix in zucchini, orange juice and flour

– Pop into a cake tin (I used a 20cm round one, lined with baking paper)

– Bake for 40 mins at 180 degrees

– Let the zucchini cake cool, then you can make some orange icing to go on top

– For the icing, beat together 125g soft butter, 2 cups of icing sugar mixture and ¼ cup orange juice

I thought 2 cups of icing sugar mixture was a lot… and it was. The icing was way too sweet! The kids loved it but I could see them getting a massive sugar high just from licking the icing bowl for the zucchini cake.

So next time, I will reduce the icing sugar to 1 cup with less butter and juice and make it to taste.

This recipe was also for a 19cm x 29cm slice tin. I would probably cook it for another 10 minutes with a round cake tin like mine.

Needless to say, the zucchini and orange cake was deliciously moist and is the perfect cake to serve during afternoon tea… although we had it during lunch! And because it was still slightly warm, the icing melted a bit but added to the yumminess of it.

Cake for lunch on the odd occasion is ok I reckon 🙂

Looking for another scrumptious way to use your zucchinis? Check out this zucchini and haloumi fritter recipe from the SBS website. Yummo!

Do you have any delicious zucchini recipes to share? Please share below in the Comments section!