Think of it as a versatile, delicious little black dress.
Only it’s very dark brown instead of black, and it’s not a dress, but a cake. But otherwise…
This is week three of dispatches from my adventures when I joined Lisa Prince and WRAL’s Brian Shrader as they prepared and filmed four recipes for Local Dish, WRAL’s cooking segment that airs each Friday on the noon news.
This week’s chocolate cake, y’all.
In keeping with the summer produce theme, this is a zucchini cake. And there are two really important things that I need you, Gentle Reader, to take from this essay.
The first is the importance of cooking time. There is a little butter and four eggs in this cake, but no other fat. So, most of the moisture comes from the grated zucchini and the applesauce in the recipe.
Which means, if you overcook it, you will get a dry result that will stick in your throat and make you sad. It cooks for 60-70 minutes, but you should start checking it at 55 minutes. As soon as a toothpick comes out clean but moist, get it out of the oven. And after it’s been out for 10 minutes, get it out of that pan.
The second thing is, once it’s cool you can top it with anything from powdered sugar to a decadent vanilla fudge icing topped with crushed Oreos. You can go simple and use whipped cream or a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream. Or let the ice cream melt. It then becomes a fancy custard sauce called crème Anglaise. Set the cake on a puddle of that (for crème Anglaise use an ice cream containing only milk, cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and maybe a pinch of salt).
Here are two of my favorite toppings.
Mama Cat’s Vanilla Fudge Icing
½ cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup milk
Heat ingredients in saucepan until it begins to boil. Let cool slightly and mix in 1& 3/4 -2 cups sifted powdered sugar, and 2 teaspoons vanilla.
Pour over fully cooled cake and top with crushed Oreos (optional) or anything else you’d like.
Mom’s Fudge Glaze
6 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
In saucepan, melt butter. Stir in cocoa until dissolved. Mix in sugar. Add milk and vanilla; whisk until smooth.
Pour over cooled cake and allow to set.
The cake calls for cinnamon, but you could also tweak it with things like cayenne or espresso powder.
Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter, room temperature
4 eggs
¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 Tbsp. vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Generously coat bottom and sides of 9 to 12 cup Bundt pan with cooking spray.
Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in bowl. Set aside. Beat sugar and butter with mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, applesauce then vanilla.
Reduce mixer to low. Beat in dry ingredients until blended. Fold in zucchini.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until done. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to cool completely before topping.
This cake also travels really well for picnics and potlucks; or wrap a slice and tuck it into a bagged lunch. With both zucchini and apple sauce in it, you could almost call it healthy with a straight face.
Thanks for your time.
Contact debbie at d@bullcity.mom.
If you’ve ever wondered how long fudge can stay in the freezer, I have the answer.
Well, it’s a life-size model of my sweet tooth.
At the state fair, All-American Fudge makes a stellar example. It’s better than any old-school version I could make, so I let them do it. Every year I buy two pounds, bring it home, triple-wrap and freeze it. I then ration it like it’s the very last pizza at a Super Bowl party.
But.
1 7-ounce jar marshmallow cream
In large saucepan, combine butter, sugar, salt, and whipping cream. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Boil for 4 full minutes.
Pour half of mixture into baking dish. Drop spoonsful of jam. Using a knife, lightly swirl into the fudge. Top with remaining fudge and dollops of the rest of the preserves. Gently swirl again with knife, just until marbled.
Refrigerate 4 hours, or overnight, until set. Cut into bites. Store in airtight container in refrigerator up to a week.
3 cups sugar
The secret to this is to boil exactly 3 minutes. Use a timer. I’m not joking.
What a bummer.
As I write this it is Sunday night, closing day of the State Fair. I’m a little sad it will be a year until the next one. But I truly believe I wrung every bit of fun, food, and fellowship from the fair that was humanly possible.
I wonder if any of those other Debbie’s thought those snack cakes had been made just for them?
People watching.
The (usually young) (usually) female dressed in a symphony of inappropriate clothing; short, tight skirt or dress and gravity-defying shoes that would be uncomfortable to stand in, let alone walk miles in on varying terrain.
And conversely, the guy that can not, will not, admit summer is over and shows up in shorts and flip-flops no matter how frigid the temperature may be.
The family consisting of two ferociously exhausted parents and their brood of multiple children under the age of five. Each child will want to go somewhere and eat something different and they want it, NOW! Mom and Dad would just like a nap.
That kid with that noise-making toy that sounds like all of the cats on the planet are screaming at once with a couple of faulty bag pipes thrown in. If the toy is silenced, the sound is immediately replaced by the unearthly shrieking of a furious, empty-handed toddler.
Thanks for your time.
I just wrapped up my third year of working with Lisa Prince of the state ag department, WRAL’s Local Dish, and Flavor NC on PBS. At the State Fair I help judge some of the specialty contests. These are the competitions sponsored by entities such as King Arthur flour, SPAM, and the North Carolina Pecan Growers.
There are folks that have been doing this for years and have judged 20-30 contests. I’ve only done nine, but have learned a few things. About entering cooking competitions, and a few other random truths. I’ll start with those unrelated, incidental lessons.
Traffic and parking: However long it takes to get from your house to the fairgrounds on the odd, non-fair Tuesday, quintuple it. For weekend fair days, multiply it by six or seven. For opening or closing day, just spend the night before out in the parking lot.
If you plan to enter any type of cooking contests, I have a few tips. They may not give you the win, but sometimes the difference between placing and being an also ran is quite narrow, and this advice may give you a few extra points.
Acid is your friend. Dishes should have balance. Rich, fatty foods need something to break them up, and the best way is by adding the acid of citrus juice, vinegar, or tangy dairy such as yogurt, sour cream, and buttermilk. It will make your dish stand out in what can be a sea of mouth-coating, stomach-churning, heaviness.
Make your dish at home, over and over, tweaking the recipe as needed. Get your most brutally honest friends and family to give you feedback. The girlfriend that doesn’t want to hurt your feelings is doing you no favors if she will not tell you the truth. On your end, if you can’t take criticism and comments, contest cooking is probably not for you.
If you don’t like the theme ingredient, pick another competition. In the SPAM contest, the kids made their entries all about the SPAM. Many of the adults tried to hide it. Bad idea. You must embrace the food and celebrate it. This isn’t a game of, “How to get the kids to eat liver without realizing it”. It’s to elevate and showcase the chosen ingredient.
Thanks for your time.
Flavor NC production observation, day two:
Here’s something that will give what follows some context; a generous portion of my blood is composed of caffeine. Whether it’s an expensive fancy coffee beverage, a glass of my homemade sun-tea that’s so strong Petey and The Kid call it jet fuel, or chocolate so dark it absorbs surrounding light, my engine runs on that stimulant of the jacked up, jittery gods. Without it, I am a cranky toy, with failing batteries, and a belligerent headache.
The attached building contains two of my favorite summer items—air conditioning and homemade ice cream. Charity loves to use freshly harvested produce for it. We’ve just missed the blueberry sweet corn, but the fresh watermelon ice cream becomes part of the shoot.
After visiting the okra field, we drive to the farm annex where the fields went on as far as we could see. One portion was full of countless plants heavy with different varieties of ripe tomatoes. Purely as research I ate a couple; sweet, and warm from the sun.
Next was summer squash of different shapes and colors. Then were pumpkins, a few for cooking, but most were purely ornamental, including ones that were pale green and covered with what looked like warts. Our host Ashley said they were perfectly suited for jack-o-lanterns and Halloween decoration.
We concluded our visit back at the farm stand. Lisa and Charity did a shot that culminated in biting into a raw piece of okra.
And nope, it didn’t taste like chicken.
The Kid likes them about as much as Anna Wintour loves polyester sweat pants, and Ted Nugent loves gun control.
But somebody else was watching as well.
Out of maybe 75 berries in six years, I’ve harvested about twelve. I stand next to the shrub, eating a paltry few with one hand, and shaking my fist at the beaked bandits with the other.
Yup, you read that right; ketchup.
Of course, the undeniable compulsion may have partly stemmed from ingesting copious amounts of Foster’s lager (for me, copious amounts are 8-12 ounces—I’ve never been much of a drinker).
Blueberry ketchup would be a novel addition to the condiments at your next cook out. Imagine the blue goo on a cheeseburger made with Swiss or pepper jack cheese.
Thanks for your time.
2 ½ cups fresh blueberries
Every week they have a short cooking segment that focuses on NC products. It’s hosted by Bran Shrader, a wide-eyed, fresh-faced reporter who looks like the mischievous kid that might TP the vice principal’s house on Friday night, but show up bright and early on Saturday to help clean it up.
Lisa also hosts the PBS show, Flavor NC, and a new show celebrating the grape called From The Vineyard. Lisa travels around the state, talking to farmers, chefs, and other diverse folks who have a love for, and connection with feeding North Carolina.
She had me at food.
Five years ago a new program was born on PBS, when Lisa was approached to do Flavor NC, an edible travelogue which talks to North Carolina food folk from one end of the state to the other. Now there’s a new show, From The Vineyard.
2 boxes Jiffy cornbread mix
Thanks for your time (and I really mean it).
bull city mom 