This will be a quick post because I left this month’s challenge at the Daring Kitchen up until the very last minute. I haven’t been able to make the last 2 or 3 challenges so I really wanted to jump back in. I’ve been extremely busy as of late, especially this month. I spent 5 days in Ireland, 7 days on a cruise, and turned 30 years old (ugh!).
My head has been on vacation as well. We found out that my parent’s dog Luke (who I pretty much consider my dog too) has cancer and it’s been a rough week. My dad noticed a red spot inside his nose which despite various medications was not getting better. After several tests, they found it was cancerous. We took him to a surgeon today for a nosectomy. It’s like it sounds, they had to remove his nose for his best chance of beating the cancer. Still haven’t seen him yet because he’s staying overnight, but it’s really all I can think about today so I’m sorry my post is more about him than my challenge. But the staff at the clinic inform us that he’s doing well, awake and alert but on morphine to manage the pain. He’s the best dog in the world, I really could go on and on about him, but I’ll refrain. Please keep him in your thoughts.
So this month’s challenge was to incorporate vegetables into baked goodies. The obvious dish would be to make carrot cake. But I’ve been wanting some zucchini bread for awhile so picked up zucchini on my way home from work tonight.
While looking up recipes on AllRecipes.com, I decided to make zucchini brownies instead. Got out my mini food processor to basically puree the zucchini and whipped up some brownies, quick and easy. Only modifications I made to the recipe were to use 6 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil instead of the vegetable oil, reduce the sugar to 1 cup, add an egg, and add 3/4 a cup of chocolate chips to the batter. I also only made just over half the amount of frosting.
Final result? Cake. I tend to think of brownies as fudgey dense deliciousness. This recipe yielded a light and fluffy chocolate cake. Really couldn’t tell that zucchini was in it. It was actually pretty good . . . just not brownies.
I hope to get back to business next month and dive into a good baking challenge. I think things are calming down a bit so I should be able to find the time. Until then, I will try to blog again with all the other creations that have come out of my kitchen since January.
All Things Crafty 