Zucchini Bread, Cake, or Muffins

Anthropologie apron, green apple KitchenAid mixer, Marimekko oven mitt, Crate and Barrel travel dessert plates, Baked Explorations cookbook

It’s Friday! If this Friday is anything like my last three Fridays, I’ll probably be baking. Which is perfect because this week’s Friday’s Fancies theme is “back to school.” More like “bake” to school since I’d love to go to pastry school :)

My most recent baking adventures included zucchini bread and muffins! It’s that time of summer when we pick multiple zucchinis a day. We picked four on Monday night. When I baked last Friday, we had five zucchinis (two extra large, two medium, and one small) in our “inventory.”

We’ve been using zucchini slices to dip in ranch dressing and hummus. We’ve also added it to pizza, grilled it on the charcoal Weber, and stuffed it with quinoa. A few have been given to neighbors, friends, and family members. It was about time that I made zucchini snack cake/bread/muffins.

I decided to use one of the medium zucchinis for baking. Little did I know that one zucchini would lead to 4 cups of shredded zucchini. By the way, shredding is super easy if you use the shredding blade on a food processor.

Good thing my Mom told me the muffins and bread freeze well! They also make excellent graduation presents for unsuspecting cousins :)

Zucchini Snack Cake, Bread, or Muffins
Recipe from Mom, who got it from Aunt Carol, who probably got it from The Plain Dealer

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt, oil, vanilla, and eggs. Beat at medium until well mixed.

Stir in zucchini, raisins, and nuts.

Pour into greased 9×13 in. pan.

Bake at 350* for 50 minutes until toothpick/tester comes out clean.

Alternatives
Muffins: Grease muffin tins or use muffin liners. Fill muffin pan 2/3 of the way. Bake for about 20 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Bread: Grease bread pan. Divide recipe between two bread pans. Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour 5 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

You can also substitute chocolate chips for the nuts or raisins.