What did you put in this cake??

2 cups flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 cup coffee

1 cup milk

1/4 cup oil

1 tsp. Saigon Cinnamon

And the secret ingredient: 1/2 cup grated zucchini

There you go. That's my top secret luscious, rich, super-moist Chocolate Cake recipe.

I was outside with E-bomb and noticed that I had some zucchini read for picking. I couldn't wait to use them. I spent months sprouting, planting, and growing these zucchini, it was about time I could use the fruits of my labor.

I already had my recipe for Chocolate Cake in my head and wanted to substitute a few things here and there and add a bit more spice. I used the zucchini in place of most of the oil in the original recipe. And instead of vanilla (a staple in all baked goods it seems...) I used Saigon Cinnamon. Oh.. if you haven't used Saigon Cinnamon- go get some! You will never ever use that stuff in plastic bottle, with the yellow label and red lid, again!

I make my own brown sugar using white sugar and molasses.

This takes a a few minutes, but for today it saved me a trip to the grocery store.

The Kitchenaid is a great piece of machinery, but some things can't replace doing tasks by hand. Here I am getting the lumps out of the batter.

Flour should really be sifted- but I don't bother.

Baked at 350 for 25 minutes.

And let cool for a full hour before frosting.

I'm usually a cream cheese frosting kinda gal, but once again I wanted to use up some stuff in the house so it didn't go to waste. I had some bananas and strawberries on hand. And what goes really well with nanners and berries?? What else- CHOCOLATE! So, I made a chocolate ganache to put between the layers and on top to make the fruit stick.

I put a layer of ganache and bananas in between the layered cakes and then anotoher layer of ganache on top. Then adorned my creation with strawberries.