mulberryshoots

The other day, I came across an interesting recipe on the NYTimes Food section. It was authored by Molly O’Neill and offered up a combination of zucchini, orange zest/juice and hazelnuts. I used chopped pecans in my cake this morning – and also made some other tweaks based on comments attached to the article. It’s baking in the oven now and there’s one more thing I noted about this recipe – it’s supposed to go in a tube pan (which I couldn’t find in the pantry) and is too little batter for a 9 X 13 baking pan, and too much for a loaf pan (soggy middle.) So, I used my trusty fluted white porcelain baking pan which seemed like just the right size!

Here’s my version:

In one bowl, mix together dry ingredients: 2 cups flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, 3/4 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, heaping 1/2 cup of sugar (the NYT recipe called for 1 and 1/4 cups of sugar but most of the comments cut that amount in half.)

In another bowl, combine wet ingredients: 2 tsp. grated ginger root, 2 tsp. orange zest, 1/2 cup of orange juice, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, 2 eggs and 1 1/2 cups of grated zucchini (I squeezed out the juice and added a little more grated zucchini.)

Add mixed wet ingredients into dry and combine. My batter seemed a little dry so I added a little more orange juice. Chop up 1/2 cup of pecans (or toasted hazelnuts) and add to the mixture. Scrape batter into buttered pan and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Test for doneness and leave in 5 minutes longer if needed.