Day 25 - Chocolate Zucchini & Banana Walnut Cakes

06 July 2010

with handy post-it labels!

Another week gone by... for Friday morning tea, I thought I'd go healthy with the key ingredients ZUCCHINI & BANANA... but I didn't think I would get everyone's attention without the additional CHOCOLATE & CARAMEL!

Choc Zucchini with choc ganache

In fact, I baked the cake bases at night, and in the morning I thought they looked quite plain and unappealing. So before work, I quickly whipped up some dark choc ganache for the choc cake and caramel sauce for the banana cake, they complimented each other quite well I thought.

choc zucchini section - no green bits!

I've been wanting to try out a chocolate zucchini cake for a while. But unlike a carrot cake, you don't really see or taste any evidence of the vegetable amongst its chocolate surroundings. 


I liked the cake as it's not too sweet, the zucchini moistened the cake and the bits of chocolate chunks in there adds interest. Colleagues were also looking for zucchini bits and don't believe there's actually two grated into the cake! 

caramel sauce drizzled on top 

The Banana Walnut cake was a variation of the banana bread recipe I made last time. I wanted something moister and cake-like and the additions of walnuts made it even more wholesome I thought. So there was a bit of tweaking with flour and sugar consistency, I was lucky the cake didn't turn into a disaster. 

banana walnut section

This cake was more popular than the Chocolate Zucchini! I think I'm definitely going to make this again for myself in the future... if I can remember the changes I made to the original recipe...

a very good tasting butter cake!

Also, there was this Butter Cake kindly donated through reception. It's actually one of the best Butter Cakes I've ever tasted! with subtle citrus scent and pretty cross-section - simple but delicious. Although it didn't get the attention during morning tea time next to its competitors. But they were all gone by the end of the day when people looked past its humble exterior!




The three cakes together were able to raise over $75 with the help of level three again :)



I'm really getting close to reaching my goal! For the past week, people have been asking how long to go?! I didn't have a solid answer as I was contemplating whether I should stop when I reach my goal or continue baking for the whole duration of the campaign (which is until end of September). 




I have decided to continue baking until the end of my campaign - because that was the deal from the start. Perhaps I won't be baking every single day for the office but as I'm still looking forward to holding a Sugar4Water event with my friends and also a few other requested catering offers, I think it makes sense to continue till the campaign deadline. 

the boss showing some support :)

Also, there are more things I want to bake and haven't been able to as my focus for the past month has been to have something baked EVERYDAY!! I hope to make the other more labour intensive items and build up my confidence even more with recipe tweaking :)


I'm looking into putting all the extra donations I raise and receive after I reach my US$5000 goal towards Well Wishers - an Australian based charity doing essentially the same thing as Charity:Water. 


Hoping for your continuous support!