Zuchini Cake!

With Matt Dillon - our extraordinary chef and food advisor - Old Chaser Farms

Thank you, Matt, Brita, and Fam of the Old Chaser Farm!

The Squash Bread I made for the Farm to Crag Event in Yosemite:

So!!  Working with my dear friend Kate Rutherford, the co-founder of Farm to Crag, down in Yosemite National Park, I needed a simple but wonderful dessert, made from vegetables from the Farm I work with there, Raw Roots Farm.  I needed something that would survive the travel and temperature fluctuations of moving from the farm to the park as well as be made in advance due to limited infrastructure in the park....AND....with only myself and a few (AMAZING) volunteers...we had millions of tasks besides travel in this two day window and 175 people to feed.  Nevertheless, we, and the cake, endured it all.  And in typical Matt Dillon fashion....I made enough to serve 250.  So....my point in this is two fold. 
1.  Zucchini is truly amazing as honestly a fruit disguising itself a vegetable.  It will endure, give plenty and hydrate all it comes in contact with...so...
2.  This cake stayed moist through days of travel after the event.  Feeding us and friends in the morning and the night while climbing in the park, surfing in Santa Cruz, and all the travel in between.

Butter, for the pan
8 inch loaf pan
190 grams grated zucchini
140 grams light brown sugar
1/3 cup olive oil or other oil such as safflower or canola)
1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 wholee eggs
190 grams all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
grated lemon zest on 1 lemon
½ teaspoon toasted and crushed fennel seed
50 grams toasted pumpkin seeds(optional)
 
Heat your oven to 350F. Butter or Oil your loaf pan.
In a large bowl mix together the grated zucchini, sugar, olive oil, yogurt, and eggs.
Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, lemon zest and fennel seed in a separate bowl. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in the pumpkin seeds if using.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 to 55 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. The bread will be done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and cool on a rack completely before cutting and serving.

Such a feast at United In Yosemite. Photo - Miya Tsudome

Let the beauty you love be what you do

– Rumi