This is the perfect time of year to start making my favorite cake because everything is coming into season. I would normally keep making this one cake through the fall, but this year I will try some new things for the sake of the blog. I have to do this at least once, though.
I shredded the carrots, zucchini, and apple using the food processor to make it easy, even though it’s a pain to clean afterward. You only need a half cup of each, so it doesn’t take long to shred by hand. I don’t bother pealing the zucchini, just cut it in half and use a spoon to scoop out the seedy center. Half the zucchini will probably give you the half cup shredded, then you can use the other half in dinner.
Usually I substitute for buttermilk in recipes because I can’t find enough recipes that call for buttermilk to go through a whole quart in one week, and I don’t want any to go to waste. You can use sour cream or greek yogurt. Today I happened to have buttermilk but it was on the thick side – still good though. This slightly modified from a great recipe I found in Cooking Light by Jennifer Dunklee. Next time I’ll try cutting the brown sugar to ½ cup and if it works, I’ll modify the recipe again (or if you do it and it works, let me know)!
Golden Harvest Cake
1 C flour
¾ C brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
1 t baking soda
¼ t salt
1 medium grated apple
2 grated carrots (~1/2 cup)
½ C shredded zucchini
¼ C walnuts
¼ C cooking oil (organic canola oil, avocado oil, or grape seed oil)
¼ C sour cream or buttermilk
1 t lemon juice
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour and the next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl. Add grated apple, grated carrot, shredded zucchini, and walnuts to flour mixture; toss well. Whisk oil, sour cream, and eggs in a small bowl. Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Spoon batter into an 8 x 4–inch lightly sprayed loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan; remove cake from pan. Cool completely before slicing.
