Spiced apple and zucchini cake with maple syrup icing

It's that time of year when the zucchini crop begins to overwhelm you. In the beginning you anxiously watch the tiny ones begin, then suddenly they reach a point where over night they appear to have been injected with steroids!



In order to use up zucchini I decided to use it for the birthday cake. So not wanting to make the same boring recipe that I feel like I have made forever, I decided to invent a new one!
This is so easy because it all goes in one bowl. Saves washing up time. Into a big bowl tip three cups of SR flour, two cups of sugar, 3 eggs, 400 gram of grated zucchini, 200 grams of grated apple, 1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder, 2 heaped teaspoons of ground ginger, 2 heaped teaspoons of cinnamon, 2 heaped teaspoons of mixed spice, 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda, pinch of salt, 1 cup of good quality light vegetable oil and approximately 1/4 cup of milk. Mix this all together very well. It is a quite heavy mixture to mix, so possibly a good arm exercise as well.
It makes a big cake, my tin was 26cm. I always take the time to grease and line the tin now because it's better than finishing up with half a cake on the cake cooler!
You could always make it in two smaller tins. Freeze one without icing and ice it when you need it.



The mixture is quite wet but if it looks too wet add a little more flour. Here it is in the tin. Bang the tin down on the countertop to get rid of any airspaces.



All ovens are different mine is fan forced electric and I put the cake in the middle shelf at 180 degrees Celsius. It took about 45 minutes. But just test it and as long as the cake is firm in the middle and is coming away from the sides of the tin and when tested with a skewer, the skewer is free of any sticky residue it is cooked. If in doubt leave it in longer. Better to make sure it is cooked and it won't hurt the cake.
Leave it to cool in the tin for bout 30 minutes then tip it out onto a cake cooler. Let it get completely cold before icing it. Icing was really simple. I melted 60 gms of butter and about 1/2 cup of maple syrup in a saucepan. You will really need to watch this as it will burn and you only want the butter to melt. I never measure icing mixture just go by consistency but put about 2 cups of the powdered icing mixture into a bowl and add the butter maple syrup liquid. Stir this, I find using a knife the easiest. Then add thickened cream till the icing is the correct consistency. Firm enough to spread but not runny enough that it finishes up on the serving plate and not the cake. The beauty of making icing is you can't go wrong. If it is too thick add more cream. Too runny add more icing mix. If you make too much there will always be a candidate to lick the bowl. At least there is at our place.



I served it with cream it was so good!


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