Bikini Cake
3 cups flour (up to 1 ½ cups whole wheat)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon (rounded) cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg (or ¼ teaspoon ground cloves)
½ teaspoon ginger
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (I often use half oil, half applesauce)
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups sugar (or a little less)
2 ½ – 3 cups grated zucchini or other summer squash (I prefer organic zucchini if at all possible since the skin is left on. You could also use grated carrots for half of the vegetables. A food processor makes grating the squash a much simpler task.)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour two 9×5 loaf pans.
In a bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.
In a large bowl, whisk eggs, oil and vanilla. Add sugar and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix until consistent. But (as with any quick bread) do not over mix. Mix in the grated vegetables.
Halve the mixture into the loaf pans and bake for one hour until golden brown.
NOTES:
I slice the loaves into ½ inch slices, wrap them in foil and store the slices in a the freezer in a Ziploc bag. This makes a great tasting and healthy “fast food” snack that thaws in five or ten minutes. Great for packed lunch.
This recipe also works great as muffins and mini muffins.
If I have a surplus of zucchini, I pre-grate it into 3 cup portions and freeze it in Ziploc bags. Then in November, I bake zucchini bread and thin of summer time. Thaw before using and dump in the entire contents of the Ziploc.
“Bikini cake” was Alexandra Rose’s name for zucchini bread when she was a toddler. It is now our family name for this recipe.
Kathryne Lyons