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Zucchini Pineapple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
This is a rich and simple sheet cake, with the zucchini, pineapple and coconut balancing perfectly in taste and texture. The frosting is creamy and just sweet enough; I topped with chopped walnuts for crunch.
I don’t usually follow recipes so faithfully, but this one, from Tasty Kitchen seemed perfect as is — and it was… I didn’t change anything, and I added all the optional items like ginger, nutmeg and walnuts.
Linda writes that you can substitute carrots for zucchini, and that sounds interesting but I haven’t tried it. This cake is similar to this very rich carrot cup cake recipe, but lighter and not so rich - easy to throw together, it is so delicious.
Cake
- Flour - 1 1/2 cups
- Sugar - 1 1/4 cups
- Coconut - 1/2, flaked, sweetened
- Baking Soda - 2 tsps.
- Salt - 1 tsp.
- Cinnamon - 2 tsp.
- Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp. (optional)
- Ginger - small pinch (optional)
- Canola Oil - 3 Tblsps.
- Eggs - 2
- Vanilla - 1 tsp.
- Zucchini - 2 cups, grated (not peeled); about 2 medium-sized
- Crushed Pineapple - 1 can (20-oz.), drained (save the juice to add to the frosting if it needs softening)
Frosting
- Butter - 2 Tblsp., softened
- Cream Cheese - 8 oz., at room temperature
- Powdered Sugar - 2 cups
- Vanilla Extract - 2 tsp.
- Walnuts - chopped medium (optional for topping)
- Preheat the oven to 350 dgerees and grease a 13 X 9 inch cake pan.
- Combine flour, sugar, coconut, baking soda, salt and spices in a large bowl and stir well.
- In a medium bowl, combine oil, eggs and vanilla and stir well.
- Add egg mixture, zucchini and pineapple into the floor mixture and blend well, for about 2-3 minutes until it is moist and completely mixed.
- Spoon batter into the pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool completely before frosting.
- For the frosting, combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and blend onmedium speed until smooth and creamy.
- Add a bit of pineapple juice if it seems dry or stiff.
- Spread frosting over the top of the cake and sprinkle with walnuts if you like them.
