Zucchini Pumpkin Cake

Canadian Thanksgiving has come and gone but the one cup of leftover pumpkin puree has been staring me in the face and saying "please make me into something beautiful or really delicious". I looked a little to see what I could find to combine both zucchini and pumpkin and Recipe Zaar didn't disappoint. You can find the recipe here.

For our friends outside of Canada who may plan a Thanksgiving dinner, this won't disappoint you and it can be made in advance and frozen.

Ivy of Kopiaste and Val from More Than Burned Toast planned and beautifully executed an event in October bringing awareness to World Food Day and more importantly to the plight of those less fortunate than we are both here at home and around the world. Although the event was highly successful, it began to take on a life of its own with a mission to do more for this cause. It's about food, it's about feeding those who don't have enough and it's about doing something more tangible than just giving lip service.

As Ivy so ably stated:

"November is the month of Thanksgiving, we as Foodies have more reasons to be thankful with all that we have. Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States on November 27th but that does not mean that bloggers from Australia, India, China, New Zealand, Africa, Europe (or in whichever part of the world you live in) do not have plenty of reasons to be thankful.

Even if Thanksgiving is not celebrated worldwide, it’s a great start to being thankful for what we have. For this November event we can prepare anything we like..make it something festive (not necessarily expensive) and it may be a main dish, a side dish a salad or a dessert. We would also like to hear along with these inspiring dishes why you are thankful and any other story you wish to share with us related to this subject.


For those who celebrate Thanksgiving you may wish to share one of your prized recipes or perhaps a decorating ideas for the holiday, or great tips you’ve gleaned elsewhere. The roundup will be posted a few days before Thanksgiving to give you time to prepare yourselves for the celebration".

Sometimes "good things" don't always look very pretty but do leave an impact. In aid of this cause I'm sending my "not so pretty but has a great personality" Zucchini Pumpkin Cake for this Thanksgiving event.

Ivy, Val and I are working behind the scenes developing concrete contributions that will unfold over the next little while. Hunger is not just yesterday or today. For many, hunger is a way of life. Whatever small contribution we can make, we're in it for the duration.

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1 cup salad oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar (1 used 1/2 cup)
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1 cup pine nuts (I used walnut pieces)
1 cup raisins

Method:

1. Grease and flour 2 - 9 inch cake pans or 1 - 10x13 pan (or you could probably use bread pans too) and set aside
2. Preheat oven to 350 F
3. Beat eggs to blend, add oil, sugar and vanilla
4. Continue beating until thick and foamy
5. Stir in zucchini and pumpkin
6. Mix remaining ingredients in a separate bowl
7. Stir dry mixture gently into zucchini mixture just until blended



8. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean


This recipe also calls for a cream cheese icing that would be to die for but I didn't make it solely because I'll end up eating the whole cake. I think I could eat anything that had cream cheese icing on it.