I have blogging little more than 2.5 years now, yet I find it tricky to phrase the first paragraph. OK, let me re-phrase, tricky to form the first line of the post. Many a times, I complete the 2^nd and 3^rd paragraphs for the post, and then go back and finish off the first one. The ingredients and procedure are the easy parts, not much thinking involved there; it is just stating the steps, but not so much with the preceding paragraphs. Hey look, with these statements I have now managed to cross the hurdle, so let’s get back to the recipe, shall we?:-)

I had bookmarked this recipe here a long time ago and was waiting for a good time to try it.  The appealing factor for me was that not only is this eggless, low fat, no butter but the addition of bananas, zucchini that made it healthy. Plus I had not tried baking with zucchini earlier, so I was very curious about that. I got an opportunity last Sunday (what a glorious day that was!) when I had the right ingredients on hand (including zucchinis) and also the right amount of time.

 This recipe can be adapted to make either bread or muffins. Please note that this takes a long time to bake, but the taste is never the less delicious. I made some changes to the recipe by adding cocoa powder, reducing sugar, oil etc. The addition of zucchini made this soft; however it made no difference to the taste. The flavor of banana was powering everything else. The cake turned out soft and dense, but not moist. Good one to have for a quick snack or for breakfast along with tea or coffee.

Off this goes to Bake Off Event at Versatile Kitchen.

Recipe Source: Adapted from here.

 Ingredients: 

• 3/4 cup grated zucchini (there is no need to peel the zucchini)
• 1 cup over ripe banana mashed
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 Tbsp applesauce
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1.25 cups flour
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 5″ diameter cake pan. (use any pan of choice).
• In a big bowl mix the dry ingredients flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking powder, baking salt and cocoa powder.
• In a small bowl mix the grated zucchini, mashed bananas, oil, sugar, applesauce and vanilla together.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir well.
• Pour batter into pan and top off with chopped walnuts. Bake for 50-60 minutes. (yes, this is how long it takes)

• Note: If baking as muffins or as cupcakes then bake for 30 minutes.

 Take it out from the oven, let it cool and cut into desired shapes.

All these beauties, hither to unnoticed are now catching my attention, thanks to my developing interest in photography. This beautiful flower here unfortunately is a type of weed and they are growing precariously in our backyard. This means only one thing: that a certain someone in our household needs to take charge and finish off lawn mowing both the front and the backyard (ahem..cough cough).

 Trivia about dandelions:

Dandelions, flowers, roots and leaves, have been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine & medicinal teas, most notably for liver detoxification, as a natural diuretic and for inflammation reduction. Unlike other diuretics, dandelion leaves contain good amounts of potassium, a mineral that is often lost during increased urination. There is also evidence that this property of dandelion leaves may normalize blood sugar. (Source)