Its Celebration Time! : A Birthday and Awards

A Birthday
Each year of good health is a true blessing. Why not celebrate with a healthy cake loaded with chocolate. I found the recipe of Zucchini Cake in the book Zucchini and Chocolate and also at Joy of Baking.
I baked this cake countless times before and on many occasions gifted it to my friends and my son's teachers. Who ever tasted the cake never knew a cake could be so delicious with zucchini in it.
I usually bake with Olive Oil but just this time I'm making it more rich with butter. The zucchini makes the cake moist and fluffy while chocolate gives it a deep flavor.
Ingredients Needed

2 medium Zucchini ,Shred 1 1/2 of Zucchini with peel on and Slice rest for Garnish
1 1/2 cup of All-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-Process Cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Baking powder
1 cup firm packed brown sugar
1/2 cup bitter sweet chocolate chips.
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick(1/2 cup)of butter at room temperature or 1/2 cup Olive oil
3 large Organic Eggs.
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

Method
Preheat Oven to 350F and grease a 10 inch cake pan with butter.
Prepare the Batter
Sift all the dry ingredients(flours and powders) in large mixing bowl.Mix in the chocolate chips and toss to coat the flour on the chips.
In another mixing bowl whisk together softened butter or oil and sugar until creamy. Crack the eggs and whisk some more, stir in vanilla and shred zucchini. Do not over mix.
Bake
Now combine wet and dry mixtures. Pour in the baking pan and set in the oven for 40-45 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let cool for at least 2 hours on a rack. using a table knife loose the edges of the cake and flip in a plate. Flip again on a serving plate and garnish with reserved slice of zucchini(you don't have to eat them,though) or more melted chocolate.



Awards
Zainab and Meedo from the Delicious blog Arabic Bites have passed me the prestigious Arte Y Pico award.

The rules of the award are:
1. Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and their contribution to the blogging community.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name of and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.
4. The award winner and the one who has given the prize has to show the link of Arte Y Pico blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. Show these rules.

I would like to award it to

Very Generous Srivalli at Cooking for all Seasons

Lubna at Kitchen Flavors, my first blogging Buddy

Very Friendly Suma at Suma's Cuisine with huge collection of Crowd pleasing recipes

Kate/Kajal at AppleMint , who amazes me with her brilliant skills at photography.

Talented Sangeeth at Let us all cook

Few weeks back Lubna at kitchen flavors passed on to me the Brilliant Weblog award.

Brilliant Weblog is a prize given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design. The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blog sphere. Here are the rules to follow:


1. When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.

2. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brilliant Weblog’.

I'm passing this award to some of the brilliant web blogs and sites i know

Mona at Zaiqa

Sefa at Food is Love

Kevin at Closet Cooking

Nidhi at Sizziling Bites

Purva at Purva's Daawat

notyet100 at Asan Khana

EC at Simple Indian Food

Enjoy your awards everyone! :)