Donut Peach Zucchini Upside-Down Cake
From All-Creatures.org Vegan - Vegetarian Recipe Book: How Mary and Frank and Friends Eat

"We are dedicated to cruelty-free living through a vegetarian - vegan lifestyle. Let no animal suffer or die that we may live!"

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups Spelt or Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Rolled Oats, quick
1/2-1 tsp. Cinnamon, ground
2 tsp. Baking Powder
Donut Peaches, fresh, pitted and sliced in half
3 cups Zucchini
8 Dates, pitted

(To enlarge the photo of the Donut Peach Zucchini Upside-Down Cake, click on the photo or link)

Preparation

This vegan donut peach zucchini upside-down cake can be prepared and baked in a covered glass baking dish in a microwave oven at 1000 watts in about 12 minutes, or the cake can be baked in a conventional oven at 350 degrees F. for about 25 minutes, which will add about 15 minutes to the total preparation and baking time. Leftovers can be stored in the covered baking dish in the refrigerator for a few days. This vegan delight can be served for breakfast, as a dessert, or enjoyed anytime as a snack.

Place the flour and oats in a mixing bowl. Add the cinnamon and baking powder and mix together thoroughly.

Wash and clean the zucchini, cut the ends off, and cut into 2 inch long pieces. Place the pieces in the container of a high speed blender (Vita-Mix type). If you are concerned that the finished puree volume may be more than 3 cups, hold back some of the zucchini.

Add the pitted dates, cover, and run the blender at high speed until the contents become a smooth puree of 3 cups in volume. Additional zucchini can be added if the volume is less.

Wash the fresh ripe donut peaches, remove the small pits by ringing the pits with the point of a vegetable peeler and then pushing the pit out. Cut the pitted donut peaches in half to make the donut peach halves pictured in the photo.

Place a layer of donut peach hales in the bottom of the baking dish and stand others up along the edge of the baking dish with the skin side out.

Add the zucchini date puree to the flour mixture and mix together thoroughly but quickly, since the baking powder is beginning to react, and transfer the contents of the mixing bowl into the baking dish by spooning around the inside of the edge donut peach halves to hold them in place, and then filling in the center. Smooth the dough to the edges, cover and place in the oven to bake. We baked this donut peach zucchini upside-down cake recipe in our microwave oven in about 12 minutes.

When there are bubbles boiling up the sides of the cake and the surface is springy to the touch, remove the donut peach zucchini upside-down cake from the oven, and let it cool on a wire rack with the cover remaining on the baking dish.

When the donut peach zucchini upside-down cake has cooled, it should be slightly separated from the sides of the baking dish. Uncover the baking dish and gently run a flat table knife around the edge of the zucchini cake to make sure that it has completely separated from the sides of the dish. By gently moving the knife around the edge of the donut peach zucchini upside-down cake and lifting the bottom slightly, you can release the cake from the bottom of the baking dish. It can be cut and served in wedges from the baking dish, or it can be served as a whole upside-down cake, as pictured.

To serve as an upside-down cake, place a large plate upside down over the top of the baking dish, and holding the plate and baking dish tightly together, turn the baking dish over on top of the plate, and the donut peach zucchini upside-down cake should fall out onto the plate. If it does not, slide the plate to the edge of the kitchen counter, and gently lift the edge of the baking dish and slide the flat table knife up along the inside edge of the dish and nudge the cake until it falls onto the plate.

Serve and enjoy!

Ingredients Information

Baking Powder

Cinnamon, ground

Dates, Deglet

Oats, Rolled

Peaches, Donut

Spelt

Squash, Zucchini

Wheat, Hard White

Utensils and Equipment Information

Dish, Glass Baking

Knives

Measuring Cups, Dry

Measuring Cup, Liquid

Measuring Spoons

Peeler, Vegetable

Spoon, Large Mixing

Vita-Mix

The above recipe is in keeping with God's creation intent (Genesis 1:29-31): 'Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-- everything that has the breath of life in it-- I give every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.' (NIV) Let no animal suffer or die that we may live!