Green Tomato Brownie Cake ~ an easy & tasty way to use up some of those green tomatoes...

Green Tomato Brownie Cake ~ What a perfect way to use up some of those green tomatoes hanging around in your garden.

Cold nights have brought an end to a rather lackluster growing season.  All the tender vegetables are long gone and the tomato vines had just about given up the ghost.  (Halloween pun, couldn't resist - sorry :)  On Wednesday, I picked about 10 pounds of semi-ripe & green tomatoes, trying to get the dying vines out to the curb before the trash man came.   Now, I've got lots of green tomatoes to ~ ripen, use as-is & to freeze.

One of my favorite ways to use green tomatoes (besides eating them in my Fried Green Tomatoes recipe) is to bake them in a chocolate cake.  I've got a really old recipe that I've used in the past (a copy of that recipe is at the end of the post), but this year I wanted to see if I could make the cake a bit lower in fat calories.  For inspiration, I looked to recipes from ~ Crescent Dragonwagon's - Passionate Vegetarian - (Sweet Harvest Applesauce Breakfast Bundt Cake), from my old copy/recipe for Green Tomato Chocolate Cake & from just plain ol' winging-it.

When all was said and done, the cake smelled wonderful as it was baking & it tasted great!  It sorta reminded me of a cross between a cake & a brownie, so, I'm calling this my ~ Green Tomato Brownie Cake.  The recipe I came up with only used 1/4 cup oil & while it was good, next time I make it, I think I'll increase the oil to 1/3 or 1/2 cup, so it will be just a tad more moist.  Of course, maybe I baked the cake a bit too long... that's the problem with being a challenged baker... sometimes, you just never know.  :)

Green Tomato Brownie Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips
• 3 Tbsp chopped walnuts

• 1 tsp instant coffee
• 2 tsp water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup pureed green tomatoes (about 1 1/3 cup chopped, then pureed in blender until smooth)
• cooking spray/Pam
• Confectioners' sugar for dusting the finished cake

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.  Spray a bundt pan or pan of choice with cooking spray, until well coated. (or prepare how you would normally would if you're a real baker :)

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda & cinnamon together, into a large bowl.  Toss the raisins, chocolate chips & walnuts in the flour mixture, making sure they are well coated.

Puree the chopped green tomatoes in a blender, until nice & smooth. Set aside.
  
Mix the instant coffee with the water, in another bowl.  Add in the sugars, egg, oil, vanilla & the pureed green tomatoes.  Combine until well mixed.

Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, then pour into the prepared pan of choice.

Bake until the cake tests clean with a toothpick - about 30 minutes or so.  Remove from oven when finished baking & let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.  Then turn cake out of pan & allow to cool completely on a wire rack.  Serve sprinkled with Confectioners' sugar (or your favorite glaze/icing)  Store in a covered container.
 

I have no idea who gave me the following recipe for ~ Green Tomato Chocolate Cake ~ or when, but I've used it in the past and enjoyed it.

Green Tomato Chocolate Cake ~ This old photocopied recipe has been in my recipe box for decades.  I've long forgotten who gave me this recipe, but ~ Thank You!