Zucchini Cake Bars

We all have them. Those recipes that keep popping their nosy little selves into your mind, or recipe box, or life-in-general... The recipe that someone told you was SO awesome, but it doesn't sound like anything special to you, so you dismiss it. It never really goes away, once it has wriggled it's way into your food-driven psyche (well, maybe not EVERYONE is food-driven...) This is mine.

I've been married for seven and a half years. During our first few years of marriage, after constant urging by my new husband, I sat down one afternoon at my mother-in-law's kitchen table and wrote down the recipes to all of Stephen's favorite family foods. There were lots. This one must have been towards the end, when my hand was getting tired... because there are no instructions! Hmmm...

A few of those recipes have already made it into this blog, most we have kept, tweaked, and loved, a few have fallen by the wayside... but this one I have never tried. Anytime the subject of zucchini comes up, Stephen reminisces, and tries to get me excited about it.  I take advantage of his memory lapses and say "Sure! Maybe next week!" By then, he has forgotten again. Well, now it's his turn again. After all, what good is a food blog if I don't try new things, for crying out loud??

Kay's Zucchini Cake Bars
Printable Recipe

2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated fresh zucchini

4 oz cream cheese, softened
4 Tb butter, melted
3 Tb sugar (I used ultrafine, you could probably use powdered or granulated)
3 Tb milk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease/butter a 9x13 baking dish.

Whisk all the dry ingredients together. Add the egg, vanilla, and oil, and mix well. The mixture will be crumbly.

Stir in the zucchini until it clumps together.

Press dough into the bottom of the baking dish, spreading it out evenly.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden brown, and a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. Let cool before cutting.

Whisk the butter, cream cheese, milk, vanilla, butter, and sugar together. Beat/whisk until smooth. Drizzle over the top of the bars.

Oh. My. Goodness. Could I possibly have been more wrong?! I should have trusted... how could any of my mother-in-law's recipes be less than wonderful??

I am addicted. I am enthralled, entranced, transported, and humbled. This is abso-flipping-lutely fan-dang-tastic!!!!!

They may not look like much, but they have won a place in my tummy, and in my heart. I will make them every year!! Too bad I can't get away with making them every month...

They are soft and moist and spiced and scrumptious. They taste like the End of Summer, with a preview of Fall. My favorite part is the edge, all crispy...

I hereby vow to NEVER dismiss my husband's recipe suggestions ever, everever EVER again. Please please try them!! You'll love them, I swear!!

Shared at On the Menu Monday