A new cookbook written by Jessica Seinfeld (yes, Jerry’s wife), “Deceptively Delicious,” is going to be the answer to many a parent’s and caregiver’s prayers. The gist of it: sneaking healthy vegetable purees into foods children will eat. For instance, squash puree into mac and cheese, carrot puree into muffins, sweet potato puree into French toast, that kind of thing.

Seinfeld makes it easy, teaching you how to make the purees ahead of time and keep them in the freezer, ready to defrost and throw into whatever deceptively delicious menu you’re whipping up that night. Many of us probably have a few of these tricks already, but this book gives the cook for a vegetable-hating child a whole new arsenal. The idea is simply to reduce mealtime stress. Seinfeld got tired of nagging her children to eat their vegetables, and who can blame her? Now she just smiles smugly while her family wolfs down whatever she puts in front of them.

Now, I’m all for inviting children into the kitchen to cook with us, and I think if exposed to vegetables early enough in a positive way, most children will eat some of them some of the time. So the deception factor, and giving in to the idea that veggies are yucky, pose problems for me. My child would be annoyed if I kept him away while I was fixing dinner and he would be downright angry if he found out later what I’d been up to, given my household’s emphasis on virtues like honesty.

Maybe the happy compromise for me is to sneak it in once, watch them enjoy it, and then let the family help me make it next time without a word about the deception, as if it’s completely normal to make brownies with pureed spinach and carrots. Come to think of it, if it tastes good, why couldn’t it be? We make pie out of pumpkin, after all, and almost nobody turns her nose up at that. Seinfeld’s recipes are so easy and good I’m not going to be able to resist trying them anyway.

One of our family’s favorite vegetable tricks is chocolate zucchini cake. This one, given a Mexican twist with orange and cinnamon, is so rich and luscious, my husband requests it for his birthday cake.

The children might notice the zucchini but they most likely won’t care. My elementary age son particularly likes grating the zucchini; younger children can use a whisk to mix the dry ingredients together and break the eggs into a small bowl.

Mexican Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1 1/4 cup flour

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder (plus more for dusting pan)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 medium eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. orange extract

1 cup grated zucchini (unpeeled if organic, peeled if not)

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a loaf pan with butter and lightly dust it with cocoa powder.

Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, stir with a whisk and put aside.

Mix butter and sugar together in a small mixing bowl until well combined; add eggs, milk, and vanilla and orange extracts and mix well but do not overbeat.

Gently mix the butter mixture into the dry ingredients. Add zucchini (and nuts if using) and combine gently. Spread into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool for 15 minutes in pan before tipping cake out of pan onto a cooling rack.

Makes one 8 by 5 inch loaf pan.

Do you have ways of sneaking vegetables that children hate into food they love? Carol invites you to share your ideas with other parents on the forum at www.kids-in-the-kitchen.net.