A java.util.Date is in UTC by definition as this object is nothing but a wrapper around the unix epoch value for a date/time. Only when you convert it to a string (for example using a SimpleDateFormat) or put it in a Calendar, a timezone can be applied.
Consider this example:
Date date = new Date();
System.out.println(date); //prints Thu May 05 17:14:37 CEST 2011 with the default toString() of the Date class
SimpleDateFormat utcDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
utcDateFormat.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
System.out.println(utcDateFormat.format(date)); //prints 2011-05-05 15:14:37