Recipe: Zucchini Cake with Lemon Glaze
Zucchini Cake with Lemon Glaze
From Homemade Summer by Yvette Van Boven
Do you know the old joke about why Vermonters lock their car doors in August? To keep people from leaving zucchini in the back seat! There's an abundant supply of this vegetable right now, I myself have an entire crisper drawer full of it, and this is one of my favorite August cakes. It's not too sweet and gets better as it ages. I've used both summer squash and zucchini in this recipe and it's always a favorite.
Ingredients:
For the Cake
2 cups (150g) self-rising flour
pinch of salt
2stp vanilla sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup (150g) packed light brown sugar
1 zucchini, grated
1 cup (150g) raisins
1 cup (150g) currants
3/4 cup (100g) hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (125ml) light olive oil, plus more for greasing
For the Lemon Glaze
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 to 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 cups (150g) confectioners’ sugar
Make the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 1 1/2 quart (1L) pan with oil. Line the bottom with parchment paper and grease the paper.
In a large bowl, sift the flour together with the salt, vanilla, sugar and cinnamon. Add the brown sugar, zucchini, raisins, currants, and hazelnuts and toss well.
In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the oil. Pour into the other ingredients while stirring.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 60 to 75 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the cake cool for 15 minutes. Carefully slide a knife around the edges, then invert the cake onto a rack to cool completely.
Make the lemon glaze: Combine the lemon zest and a few drops of lemon juice with the confectioners’ sugar until you have a mixture with the texture of fluid yogurt. Be careful while adding the lemon juice, as it’s easy to add too much.
Pour the glaze over the cooled cake and let it set.
The cake will keep stored in an airtight container, for up to 1 week.