Zucchini Cake

You heard about the tomatoes...but now he's bringing over zucchini. What's next, fresh eggs?

I'm such a fan of the fresh tomatoes, but zucchini? Yeah...not so much. It must have been from heaven above that the day our neighbor brought over the zucchini a new Bon Appetit arrived in the mail, chocked full of summer recipes to use fresh produce. From corn pesto to grilling rubs galore emerged this little green beauty. So I give you- Zucchini cake!

You might be thinking 'wait, doesn't she mean carrot cake?!' And that's exactly what I thought when I first saw it. Carrot cakes are up there on my favorite, so I thought why not give zucchini its chance too? I mean, if it's in the magazine it has to at least be edible..

I tweaked it a little from the original recipe by substituting walnuts (we didn't have pecans) and taking the spices down a notch to lighten up the cake a bit. All in all it was perfect. Next time I may even double the recipe to make a layer cake it was that good.

Zucchini Cake

Adapted from Bon Appetit

For cake:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

3/4 cup olive oil

1 cup packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups coarsely grated zucchini

3/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts

For icing:

4 oz. cream cheese at room temperature

3 tbs. butter at room temperature

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350F and line/grease a 9inch cake pan with parchment paper. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking power, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. In a separate large bowl, whisk oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla until homogeneous. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet with a spatula follow by grated zucchini and walnuts. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for an hour in the pan before carefully removing to cool completely.

To finish the cake make the frosting. Beat the cream cheese and butter together on medium speed until lightly fluffy. The add the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla and beat until well mixed while still light and fluffy. Spread over cake and allow to chill for an hour or two before serving.*

*I found this cake was even better the next day so if at all possible make in advance :)