When a giant zucchini the size of Endeavor showed up on my front door step, I felt like a kid who had lost a tooth and woke up to a visit from the tooth fairy; only I had done nothing, nothing, to warrant such gifting. I had a hunch who the Zucchini Fairy might be, first eliminating obvious possibilities such as Zooey Deschanel (she famously has a zucchini patch), or some weirdo down the street.
In fact, it was my compadre, Lisa Kirk, who had just acquired a community garden in Venice after a lifetime of a waiting list. She was newly endowed with zucchini the size of WW2 bombs, and lots of them. Apparently, she was hitting the neighborhood hard, dropping zucchini on door steps like some sort of raid, and I was so happy I was hit. It offered the perfect opportunity to closeout summer produce by making an "end of summer" cake: zucchini cake.
Mind you, I didn't have a recipe in my back pocket but David Lebovitz always has one in his. I found the perfect recipe on his namesake blog: a zucchini cake from the esteemed pastry chef Gina Di Palma of the Mario Batali camp; and set about my cake-making business. I knew it would be something.
Something for me to screw-up. Well, sort of.
I followed the instructions, adding some lemon zest to the batter, as Lebovitz suggested, and greased and floured my tired grooved bundt pan, and proceeded to bake the cake. It was incredibly lovely until a certain turn of events. When I placed the cake in the oven I turned the oven off. I did. I turned it off. Big time loser situation... and all I can say for myself is that I was really tired. I had taught a cooking class that day and was so energized I decided to come home and clean my house and organize my fridge and polish the hardwood floors and... bake a cake and photograph it! Why not??? And why not forget to set a timer as I laid down with my cup of afternoon tea...
I woke up and didn't smell cake and zombied myself to the stove and got extremely WTF and heated the oven and finally baked-off the cake, like a normal person.
And with that, a small tragedy was just around the corner...
As I flipped the baked cake out onto a wire cooling rack, with the intention of turning it out to cool, I could feel that the weight of the cake had not fully shifted onto the rack. In fact, the top of the cake would not budge and stuck to the inside of the pan... super mad face. I am sure my tepid-oven-nap-session was to blame for this. Lame, for sure.
But it was not my first "lost" cake and I knew exactly what to do. After a few curse words, a glass of milk, and some lost cake pieces, I went about my business to save it. All I had to do was trim the cake flat with a serrated knife and remove the craggy pieces; then flip the cake once more so that the bottom of the cake was now the top. Dress it with the lemon sugar glaze and it was as good as new. No one would ever know. Until now.
And best of all? It was the best zucchini anything I had ever had, earning a permanent place in my baking repertoir, scraps and all.
Good Luck, XO
Gina DePalma is the master creator of this cake and you can find it in her book, Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen, or on David Lebovitz' blog, as I did. This is almost the same cake that Lebovitz posted, only that I substituted grape seed oil for olive oil. As much as I enjoy olive oil in cakes, I didn't have enough for the recipe. Either way its an incredible cake. You'll see.
And a side note about preparing the cake. Typically, one would prepare the cake pan first so that it is ready for the fresh cake batter. I have a weird habit of letting the batter rest a little while I prepare my cake pan... what works for me may work for you.
Zucchini Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze
serves 12-16 mouths
Cake
1 cup almonds, pecans, or walnuts toasted, I used walnuts
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil or grape seed oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
zest of one lemon
2 1/2 cups finely grated zucchini
Crunchy Lemon Glaze
1//4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
here we go...
preheat your oven to 350', and do not turn it off
a giant zucchi'nis... haha!
finely grate the zucchini
measure the dry ingredients except the sugar, into a colander: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg...
and sift, breaking down every little lump
ta da...
combine with a beautiful whisk, such as this, bragging...
toast your nuts and chop finely, by hand or by sheer food processor-speed, be sure to pulse
pulse! avoid pulsing into a paste...
combine the eggs, sugar, oil and lemon zest and mix with a whisk, hand-mixer or stand-up mixer, for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy
be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to be sure everything is incorporated
don't forget your vanilla, once the mixture is well beaten
a piece of parchment is an old trick pastry chefs use to pour the flour into the mixer, evenly, and no mess
try it
just tip it in... and pour evenly while the whisk turns on medium speed for 30 seconds
what's next?
add your finely chopped nuts and finely grated zucchini, gently folding with a spatula, careful not to over mix the cake batter
grease your bundt pan with melted butter, then dust with flour until every crevasse is covered...
and knock out the remaining flour
fill your prepared cake pan with the cake batter...
and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake pulls away from the sides
let the cake cool for 10 minutes... and flip the cake out onto a wire rack, hopefully not like this!
don't cry... make the lemon glaze
and drizzle with lemon sugar glaze... yum...
even better the next day when mom comes to town, xo
no one can see this pretty thing's missing parts... smile
it is and was as good as it looks
front cover of Gourmet? absolutely...
and don't foget these...
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