Zucchini Cake With Ginger, Orange, and Hazelnuts

A zucchini bread, spice cake hybrid that is a wonderful way to use up summer squash that lingers into fall.

Zucchini Cake

• 2 cups flour

• 1 tsp baking soda

• ¾ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

• Scant cup sugar

• 2 eggs

• ½ cup vegetable oil

• ⅓ cup honey

• ¼ cup orange juice

• zest of one orange

• 1 tsp ground ginger

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1½ cups grated zucchini

• heaping ½ cup chopped hazelnuts

Orange glaze

• ½ cup powdered sugar

• 3 tsp orange juice

• ¼ tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a bundt or tube pan well and set aside.

2. In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, sugar.

3. In a medium sized bowl whisk together eggs, oil, juice, zest, vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing just until combined.

4. Fold in zucchini and chopped nuts into the batter. Turn batter into the well greased pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes or a toothpick inserted into the center come out clean and the cake is starting to pull away from the edges of the pan.

5. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning onto the serving platter. Let cool completely (about 1 hour) before mixing up the glaze.

6. To make the glaze combine powdered sugar, orange juice, and vanilla. Add more powdered sugar or juice to adjust the consistency if necessary. The glaze should be thick yet pourable. Use a spoon to drizzle glaze over the cake.

7. Serve and enjoy!! :)

The weather is pretty variable here now. One day we might have highs in the 80s and the next highs in the 50s. With the oddly warm September we've had a plethora of zucchini come on after a sparse harvest in August. This cake, which is adapted from a New York Times recipe, would be lovely during the height of summer, but it also marries the flavors of warm and cool weather cakes. The moist texture from the zucchini and the subtle sweetness from the honey and citrus remind me of summer while the ginger and hazelnuts foreshadow the spicy flavors of fall (if it's possible to flavors to foreshadow a season). Either way this spice cake zucchini bread mash up made me and my stomach happy.

On another note, I was unsure if the rest of family would like this cake. As previously discussed I have a chocolate loving family. When I told my mom I wanted to make a zucchini cake she said, "don't bother if it's not chocolate". However, this cake won her over, partially due to her love of hazelnuts. We clashed previously this week over chocolate when she called asking me what kind of ice cream I wanted with only a list of chocolate options. Our compromise there was english toffee. I do like chocolate in cakes but when so many other interesting flavors and combinations are available I want to mix things up rather than make chocolate all the time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Either way you land in the great chocolate debate I hope you're able to try this cake, or at least bake something you enjoy. Happy baking!