This past week has seen me making (and eating 🙂 🙁 ) A LOT of cakes and processing about a ton of apples. Our newly acquired (it’s our first summer in the new house) apple tree has surprised us with an unusually early and abundant apple crop, so I had no choice but to learn one thing I swore to myself I would never bother with when I grow up – the art of canning. What’s happened to me?
Despite giving some apples away, storing the unblemished ones in the salad compartment of my fridge, freezing as much apple sauce as I could fit in my tiny (and already full) freezer and canning tens of jars, I still ended up with lots of apples that had nowhere to go, so I developed a new apple cake recipe and it’s a real winner, but I shall share it with you when the summer fruit is truly over and apples take more of a centre stage. Watch this space. Don’t be bummed though, as I do have a cake recipe today. It uses one of the summer’s most prolific and versatile vegetables, the almighty zucchini (or courgette for those of you who live in the UK). While I heard people complain of its propensity for blandness, I personally think that its super mild flavour is one of the zucchini’s super powers. It escapes being vegetable typecasted 😉 . It belongs just as well in salad, a summer pasta or these Greek-inspired zucchini fritters as it does in a cake. I swear! To prove my point, I made a moist zucchini and pistachio cake fragrant with zesty lime, which simply screams summer. Not only do I love its handsome greenish hue, but its nutty and sweet and tangy lime flavour had me at my first test bake, even though the first attempt was far from perfect. It took a few more goes to get the ratios spot on and here it is: zesty zucchini and pistachio cake topped with an optional, but recommended, cashew cream icing for a more luxurious summer treat. If you cannot be bothered making icing, use a tub of thick vegan coconut yoghurt instead. I tried to cater for a lot of preferences in this recipe so this cake is entirely sweetened with maple syrup. It can also be made without oil and gluten-free too, if you so wish. It works well as a loaf cake and as individual muffins too. I tested them all so take your pick from the options outlined below. Enjoy! x
180 ml / ¾ cup maple syrup or other liquid sweetener 50 g / ¼ cup refined coconut oil, melted but cooled or 60 g / ¼ cup smooth almond butter 60 ml / ¼ cup lime juice 240 g / ½ lb / packed 1½ cup, coarsely grated zucchini
DRY INGREDIENTS
190 g / 1½ cups all purpose flour or GF all purpose flour mix (I use this one) ¾ tsp baking soda 1¾ tsp baking powder zest of 3 limes 100 g / 1 lightly packed cup finely ground pistachios / pistachio meal*
CASHEW FROSTING (makes 1½ cups)
30-45 ml / 2-3 tbsp coconut milk (I use this brand) or thin plant milk 4 tbsp maple syrup, adjust to taste 3 tbsp lime juice 1 tsp vanilla extract 195 g / 1½ cups raw cashews, soaked in boiling water for 20 minutes chopped nuts, for decoration
I used a 2 lb / 900 g cake tin of the following dimensions: 18.5cm x 8cm x 6cm (like this). It holds 8 cups / 2000 ml liquid (to the brim), but the batter should fill no more than 2/3 – 3/4 of the 2lb cake tin or else the cake may not raise.
