While I wait for my vegetable share containing zucchini, I think back to my childhood when my Dad used to grow tomatoes and zucchini in the yard. He liked to have a few plants each of early girl and big boy tomatoes, and what seemed to be a lot of zucchini plants. He waited for the zucchini to grow really large before he picked them. They smelled fresh and clean when he brought them in, and I would look forward to my Mom’s zucchini cake. When I married, he would give me some zucchini, and I would make wonderful cakes using my Mom’s recipe.
My Mom’s two page zucchini cake recipe has been lost in time. I looked up various recipes on the internet when I first received zucchini in my vegetable share. While the recipe I now use is a lot simpler, it is so good that when I first used it I had to bake three cakes, one after the other, before I had any left. A friend said this zucchini cake would take a medal in any competition – I hope you like it as much as my family does!
This is the recipe:
4 cups shredded zucchini
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup vegetable oil
Heat oven to 350 ‘. Grease a 9” by 13” pan.
In a large bowl, blend sugar and eggs. Add oil and mix well.
Mix in flour, spices, salt, and baking soda.
Stir in zucchini and nuts.
Bake 40 minutes to an hour, depending on your oven.
By Susan Wanderman
Forest Hills CSA 