She was the baker in the family (a title now passed on to my father). She moved from St. Paul to live with us in Los Angeles when I was four. Mom, being rather busy with all the kids (6 kids in 8 years!) and working as a head start teacher, didn’t have much time for crafts or baking. It was grandma who taught me to sew, to knit and crochet, and to bake. She made cherry pies, angel food cakes, apricot jam, and the best oatmeal raisin cookies. We fought for the rights to lick the batter bowl of whatever cake she happened to be making. When we moved to Sacramento, she would send my mother recipe clippings and notes. I think that’s how we must have ended up with this recipe for zucchini cake. It’s a lot like zucchini bread, moist and somewhat crumbly, but in sheet cake form, with more egg and sugar, and with a cream cheese frosting. Great for summer potlucks!
2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons cinnamon (can sub 1 teaspoon with other spices such as allspice and nutmeg, go easy on the cloves though) 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 3 large eggs 2 cups sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon lemon zest, optional 3 to 4 medium zucchini, grated, and with the moisture pressed out through a sieve to equal 2 cups 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (my grandmother recommends black walnuts) 1/2 cup golden raisins, optional
Frosting:
3 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature (Philadelphia cream cheese recommended) 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 1 1/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar
Frost the cake and serve. Store covered with aluminum foil. Zucchini cake with crunchy lemon glaze from David Lebovitz Spiced zucchini cake from My Baking Addiction It’s so eerie to look at my grandmother’s notes. She mentions that “black walnuts are good”. Black walnuts are pretty hard to find, but there was a black walnut tree on our block that she and I would pass on the way to the grocery store. If there were any nuts on the ground, she would gather them and we would crack them open with a hammer when we got home. Her hand got shakier as she got older. By her 90s she had the symptoms of Parkinson’s. There’s a more recent note to my sister advising her to drain the zucchini, where her handwriting is noticeably more wobbly.
