Lemon Zucchini Cake

This lemon zucchini cake bakes in one pan in under 35 minutes and stays moist for three days. Wonderful Seedless Lemons zest directly into the batter and juice straight into the glaze, no seeds to interrupt either step.

Zucchini cake:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1½ cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Zest from 2 Wonderful Seedless Lemons
• 2 medium zucchinis
• Wonderful Seedless Lemon slices and zest for garnish

Lemon glaze:

• Juice from 2 Wonderful Seedless Lemons
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

• Do not peel the zucchini. The green skin disappears entirely into the shredded texture of the finished cake. It is undetectable by sight or taste. Leaving the skin on saves prep time and retains a small amount of additional fiber.
• Do not squeeze the zucchini unless it is visibly oversized. The moisture in the zucchini is the mechanism. Standard market zucchini (6–8" long, firm) carries the right amount of water. Only very large zucchini benefit from a single light squeeze.
• Do not overmix the batter. Mix until the flour just disappears, a few streaks are fine, and then stop. Overmixed zucchini cake is noticeably tougher and drier than properly mixed cake.
• Pull the cake from the oven when the toothpick shows moist crumbs, not when it comes out clean. A completely clean toothpick in a zucchini cake usually means the cake has baked a few minutes too long and is beginning to dry out.
• Cool the cake completely before glazing. The lemon glaze is a thin sugar syrup at room temperature. When it contacts a warm cake surface, it melts immediately and runs off the sides as a clear, sticky liquid rather than setting into an opaque, slightly matte finish.
• Bake the cake a day ahead for best texture. Like many quick breads and oil-based cakes, lemon zucchini cake improves slightly overnight as the moisture from the zucchini redistributes throughout the crumb.

• Lemon Zucchini Bread. Pour the same batter into a greased 9"x5" loaf pan and bake at 350°F for 55-65 minutes.
• Lemon Zucchini Muffins. Divide the batter evenly among 12 standard muffin cups lined with paper liners. Bake at 350°F for 20–22 minutes.
• Lemon Zucchini Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting. Skip the lemon glaze. Instead, beat 8 ounces of room-temperature cream cheese with ½ cup powdered sugar and two tablespoons of lemon juice until smooth and spreadable.
• Chocolate Chip Lemon Zucchini Cake. Fold ¾ cup of mini chocolate chips into the batter along with the shredded zucchini.
• Whole Wheat Lemon Zucchini Cake. Replace half the all-purpose flour (1 cup) with whole wheat flour, keeping everything else the same.