Last week, I was given a whole bunch of zucchini (aka courgette for all you other-English speakers out there). And I mean a whole lot… like 10 meals for a single girl. Thankfully, I have ideas on what to do with zucchini that doesn’t involve just stir-frying it or adding it to ratatouille. This is a cake, for example. A very lovely harvest, autumn like cake with loads of zucchini, ginger, orange and hazelnuts. It can be made into a bundt shape or loaves like banana bread. Very yummy and will now be my breakfast for the remainder of the week.
Ingredients
1 pound zucchini
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated ginger
grated zest from one orange
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons orange juice
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 chopped hazelnuts, divided
Directions
Preheat oven to 375F. Generously coat an 8 cup bundt pan or a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
Shred the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater. Using a clean kitchen towel, squeeze out as much liquid as you can. You should almost get a 1/2 cup of zucchini liquid out of it — use those muscles! Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in large bowl. Whisk sugar, yogurt, eggs, orange juice, grated ginger, orange zest, and butter in bowl until combined. Fold in half of the chopped hazelnuts.
Gently fold yogurt mixture and zucchini into flour mixture using spatula until just combined. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Sprinkle on remaining hazelnuts.
Bake until golden brown and skewer inserted in center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool for 15-20 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to cool at least 1 hour.
