And by “anytime” I mean morning, noon or night. This cake is equally enjoyed as a breakfast sweet, mid-afternoon coffee or tea pick-me-up, or dinner’s dessert!
Technically zucchini is a fruit since it grows from the flower of a plant and contains the seeds for the plant (a vegetable is every other part of the plant). Most of us use zucchini as a vegetable, but with my sweet tooth, I will take any opportunity to bake up a dessert with what is at hand.
We recently worked our way through a couple of shopping bags laden with apples gifted from our neighbor, including consuming several apple crumb cakes made from the harvest. Adapting my apple crumb cake to zucchini was an easy switch-up to curb the craving for more crumb cake!
I had planned to prepare a squash or pumpkin cake, but then realized I had purchased too many zucchinis on successive market days. Fortunately, in our climate, we will still see zucchini at our farmers markets for weeks to come.
This recipe only uses two small-to-medium zukes, so you may have enough on hand now to try this satisfying cake.
While you’re here in the Piedmont Pantry, search back to my Piedmont Apple Cake recipe. That recipe is a favorite at our house and will be prepared throughout the autumn baking season too.
Feel free to switch up or add spices to the cinnamon. Hint: A bit of cardamom adds a bright note to the cake.
Anytime Zucchini Crumb Cake
Ingredients
For the Crumb Topping
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter cold
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar sugar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 cup walnuts chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
For the Cake:
- 1-1/2 cups fresh zucchini grated on the larger shred size
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon to taste
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature, plus about 1 tablespoons for greasing the pan
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice freshly squeezed
Instructions
For the Crumb Crust
- Mix together all the ingredients, except the walnuts., until the texture resembles moist sand. You could do this either manually (using your fingers or a pastry blender) or pulse it in a food processor. A few small bits of visible butter is fine. Stir in the nuts. Set aside until needed, in the refrigerator if your kitchen is warm.
For the Crumb Cake
- Adjust an oven rack to the lower third position. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter the sides of a 9-inch round pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Pour heavy cream into a small bowl and add the lemon juice. The mixture will curdle a bit, it's OK. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with a hand mixer until light and airy on medium speed, about three minutes. Add the vanilla.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition to fully incorporate.
- Add the shredded zucchini and mix to just incorporate.
- On low speed, add the flour in three parts, alternating with the heavy cream in two parts; starting and ending with the flour. The batter will be thick.
- Transfer the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the top with a spatula.
- Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the batter, taking care to spread it out to the edges for full coverages and crumble tastiness in every bite.
- Bake for about 50 minutes or until the crumbs are golden and a test skewer comes out clean.
- Cool on a wire rack before slicing.
