Well folks, we have come to the middle of summer, when the children are bored but not ready for school yet, and our taste buds are tired of s’mores and potato salad. (Yes, this is possible.)
This recipe from The View From Great Island was recently shared on our Facebook page, and it looked SO GOOD to me personally, that I sweet-talked my 10-year-old daughter into making it last weekend. She’s been really taking off in the kitchen lately, and has homemade brownies and even bread under her belt now, so I knew this cake would be something she could easily handle. And oh my word, handle it she did.
She’s a careful girl, especially since she’s fairly new to the baking thing. She follows every recipe TO A TEE, whereas I am much more likely to fudge this or cut a corner on that. So it was no surprise that her cake turned out PERFECTLY – the precise ratio of juicy blueberries to moist zucchini, and the icing alone was to die for. Even my “never-eats-dessert” husband was absolutely smitten.
And, just like that, a baker was born, and the end of the summer was tangibly brightened by something as simple as a delicious cake, shared outside as a family at our picnic table. Ah, summer – don’t leave us too soon!
Beautiful photos and recipe courtesy of The View From Great Island. Other photos by me. :)
PrintBlueberry Zucchini Cake with Lemon Buttercream
A moist, dense, not-too-sweet zucchini cake studded with blueberries and topped with a bright, buttery lemon icing. Summer’s freshest flavors all in one awesome dessert!
Ingredients
For the cake
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 cups shredded zucchini
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 pint blueberries (tossed in 1 tsp flour)
For the lemon buttercream
- 1 cup butter, (2 sticks, 8 ounces) at room temperature
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
- juice of one lemon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Lightly grease and flour a 9×13 baking pan.
- Beat the eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar until well blended. Fold in the zucchini.
- Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda to combine. Slowly add it to the wet mixture, mixing just enough to blend.
- Fold in the blueberries, and pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 50 minutes, just until the top is turning golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out without wet batter clinging to it. Cool on a rack.
- To make the frosting, put the softened butter into the bowl of a food processor and process until creamy. Add the sifted powdered sugar, one cup at a time, processing till smooth after each addition. After the second cup of sugar add in the lemon juice. Scrape down the sides of the machine as necessary. Adjust the texture by adding a little more lemon or a little more sugar.
- Frost the cooled cake and store in the refrigerator.
Notes
- I felt that this cake was at its best chilled, so I kept ours in the refrigerator. The frosting is butter-rich, so especially in warm weather this makes sense, and the texture of the chilled frosting is out of this world.
[…] Blueberry Zucchini Cake with Lemon Buttercream […]
This cake is very, very delicious. It’s one of my favorite ways to use zucchini!??