Summer is finally here! The longest day of the year was yesterday and everything is growing at a fast pace. Including the weeds, but that’s another story. The long days mean that the zucchini needs to be harvested every day. Here are some that we missed and we ended up with huge squash!

Never fear though because it can be prepared so many different ways. Baked, pickled, battered and fried, or a bowl of fresh zoodles dressed simply with onion, apple cider vinegar,olive oil, and salt and pepper.

We have zucchini available here at the farm or you can find it in abundance at area farmers markets. We are at Webb City Farmers Market and Joplin Empire Market every Saturday.

With a portion of my giant zucchini, I decided to make a spice cake. This is a super simple and fast snack cake to have handy for summer. The zucchini makes it dense and moist. I made two different sauces to top it. For Doug, I topped it with Caramel Pecan Sauce. For me, I made Lemon Sauce. Here’s the recipe. Enjoy!

Zucchini Spice Cake
3 eggs
3/4 cup applesauce or vegetable oil
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 13 x 9 baking pan. In a large bowl, beat eggs and oil. In another bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add this to the egg mixture and mix well. Stir in the zucchini. Fold in the walnuts.

Spread into prepared baking pan. Bake at 350º for 35-40 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Lemon Sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon butter
Zest and juice from one lemon

In a small saucepan, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, salt and nutmeg. Slowly stir in the the boiling water and simmer over low heat until it thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the butter, lemon zest and lemon juice. Serve over the spice cake squares.