Summer Squash Cake

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You know how in the heat of summer everyone jokes about having zucchinis everywhere. That joke that if you leave your window rolled down at church you’ll come out to a zucchini in your seat? Well, we didn’t have an abundance of zucchini like that this year. I honestly could have used for someone to randomly leave me some. Normally, I’m scrounging recipes and freezing muffins and bread to pull out when we are in a hurry or I don’t feel like cooking. Not this year! This year, we had an abundance of summer squash. I’m not sure you’ve looked but a lot of people don’t bake with summer squash. There are very few recipes out there so I decided to make my own summer squash cake recipe.

What is Summer Squash?

Not to be confused with zucchini, summer squash are the yellow squashes. They sometimes have crook-necks and sometimes they have straight necks. They also sometimes have lumps and bumps but can sometimes be straight. I’ve found that if you get them from the store they are a cute smooth straight-necked variety. However, whenever we try to grow them, no matter the seed, they aren’t as cute. They end up lumpy and bumpy and with a crooked neck. In my opinion, they taste fairly similar but have larger seeds. For this recipe, it doesn’t matter what they look like- you can use either variety.

Ingredients for Summer Squash Cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup poppy seeds
• ½ cup buttermilk (see note)
• ½ cup lemon juice
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 summer squash, shredded

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 and grease a bundt pan.
2. Cream sugar and butter together.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
4. Add lemon juice and buttermilk, mixing well.
5. Add dry ingredients and mix well. 
6. Fold in the squash and poppy seeds.
7. Bake for 75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Tips & Tricks

Instead of shredding by hand I use my food processor to really grind up the summer squash. You don’t need to remove the seeds or anything. Just chunk it up and put it in the food processor for the best results.

You can top this cake if you want. Actually, you have a few options here. There are several different glazes that you could add to the top or a simple dusting of powdered sugar is great as well. We prefer to keep the sugar on the lower side and eat it plain, which is also delicious. 

Another fun trick for this one is to sprinkle the pan with sugar after you grease it. This will give your cake a little extra crunch and sweetness. Plus, it makes it even more unique. 

In Summary: Summer Squash Cake

A cake becomes healthy if there are vegetables in it right?! In all reality, a dessert is a dessert but we all need to live a little. In a quest to find some balance this cake is a good fit of sweet but also not overpowering. Plus, it uses up all of those summer squashes that you have lying around. If you love this cake you will most likely also like the bread and muffin version of this too. What can I say, I had a lot of summer squash! I’m still going to attempt to turn all of these into summer squash pancakes too! 

What is your favorite type of cake? Let us know in the comments!

My all time favorite is a basic yellow cake with my dad’s signature chocolate peanut butter frosting. It’s the only thing I want on my birthday every year. I’ve attempted the frosting myself and it’s never as good as his so it’s always so special when he whips it up for us.