Zucchini Ginger Cake with Lemon, Yogurt and Mascarpone Icing by Letitia Clark
Lemony light, moist, and sweet with a wonderful cloud of tangy icing, this is the perfect cake for a long summer afternoon
Today in the newsletter, my series of collaborations continues with Letitia Clark. I met Letitia while working at Mèlisses where we spent endless hours in the kitchen together, cooking, chatting, and laughing. When not in the kitchen, we would explore the island of Andros, plucking sea salt crystals the size of our palms from the rocky coastline or foraging for bouquets of wildflowers in the grassy hills.
A wildflower is a beautiful metaphor for Letitia herself. Originally from Devon, Leti studied English literature before graduating and attending Leiths School of Food & Wine. She spent most of her early adult years cooking in restaurants around London, until eventually leaving the city behind and moving to the Italian island of Sardinia. Letitia goes with the flow, letting spontaneous winds take her where they will and ultimately putting down roots and flourishing there. She defies convention in all things and stays true to herself, foraging a path on her own terms. She is a genuine, open book with a knack for creating beauty and whimsy out of simple things that many would overlook. Currently, Letitia lives on Sardinia with her husband and son, cooking, writing and building her own agriturismo project.
In today’s newsletter, Letitia is sharing the recipe for her delicious Zucchini Ginger Cake with Lemon, Yoghurt and Mascarpone Icing from her new book Wild Figs & Fennel. Some helpful tips for baking this cake and my conversation with Letitia in which we discuss her creative process and path into food follows the recipe.
By Letitia Clark
‘This cake has the most sublime texture and tastes like the very essence of summer. Lemony light, damply sweet from the courgettes (zucchini) and with a wonderful cloud-whip of tangy icing, it is the perfect cake for a long summer afternoon.
It is also very good at breakfast without the icing (plain with a dollop of yoghurt, or with a simple lemon glaze would be nice) and very good at tea-time or for special occasions. It is a highly adaptable, fresh and fruity cake, moist and zesty, just-flecked with pale green, and a great way of using up endless courgettes. If you have fresh ginger readily available you can use that too. It creates an even more vibrant flavour. Any extra icing can be used as a little mousse alongside some summer berries.’
Serves 8–10
Ingredients:
For the cake:
200 g (7 oz / about 1 medium) zucchini
100 g (3 1/2 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
90 ml (3 fl oz/1/3 cup) olive oil
230 g (8 oz/1 cup) sugar
3 eggs
1 scant teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger or 1 tablespoon freshly grated root ginger
250 g (9 oz/2 1/4 cups) ‘00’ flour
3 tsp baking powder
Zest and juice of 1 large lemon or 2 small, plus extra zest to decorate
3 tablespoons thick (Greek) yoghurt
Edible flowers, to decorate (optional)
For the icing (frosting):
250 g (9 oz/1 generous cup) mascarpone
100 g (3 1/2 oz/generous 3/4 cup) icing (confectioners’) sugar
Zest of 1 lemon, plus 4 teaspoons juice
100 g (3 1/2 oz/generous 1/3 cup) thick (Greek) yoghurt
Instructions:
1. Trim the ends of the zucchini, then finely grate them into a colander over the sink, squeezing out excess juice with your hands.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/gas 4). Grease and line a 23 cm (9”) springform cake pan.
3. Beat the butter and oil together with the sugar until pale, smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until they are fully and incorporated. Add the salt, ginger, flour, baking powder and finally, the zucchini, lemon zest and juice and the yoghurt, and stir to combine.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 50-60 minutes until risen and golden, and an inserted skewer comes out clean (turn the oven down slightly halfway through if the cake looks as though it’s taking on too much colour).
5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out of the tin and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.
6. For the icing, beat the mascarpone with the icing sugar together, then add the lemon zest and juice and yoghurt, and beat again until smooth. Spread the cream evenly over the top of the cake, then decorate with lemon zest and edible flowers.
-If you don’t have a stand or handheld electric mixer at home, this cake can be mixed by hand with a little bit of elbow grease. Stir together the sugar, softened butter, oil, and eggs with a wooden spoon, then give the mixture a good whisk to really integrate everything. Switch back to a wooden spoon or spatula to incorporate the remaining ingredients.
-Once the dry ingredients have been added, avoid over mixing the batter. This is one of the most common explanations for dense, tough cakes. Once flour is exposed to water, the more you mix it, the more gluten you will develop in the batter, so mix just enough to combine the ingredients for a light, fluffy cake.
My conversation with Letitia Clark:
Allegra: Can you give us a quick dive into how you found your way into working with food and writing cookbooks?
Letitia: I sort of fell into it, really. I wanted to be a writer, I always knew that, but I had no idea what to write about. I dreamt away my three years of university studying English Literature, spending most of my time browsing the old covered market, eating pork pies, trying to cook pheasant casserole and reading Nigel Slater instead of Shakespeare. By the end of my studies I had decided to learn to cook properly, because - I thought - at least I could make a living from that whilst I composed my Magnum Opus. I'm still working on said Opus. And I miss pork pies.
A: Big cities like London and islands like Sardinia are starkly contrasting in many ways. I'm curious to know how the transition from London to living on Sardinia has influenced your cooking and relationship to food?
L: I've never been a city person, and though I loved the diversity and the access to so many incredible ingredients and different cuisines, I always craved a simpler, slower and smaller life, like the one I had growing up in rural Devon. I love that Sardinia gives me this, and whilst I'd be lying if I said I don't occasionally wish for a little more diversity, goodness and simplicity of Sardinian food and ingredients give me constant and enduring pleasure, as does the way of life.
A: In a world of over-styled, perfect-looking food, your vibrant, whimsical, and true-to-life style is somewhat unique and beautifully clear throughout all of your work. Have you ever felt pressure to change or conform and if so, how did you push back to stay true to yourself?
L: I have always felt the pressure to conform and to change to fit a certain model, I think we all do. But I try very hard to stay true to myself. I think the true beauty of things lies in their imperfections, so often, and I try to remember that. I often have to wrestle with my own perfectionism, let alone any one else's, and the glossy Instagram-driven industry certainly can make one feel inadequate. But my father once said to me: 'Remember, you will never be commercial', and those words sort of set me free. I thought, 'ah ok, if I never will be, maybe I don't have to try to be. I can just be myself and hope people like it'.
A: Has a career as a cookbook author satisfied your itch to be in the kitchen? Do you consider cooking to be a creative outlet?
L: In some ways yes, in some ways no. It can feel very stifling because it's prescriptive, and the way I cook is not a all prescriptive, it's chaos! I'll wake up and want to make something, or I'll see something I like and want to recreate it. If you're sticking to a recipe list and a book plan it's not that easy. But there is always a little wiggle room for creativity.
A: Where do you draw inspiration from for your work?
L: Nature is my biggest inspiration. Walking every day gives me ideas, and looking at what's growing makes me inspired to cook or create. Also from all my old books, from the weekly market where I do my shopping, and from the Sardinians who give me advice.
A: Do you have any upcoming projects that you're excited about and working on?
L: A lemon book! going to Amalfi to shoot the lemon book with my little boy and Lorenzo. And then taking a little break from books to build our agriturismo. Then back to more books! I hope. And running the agriturismo too.
I cannot wait to make this cake and just love all that Letitia does on Sardinia!