This recipe was originally published as a Lemon Olive Oil Cake in 2016. Now it’s back as Lemon Poppyseed Zucchini Bread with new photos and a renewed sense of purpose to make your day a little (lot) brighter.
Oh. Me. Oh. My.
This just in: guess what I’ve made six times in the last two weeks? You’re looking at it. I officially belong to the elite club of people who could live off of lemon poppyseed zucchini bread FOREVER.
Friends. You just take a minute right now and you drink in those virtual smells. Are you ready? The lemony oils with the coarse sugar. The spicy ginger. The lightly floral smell of the olive oil. The poppyseeds and all their cute little nuttiness.
This is a bakery meets spa situation and I cannot get enough.
Can we go to the food feelings zone for a second?
Something about this cake is inherently soul-HEALING. And in the grey-meh-bleh days where you find yourself leaving for work and returning home all in a blur, and where everyone and everything is recovering from being either body-sick or heart-sick, and life can just feel hard, healing is good. Healing is very totally necessary.
Making this cake requires *just* enough work to remind you that good food takes time. We’re grating zucchini and gently pressing out the water. We’re zesting lemons and slowing down to smell the little curls of zest along the way because YUM. We’re pressing our own olives to make… no, we’re not actually. Thank you, Store Bought Olive Oil. We’re just breathing in the olive oil as it drizzles into the batter. Is that allowed?
With ONE FULL CUP of olive oil in there and a big handful of poppyseeds (why so expensive, little guys? I don’t understand it), this is less of a quick/easy/cheap situation and more of a love song to high quality, delicious ingredients.
On a physical level, it is straight up aromatherapy.
On an emotional level, it is lemon-loaded love.
UNUSUAL NOTE ABOUT THIS LEMON OLIVE OIL CAKE:
You know I love my sauces, toppings, and extras x10 on everything. But honestly, I’m here to tell you that this cake doesn’t need any butter, any honey, any glaze or frosting or any anything. (!!) That’s kind of a big deal.
All this zucchini bread needs is you on the couch with a house that smells like a bakery + spa combo, holding a warm mug of dark coffee and a few (dozen) slices of this bread. ♡
We are so FEELIN IT.
More Sweet Breads to Love
- Springy Blueberry Lemon Bread (all the bright, fresh flavors here)
- Super Moist Pumpkin Bread (a fall classic)
- Gooey Caramel Monkey Bread (with homemade caramel sauce = THE BEST)
Common Questions About This Zucchini Bread
To make these into muffins, follow steps 1-3 as listed, and then pour the batter into a greased muffin tin. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 mins. Full recipe will make about 18 muffins. Alternatively, you can make these muffins.
Use half brown sugar and half white sugar. Or all white sugar. I’ve made this six times, a little different each time, but my favorite variation was the all-brown-sugar version (as written) which gives a darker, more caramel-like crust on the whole bread. It might seem a little dark at first compared to other loaf cakes, but give it a little time in the fridge and it will be magic in your mouth.
For whatever reason, I think this lemon olive oil cake tastes THE BEST when stored in the refrigerator. I cannot get enough of it. Just stick it in the fridge after you’ve eaten the first warm slice, and then the next morning treat yoself to the most dense, moist, luscious lemon olive oil bread.
Yes, it’s a lot of sugar in this recipe. I did try it with less sugar and while it tasted pretty good, the texture just wasn’t quite there. I generally opt for less sugar in my recipes, but in this one, I really felt like the full sugar amount was necessary to achieve the best texture. The batter WILL taste overly sweet. Don’t panic. It all evens out once it’s baked.
Lemon Poppyseed Zucchini Bread
Prep Time: 20 mins
Yield: 12 slices
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Lemon Olive Oil Cake with zucchini, brown sugar, zested lemons, olive oil, ginger, and poppyseeds. The most healing breakfast or snack!
Ingredients
- 3 cups grated zucchini (about 2 zucchini)
- grated zest of 2 large lemons
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cups brown sugar (packed softly)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 tablespoons poppy seeds
- optional: tiny pinch of nutmeg
- optional: a small grated piece of fresh ginger
Instructions
- Drain zucchini: Preheat the oven to 350. In a small mixing bowl, mix the zucchini with 1/4 cup brown sugar. Transfer the mixture to a fine-mesh strainer set over the mixing bowl. Fill another small bowl with water and set it directly on top of the zucchini so that it is pushing down, pressing the water out into the bowl below.
- Add wet ingredients: Line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper. Whisk together the remaining brown sugar, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla until well blended. Beat in the olive oil gradually, whisking it in until it’s thoroughly incorporated.
- Add dry ingredients: Stir in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, nutmeg, and ginger until just combined. Add the pressed zucchini to the batter and stir it in gently until evenly incorporated.
- Bake: Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for about 1 hour and 10 minutes. The outer crust of the bread will be firm to the touch and on the darker side of golden brown (see FAQs).
- Eat: Cool the bread in the pan for about 20 minutes. Remove, cut, and serve (but also see FAQs about chilling the cake which is unusually delicious).
Notes
The equipment section above contains affiliate links to products we use and love!
Sugar Topping: Optional but crunchy and delicious. Remove from oven at 55 minutes, add 2-3 tablespoons of turbinado sugar (all it needed), and finish baking for the last 15 minutes.
Source: This recipe was inspired by the ginger olive oil zucchini cake on Food 52.
Category: Snack
Cuisine: American
Keywords: lemon olive oil bread, lemon olive oil loaf, lemon bread, lemon poppyseed bread, lemon zucchini bread
One more thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of easy zucchini recipes. Check it out!
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