Zucchini, Lemon and Pistachio Cake

Zucchini is a summertime garden staple. In this easy, hard-to-resist snack cake, the addition of zucchini makes for a moist and tender crumb. For the chocolate lovers, try adding a handful or two of chocolate chips to the batter and forgoing the icing and lemon curd.

Yield: 15 servings

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 35 minutes

1¼ cups shelled, unsalted pistachios, plus extra for garnish

1½ cups light brown sugar

¾ cup + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into chunks

2 cups all-purpose flour

1¼ tsp baking powder

1¼ tsp baking soda

½ tsp fine sea salt

3 large eggs

½ cup plain yogurt

1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest, divided

½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, divided

1 cup packed coarsely grated zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini)

2 cups icing sugar

¾ cup homemade or store bought lemon curd (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.

Place pistachios and light brown sugar in a food processor and combine until the nuts are sandy in texture. Add butter, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs, yogurt, 2 tsp lemon zest and 5 tbsp lemon juice. Combine until batter is smooth.

Stir in grated zucchini with a rubber spatula before tipping batter into prepared pan. Smooth into an even layer and bake until cake is golden brown on top and a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean (about 30 to 35 minutes). Let cake cool in baking pan on a wire rack to room temperature. At this point, cake may be stored uniced in an airtight container, refrigerated or at room temperature, for up to 3 days.

While cake is cooling, sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add remaining 1 tsp lemon zest and gradually whisk in enough of the remaining 3 tbsp lemon juice, one tablespoon at a time, to make a thick yet drizzle-able icing. Spoon over cooled cake in thick lines and sprinkle with a scattering of roughly chopped pistachios. Let icing set for 20 minutes at room temperature before cutting and placing in an airtight container for transportation.

When ready to serve, cut cake into squares and, if desired, drizzle or dollop with some lemon curd.

While a corked bottle may be the best vessel for the musty corners of a creepy old cellar, the much-maligned box with its plastic bladder is actually the best vessel for the other 99.8% of wine consumed. Not only is the packaging much more environmentally friendly, it also keeps the wine fresher, longer, by keeping O2 at bay. And its high portability and rough-and-tumble nature means it’s your perfect companion for a day at the beach. Here are three options that don’t sacrifice on the quality that’s inside these ingenious packages.

Cape Fynbos Chenin Blanc, $30

South African chenin blanc is already one of the world’s great values, but this is next-level appealing. Unlike the many producers that dumb down their box-packaged wine, Cape Fynbos has channelled all of the lovely acidity, quince and crisp pear notes in this chenin to make it the perfect partner for, truthfully, all of the recipes listed here and almost anything else someone might bring to the shindig.

La Vieille Ferme Rosé, $42 Rosé is a must at the beach, but most box wines dial up the sweetness, which is the kiss of death with food and exhausts the palate early—especially in the heat. This offering from France’s Ventoux region treads the perfect line between dry enough to pair with a jackfruit sandwich but featuring enough ripe cherry notes to make it crowd pleasing if you’re sipping it between Spikeball matches.

Hester Creek Cabernet Merlot, $56

One of the chief problems with box wine is that wineries often fill it with their less-thanpremium offerings, but if you love the juicy, lush fruit and soft tannins of Hester Creek’s cab-merlot, then here you go—four bottles’ worth of the exact same juice with some savings thrown in to boot. This is the future of box wines.