We haven’t baked cakes here for ages and like the No 10 bus, they all come along at once!

So here it is:  Flora’s Famous Courgette Cake recipe found in Nigella Lawson’s “How to be a Domestic Goddess” book published in 2003 by Chatto & Windus:

(Preheat oven to 180oC/gas mark 4)

for the cake:
60g raisins, optional (but tasty)

125ml vegetable oil (I used extra virgin as it was all I had & it tasted fine)
150g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
half teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
half teaspoon baking powder
2 x 21cm sandwich tins, greased and lined

Wipe the courgettes with kitchen towel (don’t peel them), then grate.  The coarse side of an ordinary grater is best as anything finer or smaller can make them mushy).  When they’re grated turn them into a sieve over the sink to remove excess water.

Put the eggs, oil and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy.  Sieve in the flour, bicarb and baking powder and continue to beat until well combined.  Now stir in the grated courgette and add the drained raisins.  Pour the mixture into the tins and bake for 30 mins until slightly browned and firm to the touch.  Leave in the tins on a rack for 5-10 mins then turn out and let cool until you’re ready to fill and ice.

for the lime curd filling (or buy one from the shop but it’s very easy to make)
Makes 350ml:
75g unsalted butter
3 large eggs
75g caster sugar
125ml lime juice (of approx 4 limes)
zest of 1 lime

Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan, add all the other ingredients and whisk to a custard over a gentle heat.  Let cool before filling a far – or a cake – with it.  Keep in the fridge.

For the icing:
200g cream cheese
100g icing sugar, sieved
juice of 1 lime, or more to taste
2-3 tablespoons chopped pistachio nuts

Beat the cream cheese in a bowl until smooth, add the icing sugar, beating well to combine, then stir in the lime juice to taste.

The Verdict

We loved this cake.  It’s a bit like carrot cake - light and moist – and very easy to make.  One of the courgette hating girls loved it, the other still refused it.  In future I’ll know to keep the ingredients secret!  I also tried it out on a neighbour this afternoon who was nervous but then very complimentary and ate it all.

I didn’t put the cream cheese topping onto the cake at the girls request, but the adults like to add a spoonful on the side of the plate, just like cream.

If you like the idea of making cakes with courgettes, here’s a chocolate and courgette recipe that we had a go at too.

Update:

This weekend I was catching up on blog reading when I noticed that Mona Wise had mentioned courgette cupcakes in a recent post. I had all the ingredients in my cupboard to make the cake above, as well as the usual summer glut of courgettes but couldn’t face tackling my exploding cupboard to root out a cake tin. I therefore decided to give the cupcakes a go.

Using the same method and ingredients as above, instead of turning the mixture into a cake tin I divided it into individual bun cases. This also cut the baking time down to 20 to 25 minutes, even better for hungry mouths!

When the buns were cool I removed them from their paper cases, cut them in half and spread the icing in the middle, before replacing the top. I then poured over the lime curd topping and grated some pistachios on top. Today’s toppings varied slightly from the original above as I had didn’t have enough lime so made a mixture of lemon and lime. The result was still scrummy!

Courgette Cupcakes

Do you have any cake recipes that you make using vegetables? I’d love to hear about them.