29 Aug courgette + lemon cake

Vegetables in cake? You must be having a laugh! We are laughing, but only because courgette cake is utterly delicious. You’ll have to try them for yourself to get in on the giggle.

courgette cake

This indulgently sugary cake is a sweet way to make use of your courgettes.

Ingredients

350g of self-raising flour

350g of caster sugar

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1 handful of whole walnuts

175ml sunflower oil

3 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 medium courgettes

For the icing

180g cream cheese

4 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar

1 lemon

Handful of finely chopped walnuts

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180c/160c fan/Gas Mark 4. Line a 24cm cake tin with greaseproof paper.

2. Sieve the self-raising flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar, cinnamon and whole walnuts and mix lightly.

3. Measure the sunflower oil into a measuring jug. Break the eggs into the oil and mix with a fork until well-combined, before mixing in the vanilla extract.

4. Finely grate the courgettes into a colander. Use your hands to squeeze the liquid from the courgettes before adding to the oil, egg and vanilla mixture. This is an important step as you’ll be left with a soggy cake if you don’t get rid of that excess liquid. Yuck.

5. Pour the oil, egg, vanilla and courgette mixture into the flour and sugar mixture. Combine really well until you have a lovely thick batter.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 40 – 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool

7. Make your icing by combining the cream cheese and icing sugar. When the cake has completely cooled, spread all over your cake. Finish with a sprinkling of lemon zest and finely chopped walnuts.

This recipe first appeared in Insider Magazine in The Irish Independent on August 28th