Saturday 7 August 2010

Courgette Cake


My colleague brought in these beautiful courgettes (zucchini) from his garden. It's not unsurprising then that I decided to make a cake with it. I've always wanted to try making a courgette cake and I'm really glad I did as it was really delicious. It's very similar to a carrot cake. The courgettes made the cake moist and the orange icing in this recipe went very well with it. I'd like to try it with lemon or other fruit or chocolate. Have you baked anything with courgettes? How did it turn out? 


Look at the size of them! 

adding grated courgette to the cake batter 


ready to go in the oven

fresh from the oven

with icing on top 

I added some crushed walnuts as it looked a little plain


For the cake 
250g butter
250g caster sugar or brown sugar
4 eggs
350g self raising flour
juice and zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
350g courgette, grated  (I used 1 large one as shown in the picture above)
50g walnuts, roughly chopped
80g sultanas

Orange Cream Cheese Icing 
125g cream cheese
50g unsalted butter
300g icing sugar
juice and zest of 1/4 orange 

  • Preheat oven to 180C.
  • Grease and line a 25cm deep cake tin. 
  • Beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy. 
  • Add the eggs one at a time while mixing until the eggs are well incorporated. 
  • Sieve the flour with the cinnamon and mixed spice. 
  • Fold in 1/3 of the flour, followed by 1/2 of the orange juice and zest, repeat this using the remaining flour and orange so that all the ingredients are well combined. 
  • Stir in the courgette, walnuts and sultanas and mix well. 
  • Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and place on the centre shelf in the preheated oven.
  • Bake for approximately 1 hour or until the cake is firm to touch. 
  • Turn the cake out on a rack and allow to cool completely.

To make the icing: 
  • Beat the cream cheese and butter together until creamy. 
  • Gradually beat in the icing sugar and orange juice and zest until you have a smooth creamy icing.
  • Spread over the cooled cake. 



6 comments:

  1. Personally I haven't made anything with courgettes in it, yet, but I've wanted to for ages. Yours looks beautiful! I love cakes topped with cream cheese and carrot cakes are my favourite...so I'm sure I'd love your recipe :D

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  2. mmmm this looks so moist and delish. I have not braved a courgette cake yet -this has inspired me to try :)

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  3. I have courgette cake on my "to bake" list - glad yours came out so well, it looks great!

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  4. I've never made a courgette cake myself, but that needs to change. THis looks wonderful with a very moist texture.
    *kisses* HH

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  5. I love making zucchini bread, but I have never turned it into a cake!

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  6. I did not know zucchini had another name, I didn't recognize what the cake was called until I was reading the ingredients. Thanks for teaching me something new today.

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