Carrot, courgette and pineapple garden cake

Today is one of my good friend's birthday! I managed to meet up with her last week for a celebration and of course I had to make a cake. Last year I made a raspberry ripple cake which was fraught with disasters but luckily tasted very good. This year I wanted to do something different so I decided to push the boat out and looked through my copy of The Birthday Cake Book by Fiona Cairns. I've never made anything from this book as they all look quite scary and complicated but I was feeling brave! 

When I saw her vegetable plot cake, I decided I wanted to make a garden cake as my friend loves gardening. So this cake is inspired by Fiona Cairns but I've created my own 'garden vegetable' cake recipe. I thought it was only fitting that the cake should be full of fruits and vegetables. I also used spelt flour for the extra "earthiness" and healthiness and the result was a delicious, moist and flavourful cake. It went really well with the cream cheese frosting and I'll definitely be making these again perhaps in a muffin form for breakfast/snacks. 

My friend was really pleased with the cake and said it was the best cake she's ever had!! :) I feel so touched but am also slightly worried that I won't be able to make anything as good as this for future birthdays! 

Happy Birthday Charlotte!! 

As this is a birthday and celebration cake, I'm also entering it to Tea Time Treats who are celebrating their first birthday this month and the theme is cake. Tea Time Treats is hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Kate from What Kate Baked. 

 You need courgette, carrots, pineapple and I threw in a banana as well as I had one going brown - it adds to the moistness of the cake 

 mash the bananas, grate the carrots and courgettes and open the tin of pineapple (you can also use fresh pineapple)

 ready to go in the oven. I love the colour of the batter from the spelt flour 

 sandwich the cakes with cream cheese frosting tinted green. Cover the top and sides 

 Buy 2 boxes of matchmakers to make the fence 

 roll a small piece of green fondant into a sausage like shape with tapered ends 

 press the end of a paintbrush to create an indentation for the pea pod

 neaten the ends like this 

 roll 3 small balls of green fondant and place in the pod - these are a little big but I'm sure you get the idea! 

 Roll some orange fondant to a similar shape and use a knife to score ridges across to make it look like a carrot. I shaped the green fondant by hand and stuck it on top of the carrot 

 roll a piece of green fondant into a small ball. flatten with your palm. use a sharp knife to cut out a star shape pattern like this 

 roll a small ball of red fondant. place the green 'star' that you cut earlier. Use a paintbrush to make a hole in the centre. Please tell me they look like tomatoes!

 To assemble the cake - cover the top and sides with green cream cheese frosting. Place the matchmakers around the cake to create a fence. I made them different heights but you can keep it even. Blitz 5 oreo cookies in a food processor and spread on top of the cake. I made some 'grass' from green dessicated coconut which I sprinkled on the cake board using the same cream cheese frosting to stick it to the board. 

 I also made some potatoes by rolling small balls of brown fondant and making indentations with the end of a paintbrush 

 I bought some coconut mushrooms as I didn't have time to make my own 

 The finished cake 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

For the cake

65mls or 1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon salt

400g brown sugar

375g spelt flour

200g carrots, grated (approximately 2 medium sized carrots)

200g courgette, grated (approximately 1 medium sized courgette)

225g tinned pineapple, drained

1 banana

120g pecan nuts, roughly chopped 

For the cream cheese frosting

225g cream cheese

113g butter

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

400g icing sugar

green food colouring

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Grease and line 2 sandwich tins.
• Mix oil, eggs, vanilla, spices, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar in an electric mixer or large bowl.
• Add in the flour and mix well.
• Add the grated vegetables, fruits and nuts and mix well.
• Divide the batter evenly between two pans (I usually weigh mine).
• Bake for approximately 50minutes to 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.
• To make the frosting, beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract in an electric mixer until smooth.
• Slowly add in the icing sugar and continue mixing until smooth. 
• Add the green colour at the end. 

For the decorations as shown

5 oreo cookies

2 boxes of matchmakers

ready rolled fondant icing - you can either buy them coloured or colour your own using paste colours

I used green, orange, red and brown

1 paintbrush

1 small, sharp knife

dessicated coconut

green food colouring

coconut mushrooms

wafer daisies

2 red m&m's

black writing icing 

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.