Courgette cake

The garden gives so many courgettes over the summer. I had to look for recipes for which i could use it. Apart from rasped in an omelet, a ratatouille, courgette soup and many other recipes. So: cake!

I found a good recipe on the bbcgoodfood.com website. It is in a way similar to a carrot cake. Oil, no butter, brown sugar, sultana’s and walnuts. The first time i made this cake i still had some walnuts in the house, which i all cracked and put in the cake. The second time i didn’t have any walnuts anymore. So out came the sunflower seeds.

I’ve baked this cake around five times in the past weeks. I still have some courgettes from the garden, so i will bake another one tomorrow to take with Friday morning. It does taste a bit like a carrot cake, it has the same combination of wet and dry ingredients. I love it. I do leave out the vanilla, i simply don’t have in my house. Please add if you do have it.

Ingredients

• butter, for the tin
• 2 large eggs
• 125ml vegetable oil
• 85g soft brown sugar
• 350g courgette, coarsely grated
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 300g plain flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 85g walnut, roughly chopped, or any other nut or seed you have
• 140g sultana
• a pinch of salt

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and sugar, then add the courgettes and vanilla.
2. In another bowl, combine the remaining ingredients with a pinch of salt.
3. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, then pour into the tin. Bake for 1 hr, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool, then serve, or freeze for up to 1 month.