Our latest recipe. Check this out ...

Courgette cake with cream cheese lime icing and pistachios

We love courgettes. They grow so easily and quickly in even a tiny vegetable patch.  This cake is super moist, delicious and easy to make. And it looks beautiful. We prefer it to the ubiquitous carrot cake.  This is based on Nigella Lawson's recipe for Flora's Courgette Cake.

CAKE

•  250g courgettes (2-3, weighed before you grate them)

•  2 large eggs (or 3 medium)

•  125ml sunflower oil

•  150g golden caster sugar (or caster sugar will do)

•  225g self-raising flour

•  1/2 tsp bicarb soda

•  1/2 tsp baking powder

Grease and line 2 x 20cm round tins. Preheat oven to 180C (160 Fan).

Rinse whole courgettes, and then grate (skin on) with the coarse side of a grater. Put the courgettes in a sieve and leave over a bowl to drain off the excess liquid.

Place eggs, oil, and sugar in bowl and beat until creamy. Fold in sifted flour, bicarb, and baking powder. Stir in courgette.

Spoon mixture into tins and bake for 25 - 30 minutes, or until golden on top and firm to touch. Remove from oven, leave in pans for 5 mins, then turn out and leave to cool completely before assembling.

ICING

•  300g full fat cream cheese

•  200g icing sugar, sifted

•  juice ½ to 1 lime, depending on how juicy is it.

•  2-3 tbsp chopped pistachios (not salted)

Put cream cheese in a bowl and gradually add sieved icing sugar. Add lime juice. You may need to add a little more icing sugar and place the icing in fridge to firm up a little to thicken it to spreading consistency. This is because different cream cheeses are firmer or softer than others. Do not overbeat the cream cheese or it will liquify (go runny) and no amount of sugar will retrieve it.

To assemble the cake, place bottom layer on a serving plate and spread thickly with half the cream cheese icing. Place 2nd cake on top carefully. Spread cream cheese over the top, and sprinkle with pistachios. 

Put the kettle on and get ready to enjoy!