This is something I wrote quite a while ago:
I’ve mentioned a couple of times that my favourite cake is carrot cake, and it’s so popular now that no-one thinks it’s peculiar to have a sweet thing with a vegetable in it; when it first started appearing, a lot of people were almost horrified at the thought… a vegetable? A vegetable??? At times when certain things were in short supply, people had to be imaginative and think back to old ways of doing things. During the war when most food was rationed in Britain, sugar was rationed and most of what was available was home produced using sugar beet. All sorts of inventive ways were found to add variety and indulgence to diets. Now once again, adding vegetables to cakes is becoming popular and there are recipes all over the place… I have to say, that apart from carrot cake, I haven’t tasted any that I really thought were wonderful… and the beetroot cake I made, I confess, was so inedible that we had to recycle it (put it in the green waste!)
I came across a recipe for a courgette loaf with lemon frosting, which sounds so delicious I think I’m going to get some courgettes and have a go at making it – although, I confess, it really is quite some time since I made any cake at all. I hope I haven’t forgotten how! Here is the recipe, and if i do make it, I will report back. If I don’t write about it, either I’ve forgotten to do it, or it really was not very nice at all!
Courgette loaf cake with a lemon frosting
Cake
* 50 grams walnuts – roasted at 170C / gas mark 3 for 10 mins, roughly chopped
* 125 mil sunflower oil
*3 medium eggs
* 125 g light brown soft sugar
* 250 g courgette – coarsely grated
* 225 g plain flour
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon or similar sweet spice of your choice if you really don’t like cinnamon – (I can’t abide it!)
* 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
*1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
1. beat eggs, oil and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy
2. stir in the chopped courgettes and walnuts
3. mix the dry ingredients and then fold into the eggs/oil/courgette/walnut mix
4. tip into greased loaf tin (I think I might line it with grease-proof paper
5. bake for 1h – 1h 10 mins, until risen and golden, and an inserted skewer comes out clean
6. leave the cake in its tin for 10 mins, then remove to a wire rack and let it cool
Meanwhile –
Lemon frosting
- *100 gr mascapone
- * 1 un-waxed lemon,, zest
- * 60 g sifted icing sugar
- *100 g Greek or Turkish yoghurt strained
- * extra lemon zest for decoration
- 1. use hand whisk (the recipe says) to whisk marscapone, zest and sugar
- 2. when combined add yoghurt and whisk to soft peaks
- 3. spread over the cooled cake as fancy as you please
- 4. sprinkle with extra zest
Lois Elsden 