Pistachio and Lime Courgette Cake

I had lots of courgettes in the fridge and thought why not use it for baking. I must admit, that i haven’t really used vegetables in baking as i think it is strange! But i have seen alot of recipes ie beetroots, carrots etc and interested in how the bake would turn out.

I love looking at recipes in the book and i found a recipe called Pistachio and Lime Courgette Cake in Martha Collison’s Twist book (page 74) and decided to give it a go! I have baked a loaf cake with courgettes and lemons from Lorraine Pascale’s books and it turned out really tasty! You wouldn’t think courgettes can be used in a cake but it is actually really nice as it keeps the cake really moist!

For this cake, i really think the icing makes the cake delicious as it brings a nice sweetness to it as the limes are quite a subtle taste. You don’t need too many ingredients to make this cake and i didn’t use 250g icing sugar, probably around 150g is sweet enough!

The boys enjoyed baking it but when it came to eating it, they didn’t like the ‘green’ bits inside the sponge!! lol! The cake was really yummy!

Ingredients: Cake – Butter for greasing, 250g courgettes (2-3 small ones), 2 x eggs, 125ml vegetable oil, 150g caster sugar, 225g self raising flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 salt and zest of half a lime. I always add 1 tsp of vanilla extract into the cake mixture.

Icing – 100g full fat cream cheese, 150g or 250g icing sugar, zest and juice of half a lime, 30g chopped pistachio nuts.

Method: Preheat oven to GM4, grease a 20cm tin and line with baking paper. Grate the courgettes coarsely, don’t do it too finely as it will go mushy! Try and squeeze out the water from the courgettes or otherwise the cake would be really soggy. I have read in the past that you can put the courgettes in a table cloth and squeeze out the water. As it is quite a small amount, i just used my hands to squeeze the water out.

Put the eggs, sugar, old and in a bowl and beat until creamy. Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir the courgettes and zest. The mixture will look quite dense like and not like a cake mixture! Pour the mixture into a tin and bake for 35-40 mins until golden on top and firm to touch. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin before decorating.

Make the icing by beating the cream cheese, icing sugar, lime juice together until smooth. Spread on top of the cooled cake and the sprinkle the pistachio nuts on top and the left over lime zest.

1st Bake of 2019

Happy New Year to everyone!! It has been such a long time since I last went on my blog!! I couldn’t even remember my password!! I do apologize for being missing!!

I have been so busy with my 2 beautiful boys, Dee who is 5 years old now and Gray who is 2 years old!! Both boys are a handful as they are full of energy!!! I have still been baking but not having much time to write my entries.

I was saying to my husband that I missed blogging on my site and he said “Just do it!” I find time baking during the boys nap times or when my husband is off, as i do love exploring new recipes and i enjoy it aswell!! The steriliser has been put away so there is space for my beloved Kitchenaid!! Recently he has been hooked on Instagram and posting entries every day. So, for my new year’s resolution is to get back into blogging and to start posting entries on Instagram aswell.

Therefore my 1st bake for 2019 is Brownies!! I am having a family lunch this Saturday and both of my boys loves chocolate and my 2 neice so I wanted to bake something chocolatey!! A few months ago, I purchased Martha Collison’s book called Twist and found her recipe on Brownies and decided to make them.

I do try lots of different brownies recipes as I find the texture is always different, sometimes its hard or dry or too soft in the middle. So I do have a favourite one which I normally use from Tescos as it is so simple to knock up and it has never failed for me. I will write up a separate entry for this later on.

Martha’s recipe can be found here but just omit the easter eggs. You can always put different chocolates as I used white chocolate chips so that it is not too dark. The mixture is very wet and once baked, when you use the knife to cut into it, the top of it cracks but in the middle it is very fudgy like. The boys love it so I’m sure it will be a hot with the girls aswell!!

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