… kicking off February is style with my random recipes challenge, which as you know is co-joined in some kind of freakish blogging-challenge chimera with we should cocoa… and it all happened in a bit of a blur yesterday. I had one of those weekends where I feel like i’ve floated around in a daze of work and crappy TV shows. We had a big event at the Barbican on Saturday and so I was back and forth over to east London quite a bit. I actually love the 70’s inspired concrete aesthetic of the building but inside is a maze-like collections of exhibition halls, theatres and conference rooms that doesn’t appeal to me, even though our event was located in the conservatory, which kind of added to the bizarreness of the weekend being stuck into a literal concrete jungle surrounded by palm trees, glass and pebble-dash…
… Sunday was a much much quieter affair, getting out of bed to eat and bake this cake only… can’t really complain I suppose.
chocolate courgette cake
this cake was randomly selected from the chocolate section of the index at the back of the Riverford Farm Cookbook, they mention in the intro to this recipe that they serve this cake at the local school and the kids seem to love it, plus it’s a great way to get them to eat vegetables… I was a teeny bit disappointed with it myself. I think it could have been a lot sweeter but it did remind me of those old school dinner chocolate puddings that were served with chocolate custard and I guess this can’t be a bad thing…
120g butter
125ml sunflower oil
100g caster sugar
200g soft brown sugar
3 eggs
130ml milk
350g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
450g courgettes, finely grated and squeezed out a little
1 teaspoon vanilla
pre-heat the oven to 190C and line a 22cm x 35cm baking tray with parchment
in a large bowl beat the sugars, butter and oil until they are light and fluffy then add the milk and eggs and whisk together
next fold in the dry ingredients followed by the courgette and the vanilla and then pour into your baking tray and bake for 35-45 mins
eat and of course, enjoy!
It looks unbelievably good Dom, shame you weren't completely wowed by it, though I guess it's not much of a hardship to just up the sugar next time, now you know?
The texture looks great, really fudgy!
It is a informative post , thanks for sharing
Actually it looks super, almost like a fudge cake. Maybe the recipe is worth trying again with more sugar.
I do love the idea of using vegetables in cakes and fancy doing more of it.
It looks gorgeous, maybe add a chocolate sauce and have it for pudding. I love the description of the Barbican, and the photos of your event looked fab on Instagram!
Pink custard! Or was that just a northern thing? Agree with the more sugar comments, although it looks pretty good from where I'm sitting.
Thanks for all your lovely comments. It went down very well.
Dom, it looks delicious & moist! You could always dust it with confectioners sugar! BTW, I LOVE the new look of your blog/website! Nicely done!
I used to cook those chocolate puddings for school dinners back in the 80's! They always went down a treat with chocolate or pink custard! We didn't have any healthy vegetables in it though. This is definitely one to rush off to make and reminisce. Love its pudding look.
This is a good one to bear in mind if I get a glut of courgettes again this summer!
I made this once but can no longer remember what I thought about it. The fact that I don't remember suggests it wasn't the best chocolate courgette cake I've ever made though. Your pictures look very appetising and I'm now rather keen on the idea of having it warm swamped in custard or maybe chocolate sauce.
Forgot to say, it's a great early start to the bi-lateral challenge thingie …
It looks very moist and lush. I did some courgette cakes last year, using Abel & Cole's recipe, I liked the taste. Maybe a big generous dollop of Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream will make it sweeter?
An old friend used to bake a fabulous chocolate courgette number but sadly she is no longer with us and I never got the chance to get the recipe. I have been on a quest to replicate it ever since! This looks fabulous from the photo so a shame that it wasn't as good as you hoped. I used to love the school choc pud with chocolate custard too!
This looks great! And thanks for hosting. It's my first month with Random Recipes…what fun.