This yellow courgette cake is one of those hidden vegetable cakes that is so utterly divine you’ll wonder why you’ve never made it before. The courgettes add a sweetness and a little structure but like most hidden vegetable cakes, such as my carrot cake or chocolate beetroot cake you don’t really taste the vegetable. Plus you get the added bonus of a very moist cake that actually improves over time, if you don’t eat it all on day one!
Yellow Courgettes (or zucchini)
I love these yellow courgettes, they so fun but they really taste the same as regular green courgettes. There may be a slight added sweetness to them which is why they work particularly well in this cake but it’s very subtle. The variety is called ‘Dutch Yellow’ and they’re a greenhouse courgette from Europe that I ordered from our local veg wholesaler J Shaw and Son. I’d highly recommend you trying to hunt down your local fruit and veg wholesalers. In ordinary times, Shaws would supply local restaurants and greengrocers but since the pandemic they’ve been amazing and offered their services to us regular folk.
- 350g courgette raw – finely grated (I used yellow courgettes)
- 125ml vegetable oil (I use sunflower oil)
- 2 large free-range eggs – I used 4 small hens eggs given to me by my lovely neighbour Anne
- 100g golden caster sugar
- zest and juice of 1 small orange
- 200g self-raising flour (you can use plain flour and add 1tsp baking powder
- 100g ground almonds
- ½ tsp sea salt
Heat the oven to 160C fan.
Grease a 900g/2lb loaf tin and line with baking paper. (I’m using a 22cm round pre-greased cake liner that can go straight into the oven.
Lightly squeeze the grated courgettes over a bowl to remove a little bit of the moisture.
In a large bowl, whisk the oil, eggs, sugar, zest and juice together until smooth, then stir in the courgette.
Combine the flour and ground almonds and then gently fold them into the corugette and egg mix
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 45mins to 1 hour, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin completely.
Eat and of course, enjoy!
