The first bite of chocolate and courgette cake always takes me back to one childhood summer in California, where the zucchinis we’d planted a little too profusely in the spring grew and grew and grew, producing vast quantities of summer squash that challenged my Mum’s ingenuity in the kitchen (almost) to breaking point. What couldn’t be pressed onto visiting friends and left on the doorsteps of neighbours went into meals.

I’ve never had so many variations on a courgette: raw in salads, roasted, fried, made into soups and light stews and chutneys. In fact, for years afterwards I found it hard to muster much enthusiasm for marrow of any description, but there was one recipe I always welcomed, and that was my Mum’s courgette and chocolate cake.

This is a deliciously moist cake, which you could easily enjoy un-iced and simply dusted with icing sugar for a plainer version, well suited to elevenses with morning coffee / tea. Sometimes (when feeling fancy) I do ice the cake, using a simple chocolate buttercream icing like this one.

Either way, the cake is a firm favourite for late summer and an extremely tasty way to use up some of the season’s bountiful harvest.

Chocolate and Courgette Cake

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup dark muscovado sugar, firmly packed 

1/2 cup light olive oil or sunflower oil

zest of an orange

2 tbsps freshly squeezed orange juice

3/4 cup creme fraiche or greek yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 cups grated unpeeled courgette, firmly packed and squeezed in tea towel to remove as much liquid as possible

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 1/4 cups plain flour

3/4 cup light rye flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsps cinnamon

1/2 tsp mixed spice 

Method:

1/ Preheat the oven to 180C (160C Fan). Grease and lightly flour a 20cm x 30cm x 5cm baking tin.

2/ In a large mixing bowl (or standalone mixer), beat the eggs and dark muscovado sugar. Then beat in the oil, zest and orange juice, creme fraiche and vanilla essence.

3/ In another bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together, then add to the wet ingredients and mix well.

4/ Fold in the grated courgette and pecans, stirring until all is well mixed. 

5/ Pour mixture into the prepared baking tin. Bake in a preheated oven for 35 - 45 mins or until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave in tin for 5 mins and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

To serve:

When the cake is completely cold, it can be iced with a vanilla or chocolate buttercream of your choice, or simply dusted with icing sugar. The cake also freezes well before icing.

Enjoy!