Chocolate courgette cake

Chocolate courgette cake

Grated courgette gives this cake a lovely moist texture - a great way to use up a glut from your garden

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 10

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 10 mins

Cook time

Cook 1 hr

Freezable

Can be frozen uniced

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, mixed spice and 1 tsp salt. In another bowl, combine the olive oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla essence and grated courgette. Mix the dry and wet mixture until just combined, then fold in the toasted hazelnuts. Line a 24cm cake tin with greaseproof paper, then pour in your mixture. Bake for about 40-50 mins, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.
  2. To make the icing, place the chocolate in a bowl and bring cream to the boil in a saucepan. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until completely smooth and melted. Leave the icing to cool slightly and thicken, then spread it over the cake so it's covered and the icing starts to drip down the sides. Serve with a cup of tea or enjoy as a pud with a spoonful of something creamy.
Try

Baking with courgettes

Courgettes can hold quite a lot of water, which can affect the finished texture of your cake. If your grated courgettes seem watery, place them into a clean cloth and wring out some of the liquid into a bowl. Then add the courgettes to the cake mixture as normal. The timing for cakes containing courgette can depend on the water content of your courgettes, so return the cake to the oven for another 10 mins if it needs it. Simply test with a skewer and make sure it comes out clean.

Per serving

716 kcalories, protein 10g, carbohydrate 84g, fat 40 g, saturated fat 10g, fibre 4g, sugar 55g, salt 0.43 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, July 2010.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 61-80

  • Binder photo Jax

    16 July 2011

    Jax rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    How good was this, and sooo easy. Took note of some comments about the sugar and cut it down by 50g but this was probably too much. It does make a huge cake and had to take it into work to get it finished! Will make two smaller ones next time. I served with natural yogurt which seemed to compliment the cake better that fresh cream or ice cream

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  • Binder photo O's recipes

    19 July 2011

    O's recipes rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I used less sugar than suggested (350g) and left out the hazelnuts as I didn't have any. I baked as tray bake and cooked in 40 minutes.

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  • Binder photo katrina

    22 July 2011

    katrina rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Tokk this cake to our "ladies wot lunch" afternoon tea "do" and everyone thought it was yum . will do again and have .

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  • Binder photo Lorraine Hawkings

    23 July 2011

    Lorraine Hawkings rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Yummy moist cake and very easy. I squeezed the grated courgettes with my hands a bit to get some of the water out and cooked for about 70mins, plus only used 250g of sugar and was sweet enough.

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  • Binder photo Veggie man

    23 July 2011

    Veggie man commented on this recipe

    I made this cake as a way to use up some of the many courgettes I had grown. I omitted the nuts as we have a nut allergy in the family but what a cake!!! Moist, rich and absolutely delicious was the response. This will be a favourite forever!

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  • Binder photo Alida66

    24 July 2011

    Alida66 rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Absolutely gorgeous. Would recommend to anyone. I reduced the sugar to 300g as suggested and had to use Walnuts. My daughter wasn't very keen on the nuts so I may try again without them next time. I also had to use two sandwich tins as that is all I had, so I took one half to my friend who donated the courgettes from her glut. win win all round.

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  • Binder photo frozenpixie

    24 July 2011

    frozenpixie rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Lovely and moist, I reduced the sugar to 200g because we like things a bit less sweet, but might try 250g next time, although it was still delicious; I felt the distance between the rich icing and 'healthier' cake was a bit wide. Excellent way to use up courgettes!

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  • Binder photo cervenovlasa

    25 July 2011

    cervenovlasa rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    absolutely amazing cake, made it yesterday, 50 min were not enough but then left it in the oven for too long, so a bit black on outside - cut it off and then used the topping on top..went down really well and nobody noticed the courgettes! also used normal sugar and almonds instead of the advised ingredients.very very tasty

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  • Binder photo jackie

    27 July 2011

    jackie rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Used walnuts instead of hazelnuts and sunflower oil instead of olive oil, and a large tray bake tin, as I didn't have the correct size round one. It cooked perfectly in 40 mins, fan oven 170. Yum!

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  • Binder photo jackie

    27 July 2011

    jackie commented on this recipe

    Used walnuts instead of hazelnuts and sunflower oil instead of olive oil, and a large tray bake tin, as I didn't have the correct size round one. It cooked perfectly in 40 mins, fan oven 170. Yum!

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  • Binder photo Maggie65

    03 August 2011

    Maggie65 commented on this recipe

    I made some changes to this recipe: I used sunflower oil rather than olive oil (added a drizzle or so more than stated amount), two eggs instead of three , and cut right down on the sugar - 220gms. The mixture was quite stiff, but still managed not to over mix. The cake took an hour in the oven and was dense and fudgy - a lovely cake.

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  • Binder photo SarrissUK

    24 August 2011

    SarrissUK commented on this recipe

    I used sunflower oil instead of olive oil and added a tiddy bit more cocoa, and what a beautiful cake!! I think my daughter will request this more often than I will be able to bake it! Even courgette hating friends absolutely loved the cake :)

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  • Binder photo Carolel

    25 August 2011

    Carolel rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    I also reduced the sugar and increased the cooking time. A nice cake but I found the chocolate & mixed spice combination a little odd

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  • Binder photo Abi

    26 August 2011

    Abi rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Ok so found this cake to be really good. Used about 7 mini courgettes to make up 500ml chopped courgette ( I couldn't be bothered to find the grater) didn't make any difference. Really moist cake and as suggested used Rapeseed Oil so that there was no underlying Olive taste. Had to use a bit more cream to get the chocolate to melt but then the chocolate was only broken not chopped as I couldn't face extra washing up. Nice and moist but took another 60 minutes to cook plus an extra 30 minutes in oven cooling with oven.

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  • Binder photo Abi

    26 August 2011

    Abi commented on this recipe

    Oh left out nuts to!

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  • Binder photo Becky

    27 August 2011

    Becky commented on this recipe

    Try changing the big cake for little cupcakes. They are delicious.

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  • Binder photo tarajanine

    01 September 2011

    tarajanine rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I actually tried this recipe using only 250g of sugar after reading others' comments and it was perfectly sweet enough. Delicious!!!

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  • Binder photo Brenda Firbank

    02 September 2011

    Brenda Firbank commented on this recipe

    I have made this cake and it tasted absolutely delicious never had a chocolate cake as good as this. ( you cannot taste the courgette) fantastic cake.

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  • Binder photo Joan E

    07 September 2011

    Joan E commented on this recipe

    I decided to cut down on the sugar after the comments. It tasted wonderful but it too ages to cook and collapsed so I had to turn it over before icing. I will try this again but will perhaps dry the courgettes before adding them. I didn't have any hazelnuts so used pecans instead and they worked really well.

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  • Binder photo TwentiethCenturyHeffa

    09 September 2011

    TwentiethCenturyHeffa rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Very easy to make, used the amounts specified but used good cocoa (Green and Blacks) and didn't have a problem with it being too sweet. Very moist cake, very chocolatey and can't taste the courgette at all. Kids like it, which is good. I just topped it with milk chocolate buttons since I didn't have any cream and it tastes great. Cooking time was spot on, my courgettes weren't very watery so that may have had something to do with it.

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 10

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 10 mins

Cook time

Cook 1 hr

Freezable

Can be frozen uniced

Ingredients

FOR THE ICING

  • 200g dark chocolate , chopped
  • 100ml double cream
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Per serving

716 kcalories, protein 10g, carbohydrate 84g, fat 40 g, saturated fat 10g, fibre 4g, sugar 55g, salt 0.43 g

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