Frosted courgette & lemon cake

Frosted courgette & lemon cake

This luscious cake is lemony and light, with an extra citrus kick from the lemon syrup drizzle

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Cuts into 12 slices

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 20 mins

Cook time

Cook 25 mins

Plus cooling
Freezable

Freeze drizzled bases only

Method

  1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter 2 x 20cm sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment. Zest 2 lemons, then squeeze their juice into a separate bowl. Put 200g butter, the caster sugar, eggs, courgettes, poppy seeds, vanilla and lemon zest into a mixing bowl. Beat to a creamy batter. Stir in 1 tbsp lemon juice, the flours, baking powder and ¼ tsp salt. Spoon the mix into the tins, then bake for 25 mins or until risen, golden and springy in the middle.
  2. Make a drizzle by mixing another tbsp lemon juice with 25g icing sugar. Put the remaining icing sugar and butter into a bowl, add the soft cheese, remaining lemon juice (about 2 tbsp) and grate in the final lemon's zest. Beat to make a creamy, smooth frosting.
  3. When the cakes are ready, cool for 15 mins in their tins, then turn onto a cooling rack. Prick several times with a cocktail stick, spoon over the drizzle and cool completely. Can be frozen at this stage for up to 1 month. Put one cake onto a serving plate and spread with just under half the frosting. Spread over the lemon curd, if using. Top with the second cake, spread the remaining frosting over the top and sprinkle with poppy seeds.
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

375 kcalories, protein 7g, carbohydrate 38g, fat 23 g, saturated fat 14g, fibre 1g, sugar 26g, salt 0.68 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, September 2010.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 1-20

  • 20 August 2010

    BeckyJC rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Have made this twice now, but as muffins rather than a big cake. The second time around, I squeezed some of the moisture from the courgettes after I had grated them by wringing them in a teatowel and the result was much better - they rose further up and weren't as soggy as the first attempt. I also added a couple of handfuls of mixed fruit which worked well. Tasty cakes, and a good way to use up some of the courgette glut.

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  • 21 August 2010

    condrona commented on this recipe

    Thanks BeckyJC for the muffin suggestion - will definitely be trying this - will make sure I follow the tip on the courgettes - thanks.

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  • 21 August 2010

    Helensfolder commented on this recipe

    After my success with the chocolate courgette cake I made this (and beetroot muffins). This was lovely, wonderfully tasty, great icing and you'd never guess it had courgettes in it! Not sure I'd describe it as light though.

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  • 21 August 2010

    Emilylovestocook rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    great recipe, the combination of flavours is superb, a truly delicious cake - i shall make this for my mum's birthday. BeckyJC I will follow your tip of squeezing some of the water out of the courgettes because they were incredibly moist and slightlly denser than desired. But overall a fabb recipe ;)

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  • 21 August 2010

    jules rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    great cake very moist i used one less lemon, ideal for afternoon tea hard to believe its made with courgettes great recipes. A great way of using up all those surplus courgettes from the garden.

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  • 22 August 2010

    irutsun rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Excellent recipie. Moist, zingy, sweet and tart. Absolutely scrummy. We made ours into muffins with a lemon curd centre. Simply putting half of the mix into the muffin case, a big teaspoon of lemon curd and by then adding the rest of the mix. Heaven!

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  • 23 August 2010

    Annab rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I think this is my new favourite (non chocolate) cake recipe. It was easy to make and gave great results. It was moist, tangy and totally delicious. I'll definitely try the muffin ideas above.

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  • 25 August 2010

    janet rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this along with the beetroot brownies and it was absolutely wonderful. It was so moist and very very lemony. I would not make it as a mufin though as it is not moist.My sons loved both recipes.

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  • 25 August 2010

    Theresa rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Made this the first time with buckwheat flour as I did not have any wholemeal flour. Turned out scrummy. Made it a second time, still using buckwheat flour as again no wholemeal, but used oranges and orange curd. Still scrummy.

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  • 25 August 2010

    Tordny Brusdal commented on this recipe

    I loved the flavours in this cake! The cake dissaperared VERY quickly and was a huge success. My only question about the recipe is the amount of glace.. The amount stated in the recipe must be for only one of the layers. Mine could definately had done well with double the amount!

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  • 26 August 2010

    Margarite rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I tried this one after making the chocolate courgette cake. It was to take to our neighbour in France. The french could not beleive there was courgette in it and every piece was eaten. I have made a few of your recipes for our french friends and they absolutely loved everyone. I am afraid I use them as guinea pigs as they have different cakes here. Keep up the good work and more recipes for cakes with vegetables in would be great.

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  • 27 August 2010

    JennyB rated and commented on this recipe

    2 stars

    I do not know what I did wrong but there was no way it turned int a batter it was a great curdled mess. I carried on and added the flour and baked it it was very tasty but very solid. It definitely was not my day we had to eat the icing as a sauce it never solidified. My grandson thought it was delicious on slices of cake with icecream.

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  • 28 August 2010

    nichola rated and commented on this recipe

    1 stars

    I'm with JennyB on this one. Most good food recipes are superb, but something went terribly wrong with this one. The mixture looked curdled when i put it into the oven and even after double the time it was still not cooked through and flat as 2 pancakes. It seriously made me wonder if i had lost my cake mojo (but all was redeemed after successfully making a 65th Birthday Cake!!).

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  • 29 August 2010

    Mouse rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Lovely cake! Did take a lot longer to cook, will be taking on suggestions to squeeze out moisture in courgettes next time. Definately making again!!

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  • 31 August 2010

    mariaslk rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This was absolutely delicious, frosting gorgeous too. Very light, moist and fresh flavours. Put in the fridge for the next day and was heavier but still ok.

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  • 01 September 2010

    yoyo commented on this recipe

    I just attempted to make this cake today, got very excited,as I was using up courgettes I had grown in the garden and unfortunately failed miserably. The mixture curdled. Didn't rise. What have I done wrong?

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  • 01 September 2010

    Isabelle rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Very very tasty, but quite heavy and solid. Delicious nonetheless! Will try squeezing the moisture out the courgettes next time to see if it makes any difference.

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  • 01 September 2010

    Claire commented on this recipe

    Nichola, Jenny B and yoyo, I had the same problem, my mixture curdled. The finshed cake was tasty, but stodgy. If anybody has any suggestions as to what may have gone wrong I'd love to learn!

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  • 04 September 2010

    Elly Bolter rated and commented on this recipe

    2 stars

    My mixture for this cake looked curdled as well! It didn't rise either. We ate it anyway and, apart from the texture, it tasted good. I will definitely make the cake again sometime, but I will cream the butter and sugar together before adding any other ingredients and I will squeeze more moisture out of the courgettes. It couldn't be worse than it was the first time, could it?

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  • 06 September 2010

    Foodmonster rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I liked the taste of this cake a lot. Made it in one tin (as that's all I have) and cut in in half later to put filling in the middle. This definitely affected the texture as the top half was nice and airy but the bottom a bit dense and soggy. It didn't raise as much as other cakes, but using 2 tins should do the trick. Although I squeezed out as much juice from the courgettes as possible, I found it still quite soggy, so didn't use the drizzle, only the soft cheese cream otherwise it would have falled apart! Don't get put off by this though as it tastes very delicious. I will definitely make this again using 2 tins and perhaps with self raising flour only to get more fluffy result.

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Cuts into 12 slices

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 20 mins

Cook time

Cook 25 mins

Plus cooling
Freezable

Freeze drizzled bases only

Ingredients

  • 250g pack unsalted butter , very soft, plus extra for the tin
  • 3 unwaxed lemons
  • 200g golden caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 medium courgettes , coarsely grated (you'll need 300g/10oz flesh)
  • 1 tsp poppy seeds , plus extra to decorate
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • 100g plain wholemeal flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 85g icing sugar
  • 200g pack full-fat soft cheese
  • 4 tbsp lemon curd (optional)
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Per serving

375 kcalories, protein 7g, carbohydrate 38g, fat 23 g, saturated fat 14g, fibre 1g, sugar 26g, salt 0.68 g

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