Courgette Cake

The office at my last job had a very good coffee bar with an afternoon coffee and cake offer that was extremely bad for the waistline, but such a bargain it was hard to resist - Americano and a large slice of cake for 99p. A different cake was baked on the premises each day and their version of courgette cake was one of my favourites.

Ingredients:

For the cake:
250g butter, broken up into pieces (at room temperature)
450g (1 cup) caster sugar or brown sugar
4 eggs
350g (3 cups) self raising flour
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
350g (3 cups) courgette (zucchini), grated
50g (1/2 cup) walnuts, roughly chopped
80g (1/2 cup) sultanas (optional)

Lemon Cream Cheese Icing:
125g cream cheese
50g unsalted butter
300g icing sugar
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon

Method:

Courgette Cake:

1. Grease and line 2 x 8inch (20cm) cake tins with baking paper
2. Preheat an oven to 180°C
3. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy
4. Add the eggs one at a time while mixing until the eggs are well incorporated
5. Sieve the flour with the cinnamon and mixed spice
6. Fold in a 1/3 of the flour, followed by 1/2 of the lemon juice and zest, repeat this using the remaining flour and lemon, so that all the ingredients are well combined
7. Stir in the courgette, walnuts and sultanas (if using) and incorporate well
8. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tins and place on the centre shelf of the preheated oven
9. Leave the cakes to cook for around 30-40 minutes or until the cake is firm to touch
10. Turn the cakes out on a rack and allow to cool

Lemon Cream Cheese Icing:

1. Beat the cream cheese and butter together until creamy
2. Gradually beat in the icing sugar and lemon juice and zest until you have a smooth creamy icing
3. Spread half the icing over the top of the one cake and sandwich the two cakes together
4. Cover the top of the cake with the remaining icing

Variation: Zest and juice of oranges or limes can be used instead of the lemon

Measure converter - for ounces, cups, grammes etc.