This recipe was passed to me by my good friend, Kimby Murakami who hales from the United States. This cake is generally agreed by our mutual American friends to 'taste like America' so I have decided to call courgettes zucchinis for the length of this post as I owe it to them to adopt their language while extolling their baking skills.
Cakes with vegetables are all the rage. A few months ago, I made a chocolate and beetroot cake, and while the texture was lovely, I could definitely taste an earthy tang which just put me off a little. This cake, has a great texture and flavour. The only problem with it, is that it doesn't keep long, so I would recommend making it when you are expecting visitors so that it gets eaten up quickly.
The recipe was given to me in cups, and I strongly recommend you use them if you have American style measuring cups. I have used a conversion chart for the metric measurements but I am never very confident when using these!
Ingredients for Chocolate and Zucchini Cake
1 cup brown sugar (220g)
half a cup white sugar (100g)
half a cup butter (110g)
half a cup oil (8 tbsp)
3 eggs
few drops vanilla
1 cup buttermilk or milk (200ml)
2 1/2 cups flour (320g)
1tsp cinnammon
2tsp soda
4 tbsp cocoa
2 cups grated zucchini (1 large or 1 1/2 medium vegetables)
Some chopped chocolate pieces to sprinkle on the top
Pre-heat oven to gas 3/325F/170C
Cream the sugars and fats with an electric beater. Stir in the eggs, vanilla and milk.
Sieve the dry ingredients and fold in, finally adding the zucchini .
Pour into prepared tin and sprinkle chopped chocolate on the top.
Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out dry.
