Guest Post: Chocolate Courgette Cake

My name is Danielle, I’m 25 and I live and work in London, as a lead food blogger for hungryhouse. I have always enjoyed entertaining  and cooking for friends and family, and I think this is where my passion for food started. I love discovering new recipes and adore sharing my favourites recipes, especially when it comes to desserts. With a little bit of practice I think everyone can bake delicious desserts and while I  am often order my favourite chinese cuisine at the weekend, I always try bake my own deserts and have it waiting for when people pop by.

I would like to thank cakefairy for this guest post opportunity and for allowing me share one of my favourite recipes with you here on her blog. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed sharing it :) Cakefairy has kindly done the same over on mypassionforfood.co.uk . She has written a tutorial on Stain Glass Windows decorations and I encourage you all to go over and read it and then of course to have fun trying it out for yourself. She is definitely my cake fairy whenever I am stuck for a recipe!

Flickr: little blue hen

My Chocolate courgette cake recipe is a must, vegetables and cakes is nothing new, everyone loves a moist piece of carrot cake. However when I mention that one of my favourite cake recipes is a Chocolate Courgette Cake I get a lot of particularly peculiar looks. Though these looks will not stop me on my personal baking quest to make sure everyone has tried this delicious yet slightly unusual chocolate treat.

Ingredients

Cake

350g of Self Raising Flour

50g of Cocoa Powder

1tsp of Mixed Spice

175ml of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

375g of Caster Sugar

3 Eggs

2tsp of Vanilla Extract

500ml of Grated Courgette

Frosting

6tbsp of Softened Butter

65g of Cocoa Powder

350g of Icing Sugar

45g of Milk

1tsp of Vanilla Extract

Method

1.    Preheat the oven to 200 degrees

2.    Grease a 10 inch spring-form tin and put to one side

3.    Mix all of the dry cake ingredients thoroughly together in a bowl

4.    Mix all of the wet cake ingredients thoroughly together in a jug

5.    Pour the wet ingredient mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients until they are combined

6.    Pour the mixture into the greased spring-form tin and level the surface

7.    Put into the pre-heated oven and bake for 45-50 minutes

8.    Remove from the tin and place onto a plate and leave to cool for 60 minutes

9.    After the cake has cooled you can make the frosting

10.  Put the butter in a bowl and mix in half of the sugar and cocoa

11.  Mix thoroughly and add half of the milk

12.  Continue to stir and add the remainder of the sugar and cocoa

13.  Finally add the rest of the milk and continue to mix until you have a consistent mixture and add the vanilla extract before one last stir

14.  Then you can add the frosting to the top of the cake

Serving Suggestions

This cake is so delicious that it does not need anything to distract from its taste but if you really want to decorate the cake before serving I would suggest spending longer when frosting the cake. With this frosting mixture you can create a beautifully presented cake with no additional ingredients. While it can be difficult to get your piping perfect, I find by using a large open star nozzle mistakes are less noticeable. With this tip, the frosting peaks will fall after a while and you will not have any harsh icing lines on your cake. This piping tip and the similar rosette tip, forces the icing out through thin slits. This means the thin layers of icing flops a little rather than being too structured.

Technique

The cake has two layers of icing, and this gives it its sopisticated artistic design.

15.  Pipe the frosting onto the cake starting on the outside. The piping tip should be around ½ inch from the top of the cake.

16.  The idea is to get a wave-like motion going. While squeezing the piping bag, you move the tip from one inch from the outside of the cake, to the very edge of the cake. You hold it at the edge for a couple of seconds before doubling back and pulling away. Continue this until you have a ring of icing blobs all around the outside of the cake. Use the same technique on all the inner circles of the cake, until you have covered the cake completely.

17.  Use a medium open star piping tip for the second layer of icing. This layer looks a bit like flowers and  requires a bit more practice! There will be gaps within the first layer of icing, begin icing here. Gently move the piping tip upwards while gently squeezing the bag, when you are above the first layer of icing, stop squeezing the icing bag and pull it away from the cake. Work your way in towards the centre of the cake.

Piping looks much better than using a spatula and once you mastered the technique, it also is a lot quicker. The good news is that with a little bit of practice you will be making cakes that look like they could be put on a shop window display. Another great option would be to make cupcakes, whether it is for a children’s party or for yummy mid afternoon snacks cupcakes are a great alternative. All you would need to do is divide the mixture into cupcake cases instead of the spring-form tin and cut the baking time by half.