Chocolate courgette cake
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- + cooling
- Easy
- Serves 12
- 125g salted buttercubed, plus extra for the tin
- 75g dark chocolateroughly chopped
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
- 3 eggs
- 100g greek yogurt
- 200g caster sugar
- 75g soft dark brown sugar
- 300g plain flour
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 50g cocoa powder
- 375g courgettescoarsely grated
ICING
- 300ml double cream
- 50g soft dark brown sugar
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- kcal533
- fat32.1g
- saturates19.4g
- carbs51.7g
- sugars31.2g
- fibre3.2g
- protein7.9g
- salt0.8g
Method
step 1
Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter a deep, 23cm loose-bottomed cake tin and line with baking paper.
step 2
Put the butter, chocolate and vanilla in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, stirring until combined and smooth (alternatively, melt in 20-second blasts in the microwave). Remove from the heat and cool for 5 minutes.
step 3
When the mixture has slightly cooled, whisk in the eggs, followed by the yogurt, until smooth. Mix together the sugars, flour, bicarb and cocoa powder in a large bowl. Gradually pour the wet ingredients into the dry, whisking continuously, until you have a smooth batter. Fold in the grated courgette until combined.
step 4
Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 1 hour 15-1 hour 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
step 5
To make the icing, put the cream, sugar and cocoa powder in a large bowl and whisk to soft peaks. Remove the cake from the tin, put on a serving plate and dollop the icing on top, spreading it with the back of a spoon to cover the surface.