Courgette & lime cake with lime cream cheese icing - recipe

When we moved to 'the sticks'** a couple of months ago I came over all Good Life and, before we'd even finished unpacking (still haven't - oops), had planted up the garden with herbs, chillies, tomatoes and courgettes.

The herbs are doing well and I get very excited when I can just pop into the garden to pick them when I need them.  The chillies and tomatoes are doing ok - but yet to produce anything.  The courgettes on the other hand are a roaring success - yippee!  I've only had a couple off the plants so far but reckon I might have a glut on my hands before long - so expect to see plenty more courgette recipes over the next few weeks.

This cake is extremely more-ish - surprisingly light and very moist.

**Ok, so Richmond is exactly the most rural place in the world but it's a hell of a lot more 'sticky' than Wapping, where we used to live practically next door to naughty Uncle Rupert!

Ingredients:
1 large courgette, grated
150g caster sugar
100ml vegetable oil
Good pinch of salt
Half a teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of baking powder
Zest of 1 lime

For the cream cheese icing:
100g cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
1 tablespoon caster sugar
Juice of 1 lime

Lavender petals to decorate


Method:

Preheat oven to 160 C . Grease a loaf tin.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the courgette, sugar, egg and oil.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder; stir in the lemon zest. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the courgette mix, until they are blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin.

Pop in the pre-heated oven and bake for about 45 minutes.  When it's done, a skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean.

Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes or so in the tin, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cake is cool, beat together the icing ingredients until fluffy.  Spoon the icing over the cake and sprinkle with lavender petals.

Rhubarb and ginger muffins - recipe

I hated rhubarb when I was little, but absolutely love it now and try to make the most of it when it is in season.


I spotted this recipe on Jamie Oliver's website and thought it sounded like a winner.


The recipe uses stem ginger, which I hadn't used before.  If you're not familiar with it, it's ginger preserved in syrup.  It took me ages to find it when I went shopping, mainly because I didn't really know what I was looking for.  Apparently it comes in a glass jar and can be found happily shacked up in the baking section.

Ingredients:

• 350g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 325g brown sugar
• ½ a lemon
• 250ml milk
• zest of 1 orange
• 2 pieces of stem ginger, finely chopped
• 1 large egg, preferably free-range or organic
• 100g butter plus 1 tablespoon extra, melted
• 300g rhubarb, finely chopped


Method:


Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4 and line a muffin tray with muffin cases. (I prefer to use squares of baking parchment - see pictures)

In a large mixing bowl place the flour, baking powder, salt and 225g of the brown sugar. Mix, then make a well in the centre.

Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice into the milk and set aside for a couple of minutes. Place the orange zest, half the stem ginger, the egg, 100g of melted butter and the milk mixture into the bowl and beat thoroughly. Fold in the chopped rhubarb. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases, filling each one to the top.

In a small bowl place the remaining 100g of brown sugar, the extra tablespoon of melted butter and the rest of the stem ginger. Mix until it looks like a crumble topping, then sprinkle over the muffins.

Bake for 25 minutes so the sugar turns golden and crispy and the muffins are cooked through. 


These were delicious served almost straight out of the oven.  I'm so greedy I can't wait for things to cool!

Lemon meringue cake - recipe

I haven't made a cake in ages, so thought I'd make one for my sister's birthday.  Her all time favourite pud is lemon meringue pie (although banoffee pie comes a close second), so when I came across Nigella's recipe for lemon meringue cake I thought I was onto a winner!

Unfortunately, my cake didn't turn out exactly like the pictures... I think I knocked too much air out of the meringue mixture when I stirred in the sugar.  Still, it tastes delicious and Rach was pleased with it which is the main thing.