Lemon and Walnut Courgette Cake, with Lemon Icing

You will need:

Approximately 8 oz peeled and grated courgette (that’s approx. 250g)

Squeeze as much water out as you can – put it in a sieve with a saucer on top and a weight on top of that, overnight if possible. If you have a food processor, then you can blitz it with that instead of grating.

When you are ready to make the cake, grease and lightly flour a 2lb loaf tin and set your oven to 160C, 325F, Gas 3.

You will also need:

6 oz golden caster sugar (170g)

1 egg

¼ pint vegetable oil (4 fl oz or 125 ml)

8 oz (250g) Self Raising Flour

         OR         

8 oz (250g) Plain Flour

            plus ½  teaspoon salt

            ½  teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

            ¼  teaspoon baking powder

           

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Zest of one lemon

4 oz chopped walnuts (113g)

Directions

Put the courgette into a bowl with the sugar. Beat the egg into the oil then

Add to the courgette and sugar and beat them all together.

In a separate bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients except the nuts and zest, then stir the flour mix into the courgette mix and add the zest and nuts.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and pop it into the pre-heated oven.  Bake for 55 minutes. Test with a clean knife or skewer to see if it comes out clean when pushed into the cake.

Remove from the oven and leave the cake in the tin for about 10 minutes. Whilst it is cooling, prepare the icing.

Put 2-3 oz of icing sugar into a bowl and add the juice of the lemon a little at a time until the icing is runny enough to drizzle over the cake, but thick enough to stick.

Tip the cooled cake onto a cooling rack and drizzle over the icing. Leave it to set for a few minutes.

© Karen Ette 2013