One would be forgiven for thinking I no longer baked judging by the rolling tumble weed on this blog, but look! Here's a cake I baked recently and remembered to photograph.
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Also, check out my beautiful ceramic kitchenaid mixer bowl which Santa gave me for Christmas (after some not so subtle hinting.) I love that it has a pouring spout and matches my 1950s pastel kitchen.
The cake is an adaption of the courgette and walnut layer cake from the Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days book, scaled down to a more manageable 2 layer cake. Three layer cakes look spectacular but I always feel they're more of an "occasion" cake to feed lots of people so I often admire but skim past those recipes. I'm far more likely to bake a standard 2 layer cake.
Over the past year I've been really into baking with greens. A strange statement admittedly but bear with me. I've had brilliant success baking with avocados in chocolate based recipes such as brownies and cookies. I've also made a lovely courgette and chocolate loaf and this courgette, coconut and lime cake which I've already documented here from a couple of years ago. I doubt I'm going to start putting broccoli or kale in cakes though, that may be a step too far.
Basically if you love carrot cake then you will also enjoy this courgette and walnut cake. It's the same textures and flavours but with the carrot swapped for courgette.
The big difference with this cake is the icing which is a cinnamon flavoured butter icing with Greek yoghurt as opposed to a cream cheese icing. I've never used yoghurt in icing before so was intrigued to try it out. It adds a slight tang, similar to using cream cheese and the finished icing had a beautiful, mousse-like texture. However, I don't think it has replaced my love for cream cheese icing. I think most of my cake eaters also preferred a cream cheese icing to this one but it was fun to try something different.
Courgette and walnut cake
Recipe adapted from Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days book
Sponge:
2 large eggs
200ml sunflower oil
200g soft light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
Heaped 1/2 tsp baking powder (to work out roughly as 2/3 tsp for recipe ratio)
Heaped 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (same as above.)
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Pinch of ground mixed spice
200g grated courgette (with excess moisture squeezed out.)
66g walnuts, chopped into small chunks
Icing: (I can't remember exactly, but this is roughly what I did)
175g butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon
250g -300g icing sugar
50g - 75g plain Greek yoghurt
Preheat the oven to 170C/ 150C fan/ 325F/ gas Mark 3. Grease and line 2 round 20cm/ 8 inch sandwich tins with baking parchment.
Whisk together the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl for a couple of minutes until well combined.
In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and ground spices. Add this dry mixture to the wet egg mixture in two batches, mixing well after each addition. Mix until fully combined.
Stir in the grated courgettes and chopped walnuts then divide the cake batter into the two prepared cake tins.
Bake for 35 - 40 minutes in the centre of the oven until risen, golden on top and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on cooling racks.
To make the icing mix the butter, icing sugar and cinnamon together. Once fully combined add the yoghurt and keep mixing for around 5 minutes until the icing is light and fluffy.
Fill and top the cooled cakes with the icing and decorate with more walnut pieces.