Spiced courgette chocolate cake

Name: Spiced courgette chocolate cake
Ingredients: 250 g Butter, softened to room temperature; 1 ½ cups Caster sugar; 2 Eggs; ½ cup Flavourless oil, try light olive oil; 2 ¾ cups Flour; ¼ cup Cocoa; 1 tsp Baking powder; 2 tsp Mixed spice (Main); 1 ¼ tsp Baking soda; ½ tsp Salt; 3 Courgettes, trimmed and grated (1½ cups) (Main); ½ cup Unsweetened plain yoghurt; 200 g Dark chocolate, chopped (Main); ¾ cup Cream

Allyson Gofton

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A rich-tasting chocolate cake that makes great use of summer’s courgette bounty.

Ingredients

250 g	Butter, softened to room temperature
1 ½ cups	Caster sugar
2	Eggs
½ cup	Flavourless oil, try light olive oil
2 ¾ cups	Flour
¼ cup	Cocoa
1 tsp	Baking powder
2 tsp	Mixed spice (Main)
1 ¼ tsp	Baking soda
½ tsp	Salt
3	Courgettes, trimmed and grated (1½ cups) (Main)
½ cup	Unsweetened plain yoghurt

For the chocolate glaze

200 g	Dark chocolate, chopped (Main)
¾ cup	Cream

Directions

Beat the butter and sugar together until thick and creamy. Beat in the eggs. Once light and fluffy, whip in the oil, adding it gradually to ensure you achieve volume.
Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, mixed spice, baking soda and salt into the creamed mixture and fold in with the courgettes and yoghurt.
Turn into a well-greased, paper-lined 24cm round cake tin. Bake at 160C for 1-1¼ hours or until cooked. Cool before pouring over the glaze.
For the chocolate glaze, melt the chocolate and cream together in a microwave on high power for 1 minute or until the chocolate has almost melted. Stir until smooth. Pour over the cooled cake. Decorate with walnuts if liked.

Allyson recommends

To pour the ganache over evenly, sit the cake on a cake rack over a deep tray. Have the ganache in a jug and pour it over the cake, holding the jug above the centre of the cake so it can easily pool over the top and down the sides. Any leftover ganache can be kept in the refrigerator.