Adding courgettes to your cake batter may seem a little strange, but their subtle fresh flavour and moist flesh make for a wonderfully light textured sponge. We've also added on-trend pistachios for an extra crunch. The lemon-scented cream cheese frosting makes this easy cake the perfect bake for summer, but you could swap for regular vanilla buttercream, if you prefer.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Yields:
10 serving(s)
Prep Time:
30 mins
Cook Time:
1 hr 30 mins
Total Time:
2 hrs
Cal/Serv:
473
Ingredients
For the cake
200ml
vegetable oil, plus extra to grease
100g
pistachio kernels, plus extra to decorate
200g
caster sugar
3
medium eggs
75g
natural yogurt
1tsp.
vanilla bean paste
200g
self-raising flour
1
large courgette, about 200g, coarsely grated
Finely grated zest 1 lemon
For the icing
50g
unsalted butter, softened
40g
icing sugar, sifted
180g
tub full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
Finely grated zest 1 lemon
Directions
Step 1Preheat oven to 150°C (130°C fan) mark 2. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin with baking parchment. For the cake, pulse pistachios in a food processor until finely ground (or chop by hand). Set aside.
Step 2In a large bowl whisk oil, sugar, eggs, yogurt and vanilla, until combined. Next whisk in flour, courgette, lemon zest and ground pistachios. Scrape into prepared tin. Bake for 1½hr without opening the oven door, then check whether a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean (if not, return to oven for 5min). Cool completely in tin.
Step 3Once cake is cool, make the icing. Using a handheld electric whisk beat butter and icing sugar until smooth and fluffy. Beat in cream cheese and lemon zest, until combined. Spread on top of cooled cake and decorate with chopped pistachios. Serve in slices.
To store Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.
If you like this recipe, try our favourite loaf cake recipes.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
Alice Shields is Senior Cookery Writer for Good Housekeeping. A trained pastry chef, you’ll find her food styling on photo shoots, developing delicious recipes and writing about all things food. She loves to bake and her favourite pudding will always be a chocolate fondant. Originally hailing from Lancashire, she finally achieved her goal of getting a butter pie recipe into the magazine.
