Adding grated courgette to your chocolate cake batter results in an extra moist, light, yet fudgy sponge. Serve as an afternoon snack with a cuppa, or as an indulgent pudding. The perfect recipe for using up a glut of courgettes.
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Yields:
10 serving(s)
Prep Time:
40 mins
Cook Time:
1 hr
Total Time:
1 hr 40 mins
Cal/Serv:
651
Ingredients
275g
self-raising flour
60g
cocoa powder, plus extra to dust
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
200g
unsalted butter, softened
175g
caster sugar
1tsp.
vanilla extract
3
medium eggs
125ml
full-fat natural yogurt
200g
coarsely grated courgettes
75g
milk chocolate chunks or chips
For the icing
175g
unsalted butter, softened
25g
cocoa powder
275g
icing sugar
2Tbsp.
room-temperature milk
Directions
Step 1
Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4. Grease and line a 20.5cm round cake tin with baking parchment. Into a large bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda. Set aside.
Step 2
In a large bowl using a handheld electric whisk, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually beat in eggs – if the mixture looks as if it may curdle, mix in a couple of tablespoons of the flour mixture. Beat in the remaining flour mixture and yogurt in a few stages until combined. Fold in courgettes and chocolate chunks or chips. Scrape mixture into prepared tin, level and bake for 1hr or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in tin for 10min, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
Step 3
To make the icing, beat butter in a large bowl with a handheld electric whisk until smooth. Sift over cocoa powder and icing sugar. Add milk. Beat, going slowly at first, until icing is combined and spreadable (add a little more milk, if needed). Slice cake in half horizontally. Sandwich back together with half the icing. Spread remaining icing over top of cake and dust with extra cocoa powder, if you like.
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”!).
