Courgettes Not Carrots

It's the second week of our Bake Off challenge and we've made
 Nigella's courgette cake.

Baking with courgettes is something new to me. Carrots? Yes.
But courgettes? No. Not even when we have to help use up the
glut from my father in law's allotment nearly every summer and
we're always looking for new ways to cook with them.

 But I know that cakes with courgettes can be lovely and moist;
I thought we should give it a go. We had most of the ingredients
already, so why not try it? It is something new and a bit different
 and this, after all, is what our little baking challenge is all about.

So we started off by grating the courgettes and then mixing the other
cake ingredients together before baking for half an hour.

It is very much like carrot cake: it has vegetable oil, sultanas and
the same cream cheese frosting, although it has lemon curd with
some lime juice for the filling.

It is also similar to carrot cake in taste and texture- very moist

and lovely, but it is more lemony because of the filling.

I really like this cake and Markie is a big fan too. She's says she only likes carrots but she doesn't seem to mind that this has courgettes,

 even when she can see little green flecks of this totally different

vegetable all over the cake. Lulu, on the other hand, hates it. Her

reaction when I was folding in the grated courgettes was less than enthusiastic. But I bet she won't be able to resist a chocolate version

 of this cake. We'll try that one out next time we have some of

 Grandad's homegrown courgettes. We're expecting more gifts 

from his allotment soon.

Hope you enjoyed the Bake Off last night. Those bread sculptures
were amazing! Enjoy the rest of your week!