Happy Chocolate Courgette Cake and More!!!

Well this was meant to be my last post of 2011 but I lost track of the days and so it's now my first post of 2012! Yipeeeeee!


So how was everyone's holiday break? Mine...well mine was excellent. You see, Justin and I have been 'dating' for almost 9 years now and on Christmas Eve he took the leap and proposed to me! That's right, he plans to make an honest woman outta me! So I have about a year and a half of fun filled wedding planning to do, which will include trying new cake recipes because I plan to make my own wedding cake! So stay tuned for all that fun stuff!



I made a traditional turkey feast for the second time in my life time! With ALL the fix'ns including stuffing, yum yum! Here are some pictures below of some of our holiday feasting!

my Christmas Eve breakfast from Stewart & Co's Fine Foods mmmmmmm

the makings of a yummy bikini bar dessert

prepping chestnuts for roasting in the stuffing

pre-mixed turkey butter

post mixed turkey butter, guarantees a moist and delicious turkey every time!

Now onto the main component of this post, the Chocolate Courgette Cake that I made a few days ago for a raclette dinner party.  I've always wanted to make a courgette cake and after spotting this one in the BBC Good Food Cakes app I had to give it a go! 


Ingredients:

• 350g self-raising flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 175ml extra-virgin olive oil
• 375g golden caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 500ml peeled, deseeded and grated courgettes(measure by volume in a measuring jug, but it's about 2 medium courgettes)
• 140g toasted hazelnuts , roughly chopped

Icing:

200 g dark chocolate, chopped

100ml double cream

Method to the madness:

1) Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, mixed spice and 1 tsp salt.

2) In another bowl, combine the olive oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla essence and grated courgette. 

looks like thick chicken noodle soup....

3) Mix the dry and wet mixture until just combined, then fold in the toasted hazelnuts. Line a 24cm cake tin with greaseproof paper, then pour in your mixture. Bake for about 40-50 mins, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, 

then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

4) To make the icing, place the chocolate in a bowl and bring cream to the boil in a saucepan. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until completely smooth and melted.

5) Leave the icing to cool slightly and thicken, then spread it over the cake so it's covered and the icing starts to drip down the sides. Serve with a cup of tea or enjoy as a pud with a spoonful of something creamy.

*Note from BBC- courgettes can be very watery, so just make sure they aren't producing too much water. If you find they are put them in a colander to strain out SOME of the liquid, not too much tho or your cake will be dry! 

You can also reduce the amount of sugar and I think it would still be great!


I hope that you enjoy this recipe and I hope that we can share many more fabulous recipes throughout 2012!




x




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