This is a really easy but tasty cake to make. It has been very popular at family gatherings and a well requested recipe when I had my cafe!
The ginger and citrus are a great pairing and the courgette gives a nice moist loaf cake and it is dairy free!
It is an oil based cake so stays nice and moist for quite a few days after baking.
I have just made it plain but you could add a lime icing with the juice from the limes if you want.
Start by preheating the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (160 fan) or Gas Mark 4. Then line and grease a 2lb loaf tin.
In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment whisk fitted, whisk the sugar, egg and oil until lighter in colour and thickened slightly.
Add the grated courgette, lime zest and stem ginger.
Whisk until fully combined.
Finally add all the dry ingredients and mix until everything is fully incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 50-55 minutes or until the cake tester comes out clean.
Leave in tin to cool slightly before transferring to a cooling rack.
Courgette, Lime & Ginger Loaf Cake
Sarah's servings: 10
Sarah's skill: Easy
Baking time: 50-55 minutes
Ingredients:
150g Caster Sugar
1 Large egg
125ml Olive Oil
200g Grated courgette
2 Limes (zest only)
2 Nuggets of stem ginger finely chopped
200g Plain Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp Baking powder
4 tsp Ground ginger
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (160 fan) Gas Mark 4.
Line and grease a 2lb loaf tin.
In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment fitted, whisk the sugar, egg and oil until light and fluffy.
Add the grated courgette, lime zest and stem ginger and whisk again.
Finally add all the dry ingredients and whisk until everything is fully incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 50-55 minutes or until the cake tester comes out clean.
Sarah’s extra slice......
If you don’t have any limes then lemons will work just as well.
You can substitute the olive oil for vegetable oil and it still works perfectly.
This cake can be frozen for up to 3 months.
You can use the juice of the limes to make icing if you want to make the cake a bit more special. Just add sieved icing sugar to the juice until you have a dropping consistency. You could also add crystallised ginger to decorate!
This cake is absolutely delicious and so moist and soft. I made sure that I wrung the grated courgette well in a clean tea towel first to extract as much water as possible and then left it for a hour or so (to be fair, the latter was because I got caught up in another task!). This was because my previous attempts at courgette cakes have been too wet.
I loved the flavour combinations and can also see how the base recipe (so minus the lime and ginger) could be adapted for so many other variations on this. Thanks, Sarah.
This cake is amazing! I was expecting something similar to a carrot cake but not at all - a beautiful light but very moist sponge. I tried a bit as soon as it had cooled (of course!) and found the ginger a bit strong, overpowering the lime but the next day it had mellowed and the flavours were completely balanced so, if you can resist, let it mature for a day or so.