A Touch Of Cafe Culture

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“Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?”

William Shakespeare

I know I said I’d not be baking quite so much and that I’d overdone the amount of cupcakes recently but I couldn’t stop myself from baking yesterday, I had so much else to do but somehow I found myself at the baking cupboard door pulling out flour and sugar amongst other things, trying to convince myself that I had to bake because I’d two courgettes to eat up, as for the logic in that go figure? Shouldn’t I have just added them to the evening meal of Cottage Pie? 

Perhaps I’m right in thinking courgettes do not belong in a proper cottage pie, simply onions, carrots, minced beef and possibly a few mushrooms in a delightfully fragrant gravy, topped with ultra creamy, ultra crispy mashed potatoes? I’d like to think so anyway, and besides that the baking did give us a lovely pudding of cake and cream.

So what did I bake? Leaving you in suspense there wasn’t it, well no more, I baked spiced chocolate and courgette cakes adapted from Little Cafe Cakes by one of my favourite food writers Julie Le Clerc. I’ve made chocolate & zucchini cake before and it went down a treat so I decided to be a little more bold with the flavours this time and experiment with the flours a little too.

I substituted wholemeal spelt flour for the specified wholemeal flour and sunflower and wheat flour for the white flour mentioned which gave a slightly nubby texture and nutty flavour to the cakes.

As always it’s best to use top quality ingredients and this becomes especially vital with the cocoa, it has to be a dark, rich, almost bitter one as the flavour is so pronounced in these cakes.

The courgettes are not really tasted at all in the cake, they just lend a little chewiness and a great moisture to the cake, making them delightful as a pudding, the taste is so decadent alongside a wee drop of fresh double cream.

A big thank you to my forum friend Francesca for the cake cases, she sent them all the way from Israel and don’t they look fantastic, gold on chocolate is a lovely colour combination and at this time of year it looks so festive too To enhance the festive look further I dotted the cakes with little gold dragees.

The Recipe (adapted):

• 3/4 cup sunflower oil
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 250g grated courgettes
• 1/2 cup mixed dried fruit
• 1/2 cup wholemeal spelt flour
• 3/4 cup sunflower and wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180C or the equivalent.
2. Whisk the oil, eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Gently fold in all the dry ingredients, followed by the courgettes and dried fruit.
4. Pour the mixture into cupcake cases of your choice (you’ll get 12 small cakes or 6 large ones).
5. Bake for 20-35 minutes depending on the size of the cake cases. A skewer should come out clean on insertion into the cake.
6. Leave to cool on a wire rack and decorate as you wish.

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Filed under Cakes & Cookies, Vegetarian