if you also had such an excellent courgette season you may know the situation having more courgettes than you can ever eat, particularly if some of them get a bit out of size. those ones which are too big for most of the other dishes, are just perfect for this courgette cake.

the courgette makes the cake super juicy without dominating the flavor at all. so don’t be afraid of baking cakes with vegetables in case you have no experiences yet. i am sure, there are many good courgette recipes out there, I like the one of yvette van bovens homemade summer. it is with raisins and hazelnuts and cinnamon and somehow makes you feel cosy.

i changed one little thing. instead of 150 g currants i added dried sour cherries. i think you can feel free as long as it is something more sour. how much courgette depends also on your liking. in the recipe it is one courgette, but what size is one courgette? the more you add, the more juicy or even sticky the cake will become.

 150 g flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
150 g brown sugar
1 grated courgette
150 g raisins
150 g dried currants, cranberries or sour cherries
100 g roasted hazelnuts
2 eggs
125 ml olive oil

zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
150 g icing sugar

preheat the oven to 170°C. grease the baking tin with some olive oil and line it with baking paper.

sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add baking soda, salt, vanilla sugar and cinnamon. also add the courgette, raisins, currants, roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts and combine all the ingredients. combine eggs and olive oil in a small bowl, add it to the rest and combine.

pour the dough in the cake tin and bake for about 60-75 minutes. the cake is done if no or only dry crumbles stick on a wooden skewer you put in the cake.

allow the cake to cool down a bit. remove from the tin and leave to cool on a cooling rack. combine the zest of a lemon, its juice and the icing sugar to prepare the icing. it should have the consistency of thick yoghurt. otherwise add some more lemon juice or more icing sugar. pour over the cake and allow the icing to get firm before serving.

enjoy!

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150 g mehl
1 tl backpulver
1 päckchen vanillezucker
1 tl zimt
150 g braunen zucker
1 geriebene zucchini
150 g rosinen
150 g getrocknete johannisbeeren, cranberries oder sauerkirschen
100 g geröstete haselnüsse
2 eier
125 ml oliven

abgeriebene schale einer zitrone (bio)
saft einer zitrone
150 g puderzucker

den ofen auf 170°C vorheizen. die kuchenform mit öl ausstreichen und mit backpapier auslegen.

in eine große schüssel das mehl sieben, backpulver, eine prise salz, vanillezucker und zimt geben. zucchini, zucker, rosinen, cranberries und haselnüsse dazu geben und mischen. in einer kleinen schüssel die eier und olivenöl verquirlen und unter die anderen zutaten rühren. 

den teig in die kuchenform geben. 60-75 minuten backen. fertig ist der kuchen wenn nichts mehr am holzstäbchen klebt, das man testweise in den kuchen sticht.

15 minuten abkühlen lassen, stürzen und am kuchengitter auskühlen lassen. für den zuckerguss die zitronenschalen, zitronensaft und puderzucker mischen. die konsistenz sollte wie flüssiger joghurt sein. gegebenenfalls mehr zitronensaft oder mehr puderzucker dazugeben. über den kuchen geben und fest werden lassen.

gutes gelingen!