Courgette & Lavender Cake

I love the use of vegetables in cakes (not just because you can claim that a slice is one of your 5-a-day, but because shredded carrot, courgette, beetroot or pumpkin gives such an interesting texture & moistness to a cake) this is a recipe I've been fiddling around with for a while now. I originally made it with parsnips, but the combination of parsnip & honey made it prone to burning if left in the oven too long (and I mean 20 seconds too long, not 5 minutes or anything!), so here is a version made with courgettes instead. It's not a cake as we know it, as it's made without butter or margarine, the fats coming from ground almonds instead, which along with the courgette gives it a rich, moist texture.

Courgette & Lavender Cake
200g courgette, grated
100g honey
2 eggs
75g spelt flour (or rice flour if you want a gluten free cake)
50g ground almonds
juice & rind of 1 lemon
1 very heaped tbs lavender flowers
2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/G4. Line a 1lb loaf tin with baking parchment.
In a bowl, whisk together the eggs & honey until light and fluffy (it should only take a minute or two, no endless whisking this time). Add the remaining ingredients & whisk until well combined. If the batter looks runny, add 1 tbs spelt flour (courgettes can vary in their water content). Pour the mixture into the tin & bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes.
Remove from heat & leave to stand in the tin for 5 minutes or so before attempting to extract it.
If you're in the mood for a drizzle cake combine 3 tbs sugar & the juice of a lemon in a small pan, warm through & pour over the cake (though I like the cake just as it is).

Om nom nom!

Pumpkin & Ginger Cake (yes, cake!)

March is proving to be a turbulent month for this little fox. So what better way of dealing with stress than to make cake? And not just cake, but guilt-free, flavour-filled, crammed-full-of-healthy-things vegetable cake.
Now before you run shrieking for the hills, bear with me.
Carrot cake.
Chocolate & beetroot brownies.
If they can work, why not parsnip cake, why not courgette cupcakes, why not pumpkin cake? So over the last few weeks I've been mucking about with vegetables in cakes. Some have been a bit of a disaster (grated carrot in scones? No. Just... no), others need a bit of tweaking before I'm ready to blog about them, but some just come out perfect first time.
Say hello to Pumpkin & Ginger cake

Sweet, spicy & a little bit nuts.

Pumpkin & Ginger cake
3 eggs
100g demerera sugar
250g finely grated pumpkin (or butternut squash)
150g brown rice flour (it gives a really nutty flavour to the cake, and is also suitable for coeliacs. Wholemeal spelt flour also works well. Or half plain flour & wholemeal)
80g ground almonds
100g crystallised stem ginger (or stem ginger in syrup), finely chopped
2" piece of fresh ginger, finely grated
2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/G4. grease a springform cake tin & dust with a little ground ginger.
Whisk the eggs & sugar in a large mixing bowl until really light & fluffy. It'll take a few minutes. Sorry. Stir in the pumpkin & grated ginger. Add the flour, ground almonds & baking powder & mix gently. Fold in the crystallised ginger & pour into the cake tin. Smooth the top over & bake for 30 minutes in the middle of the oven (or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean). Leave to cool, about 5 minutes should do it, before removing it from the tin.
Serve with a cup of tea, and don't feel bad about having seconds.

And on the bad days. the long days, the tough days, the it-can't-get-any-worse days. Have a slice & remember it's just a ride.