Courgettes
Courgette flowers as sold in Mexican street markets
Or zucchini are abundant at this time of year. It is lovely to wake up and find large yellow flowers fully open and a few days later off they go, one after the other and another and another until we feel overwhelmed by such abundance!
If that is the case and you have run out of ideas here is a recipe that featured in my first book ‘The Mexican Mama’s Kitchen’ and it is for a cake. The principle is similar to that of a carrot cake, but here you use courgettes and I hope it is of use for those of you with a courgette or zucchini glut!
Mexican courgette and walnut cake:
Makes one x 23 cm round cake
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
3 large eggs
320 g 1 /2 cups caster sugar
250 ml / 1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
300 g / 2 cups plain flour
2 Tbsp chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon salt
350 g grated courgettes / zucchini
1 x 23 cm size baking tin, lined with greaseproof paper
Heat up the oven to 160 C (fan oven), 180 C (convection oven), 350 F, Gas Mark 4
Sift the flour with the baking powder, and put in a bowl.
Mix the cinnamon and sugar, put in another bowl
With a balloon whisk, beat the eggs until they look fluffy. Add the sugar, cinnamon, oil and salt and continue beating. Add the grated courgettes, walnuts and the sifted flour and baking powder mix. Stir well until incorporated.
Bake the cake in the oven for about 40 minutes or until set. One way to tell if a cake is made is to stick a skewer in the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean, then the cake is ready.
Take out of the oven, cool a bit, un-mould and leave to cool on a wire rack, decorate with sieved icing sugar and serve with vanilla scented ice-cream or crème anglaise.
courgette and walnut cake!