Courgette Lemon & Poppy Seed Cake

For the cake:

• 225g good quality vegetable oil
• 3 medium eggs
• 125g dark brown sugar
• 35g caster sugar
• 3 lemons zested
• 170g Courgette washed grated (skin on) & water squeezed out
• 90g Wholemeal flour
• 90g Plain flour
• 5g Bicarbonate of soda
• 4g Baking powder
• 10g Poppy seeds
• 2 7inch springform cake tins
• Margarine or oil for greasing the tins

For the cake:

• 390g Icing sugar
• 220g Philadelphia cream cheese
• 1g Vanilla paste (optional)
• 85g Butter melted & hot with no lumps of butter
• 1 Lemon zested

• Preheat your oven to 150 degrees fan bake & grease your tins
• Put the oil, eggs, sugars & lemon zest into a mixing bowl (or in a cake mixer)
• Beat for 5-8 minutes on a medium to high-speed beating until smooth, glossy & lighter in colour.
• Sieve the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda & baking powder, then add the wholemeal flour, grated courgette & poppy seeds. Gently mix until the ingredients are fully incorporated.
• Pour half of the batter into one of the greased tins & the other half into the second, use a spatula to spread it around the base of the tin evenly.
• Place the tins into your 150 degrees preheated oven & bake for 30-40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Leave the cakes in the tin to cool.
• Once the cakes are completely cold, remove from the tins & leave to the side while you make the frosting.
• To make the frosting place the icing sugar, cream cheese, vanilla paste, lemon zest & hot melted butter into a cake mixer bowl, on a slow speed get the ingredients mixing.

• You will need to stop the mixer a couple of times throughout the mixing process, to scrape the sides of the bowl down with a spatula, to make sure it fully mixes.
• Once combined turn the mixer onto a high speed until the icing is fully mixed – smooth & has gone slightly thicker. At this point the frosting will go more white in colour, you do not want to overmix at this stage, or the frosting will start to go runny.
• The icing shouldn’t fall off the beater when fully mixed.
• Place the first cake onto a serving plate, place half of the icing onto this layer of cake leaving about a 3cm gap around the edges.
• Place the second cake onto this layer of icing & push the second cake onto the icing layer.

Top Tips:

• When you grate your courgette, squeeze the excess water between your hands or place in a sieve & push the water out over a bowl, then get rid of the excess liquid. This is important especially if your courgettes are one of the big end of season fellas, they contain a lot of water!
• If you want smooth icing, sieve the icing sugar if it is a bit lumpy, but always weigh the icing sugar after sieving.
• Juice the lemons & use the excess lemon juice for making a salad dressing, a hot lemon drink or freeze into ice cube trays until you need fresh lemon juice next.
• Do not store this cake in the fridge, keep it in an airtight container in a cool dark place.