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This delicious Courgette Cake recipe is so easy to make, packed with lime and topped with delicious mascarpone cream cheese frosting icing. It’s the perfect summer bake to use your vegetables in! It’s also easily made gluten free.
Have you ever grown courgettes yourself? If you haven’t grown them before and you fancy yourself as a gardener, courgettes are 100% the summer thing to grow.
They just grow and grow, often giving a glut of them to cook up in various ways.
If that’s not reason enough to grow some, two more words: Courgette Cake. It’s SO GOOD.
A delicious texture, all made in one bowl, and a portion of veg as a bonus. To me, this is one of the tastes of summer.
Even if you’re not a gardener, please buy some courgettes and try this Courgette Cake recipe!
Why you’ll love this Courgette Cake recipe
⭐️ Super simple and all prepped in one bowl
⭐️ Great way of using up courgettes produce
⭐️ Cake AND veg combo for bonus points
Easy Cake recipes
If it’s easy cake recipes you’re after, you could also try:
➡️ Yoghurt Pot Cake – No scales needed!
➡️ Biscoff Cheesecake – Only 5 ingredients
➡️ Lemon Drizzle Cake – Over 250 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reviews
➡️ Banana Cake – Prepare in under 10 minutes
➡️ White Chocolate Cheesecake – Simple no-bake recipe
➡️ Pumpkin Cake – Simplified easy seasonal recipe
➡️ Apple Cake – Perfect as a treat or dessert
Courgette Cake Ingredients Notes
- Eggs – I use free range medium
- Courgettes – Use about 150g (weight after being grated and the excess water squeezed out). This is roughly 1 medium-large courgette
- Pistachios – I LOVE these pistachio nut slivers. I’ve only found them on Amazon but I think that they really finish this cake beautifully. You’ll only use some of a pack to decorate this cake, but they keep well in the fridge
- Limes – Zest only. This is a tasty addition and makes texture lovely and moist
- For the icing: mascarpone cheese, icing sugar and lime juice
How to make Courgette Cake
1. Preheat the oven and coarsely grate your courgettes. Squeeze out the excess water thoroughly.
2. Mix the sugar, oil and eggs until well beaten.
3. Stir in the grated courgettes, nuts, lime zest, self raising flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon. Combine well.
4. Pour the mixture into a lined and greased loaf tin and bake, as per the recipe below, until cooked through. Allow to cool then remove from the tin.
5. Meanwhile, make the icing by very gently combining the mascarpone with sieved icing sugar and lime juice. Pop into the fridge until the cake is totally cold.
6. Smooth the icing over the top of the cake and sprinkle on the pistachios and more lime zest.
Substitutions
- Gluten free flour – Substitute the self-raising flour for gluten free if you’d rather
- Pistachios – You can leave this out if you prefer. They aren’t totally necessary but add a lovely bite. You can try other nuts if you prefer
Storing
Store this in a cake tin or sealed container. You don’t need to refrigerate it but you can if you like. It should last up to 3 days (if it hasn’t been devoured by then!)
top Tips
Drying the courgettes
Squeezing the water out of the courgettes is really important, or you could end up with a soggy cake.
I use a clean tea towel for this job (which is a bit annoying as we then have a mucky tea towel BUT does get the most liquid out and saves a lot of time.) You could also use bare clean hands or a sieve.
Coarsely grate the courgettes
Be sure to use the coarse side of your grater or food processor setting for your courgettes. I’ve used a fine one before and the texture wasn’t quite as good. they will be too mushy if you use a very fine grater.
Cream cheese frosting
When you make your cream cheese frosting, mix very softly and slowly to avoid the icing getting too runny. If it does go a little runny, pop into the fridge for an hour to firm up.
You could try a simplified cream cheese icing recipe instead if you’d rather.
More courgette recipes…
Lunch Ideas
Easy Courgette Soup {with Parmesan}
Under 30 minutes
Creamy Courgette Pasta {20 Minute Meal}
FAQs
My secret weapon for any recipes with citrus zest in is my Microplane Zester. I know I’m a wimp but I used to hate making Lemon Drizzle Cake before splashing out on one of these.
They have SO many glowing reviews. You can buy them here on Amazon: Microplane Premium Zester.
A sturdy good quality loaf tin that conducts the heat evenly will really make a difference to your bakes. This non-stick loaf tin on Amazon is a good buy.
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
Courgette Cake {with Lime & Cream Cheese Icing}
Ingredients
- 175 g Caster sugar
- 175 ml Sunflower oil
- 3 Free range eggs, Medium
- 150 g Courgettes, Weight after squeezing out excess water
- 100 g Pistachio nuts, shelled, Optional
- 2 Limes, Zest only
- 175 g Self raising flour
- 1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp Ground cinnamon
For the icing:
- 150 g Mascarpone cheese
- 150 g Icing sugar
- 1 Lime, Juice only
To decorate:
- Pistachio slivers and more lime zest
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180℃ fan/200℃/Gas Mark 6.
- Mix the sugar, oil and eggs until well beaten.
- Stir in the grated courgettes (after you've squeezed out the liquid – see recipe tips).
- Stir in the nuts (if using), lime zest, self raising flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon. Stir until totally combined.
- Pour into a lined and greased loaf tin and bake for 45-60 minutes until cooked through and a skewer comes out clean.
- Allow to cool and remove from the tin.
- Meanwhile, make the icing by very gently combining the mascarpone with sieved icing sugar and lime juice. Pop into the fridge until the cake is totally cold.
- Smooth the icing over the top of the cake and sprinkle on the pistachios and more lime zest if you fancy.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made this cake yesterday afternoon it was so quick in my KitchenAid mixer and the grater attachment work to treat! Only took 45 minutes to bake at 180°C. My husband and I took a slice each and it was delicious! He took the rest of the cake to the office this morning to share with his colleagues. This will be my go to recipe for Courgette cake.
A really good cake and a great way to use up a glut of courgettes. I love pistachios and lime so this is the perfect recipe for me. Thanks so much for the recipe.
Just made this cake and it was so easy. I added extra icing sugar to the frosting as it seemed too runny but it may go thicker as it cools in the fridge. Will definitely make again.
This is delicious! I made this but couldn’t find my loaf tin so made it in a 8″ round cake tin. It came out perfectly – took around 45mins to cook as per recipe. Recommend!
This is a great cake and the family and my work colleagues all love it.
I make double or triple batter when we have a glut of courgettes in the garden and sometimes freeze a loaf, but mostly the cake gets eaten within a day or so!!!😋
Just checking if the weight of courgettes is before or after squeezing please?
As a single-person household I make up the batter and bake in two x 1lb loaf tins. I make up half the frosting for the cake I will eat now, and freeze the other cake wrapped in baking parchment to be frosted later. Works for me. Oh, and I leave the cinnamon out completely. Even in chilli-heavy curries, I find cinnamon to be a bit of a thug.
Have made this cake few times now and can say this is a firm family favourite 🤩 it always comes out well! Would definitely recommend 👍🏼👌🏼