We seem to still have LOTS of courgettes, here at The Ana Mum Diary house. Not that I should complain, I actually like courgettes, but sometimes you just need some inspiration and try something different. Well when we were on holiday in Devon, we visited Otterton Mill. 
It is highly acclaimed cafe-resturant, artisan bakery and devon food shop, it had a gallery and craft shop with courses and live music events. It is set in the most idyllic surroundings with a working water-mill. 
It was a Foodie Friday when we visited. We were not sure what to expect, but sat down in the courtyard with drinks and cake from the cafe which runs along side the restaurant. The head Chef, Rob Jessop ( formally a Chef at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Canteen in Axminster) then appeared with all the ingredients to cook 3 dishes with courgettes. I was so chuffed, as a veggie I would be able to join in too. The first dish was a bruschetta (using one of their Artisan breads from the bakery) with sautéed courgette and the second Courgette bhaji both were delicious. He cooked them in front of us explaining what he was doing as he cooked. The final was a courgette cake, that was just so delicious, and luckily he gave us the recipe to take with us. It is a recipe that I believe he got from Carol Lee from the Natural Food School.
So I have decided to make the recipe, we enjoyed it so much, such a moist cake! I wanted to feature it on the blog this week. You will need for two 1lb loaves, or can be tray baked. 8 oz courgettes – grated (peel if you don’t want a green cake!) 5 oz of butter 9-10 oz of sugar 4 Eggs Beaten 11oz self-raising flour 2 tsp ground cinnamon or mixed spice 4-5 oz seedless raisins 3oz chopped nuts 2tsp vanilla essence 
And the method is:
Preheat oven to Gas mark 4 (180) and grease tins or tray. I find greaseproof paper great for this. Cream the butter and the sugar. Add the beaten egg and flour alternately, to the creamed mixture making sure its mixed well. Then mix in the cinnamon, courgettes, raisins nuts and vanilla essence. We made 1 large cake and 6 small cakes for the little misses to decorate. They took about 25 mins to bake, the cake around 50 mins. Let the cake cool a little before you try to take it out of the tin, as it very moist. 
Here is the large cake when finished. I was going to put a topping on, but it was so moist a delicious I decided against it. It disappeared VERY quickly! 
We did make a topping for the small cakes. We mixed orange flavouring with icing sugar, which worked brilliantly. Here’s the cakes the Little Misses decorated in a Halloween style. 
and my favourite 
I am linking this up to White Lily Green’s Handmade Thursday, please press the picture below to see what everyone else has been making.
And Mummy Mishaps special Halloween cake linky
Thank you for reading
That sounds delicious. I’ve used courgettes in savoury muffins before but never in a sweet cake.
Love your spooky decorations too!
Thank you, We were lucky with the decorations as I seem to be addicted to buying them, Lots of choice!
those look lovely, we have tried some vegetables in cakes but not courgettes…yet 🙂
honestly give it a go, I’ve had a couple of tweets about binding it chocolate and brownies, it really keeps it moist!
Sounds really nice! I’m not a big courgette fan, mainly because I don’t really know what to do with them! Might have to give this a try!!
Thanks for linking up!
you can’t taste the courgette, though I’d make sure you peel them if you try, I think the dark green might be off putting! 😉
We had a huge glut of cougettes earlier in the growing season but am very tempted to get some from the supermarket and give these cupcakes a go. Look fab and I bet they taste even better :o)
ohh please do, would love to see the result!
That looks like such a great but different take on cake! Why have carrot when you can have courgette?
Honestly, I would have never made it, unless I went to Otterton Mill, so scrummy!!
Wow they look beautiful! I have been meaning to try sweet courgette muffins but always end up using up bananas or butternut squash instead! Thanks so much for linking up xx
I didn’t know you were veggie, so am I 🙂 This looks amazing. My favourite thing to do with courgette is frittatta. I got it from Nigella How to Eat. Mix grated courgette, eggs, parmesan, fry them in butter grill the top – YUM!