Chocolate Courgette Cake with Chocolate Frosting
This moist chocolate courgette cake is delicious on its own - but I highly recommend you try the incredible sour cream chocolate frosting. I promise you, this recipe will go down a treat...
Servings: 8 servings
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 250 g courgettes grated
- 50 g caster sugar
- 100 g soft light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 65 g full-fat Greek yoghurt
- 60 ml vegetable oil
- 120 g plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 55 g cocoa powder
- ½ tsp flaky salt
- 200 g good-quality dark chocolate roughly chopped
For the sour cream chocolate frosting (optional):
- 100 g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 50 g full-fat sour cream room temperature
- 160 g good-quality dark chocolate melted
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 350 g icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C Fan. Grease and line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin with non-stick baking paper or use a little butter and a dusting of cocoa powder.
- Place the grated courgette in a clean tea towel and give it a good squeeze to get rid of any excess moisture.
- Tip the courgette into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugars, eggs, yoghurt and oil and mix well.
- Sieve in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cocoa powder. Add the salt and mix well to combine.
- Stir in the chopped chocolate until evenly distributed throughout the batter.
- Pour into the prepared loaf tin and bake for about 40-45 minutes - or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Check at 35 minutes as ovens vary and you don't want it to be too dry - cover with foil if the top is darkening too quickly.
- If frosting, leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely. Alternatively, leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes until just cool enough to handle carefully. Turn out onto a plate and enjoy warm slices with melting pools of chocolate.
- If making the frosting: using an electric whisk, beat the butter for about 2 minutes until creamy and fluffy. Add the sour cream and the cooled melted chocolate and continue beating until combined. Sift in the icing sugar and cocoa powder and mix until light and fluffy.
- Once the loaf has completely cooled, use a palette knife, spatula or the back of the spoon to spread over the top.
- Cut into slices and enjoy!
Notes
Scroll up for a helpful step by step guide on how to make chocolate courgette cake.
To store: Store in an airtight container (a large tupperware or cake box will work) in the fridge. You can store it for 2-3 days with the frosting, longer without (although it probably won't last that long).
To freeze: You can freeze the cake (not iced). Wrap tightly in clingfilm and a layer of foil, then freeze for up to 3 months. When ready to eat, defrost at room temp overnight until soft. You could freeze it in slices with parchment paper between each layer so that you can easily take a few slices out of the freezer at a time. I wouldn't freeze the icing as the sour cream has a tendency to defrost into a grainy texture. You can keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container.
Make ahead: If you want to make the cake ahead of time, you can bake it and wrap tightly in clingfilm for 1-2 days before icing it before serving.
Chocolate: You can swap the chopped dark chocolate chunks for milk and/or white chocolate if you prefer.
Remove Excess Moisture: It's important to squeeze the water out of the courgette after it's grated to ensure you don't have a watery batter. Lay the grated courgette between two sheets of kitchen roll and pat dry. Otherwise, pop the grated courgette in a clean tea towel and then wrap up and squeeze out the excess water over the sink.
Making The Frosting: It's totally optional to make the frosting as the loaf cake itself is so delicious and moist without it. Make sure the cake is completely cool before spreading on the frosting as you don't want to risk melting it.