Gluten Free Chocolate Courgette Cake

This moist, dark chocolate cake is gluten free, potentially dairy free if you top with melted chocolate instead of the icing, and most importantly totally delicious. You can't taste the courgette, but it gives the crumb a lovely soft and fluffy texture, the perfect foil for some rich chocolate icing and lots of easter eggs. If you're in any doubt of the health benefits of this cake, just remember that it contains three courgettes, so that's at least 1 of your 5 a day, no?

Recipe
Serves 8-10

Base recipe adapted from the one by Sandy at the All Recipes website, see it here at www.allrecipes.co.uk
Icing recipe adapted from one by Mitzie Wilson and Caroline Russell at delicious. Magazine online. See their recipe here.


175g gluten free plain flour
250g golden caster sugar
50g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
two thirds of a teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
3 medium eggs
230ml vegetable oil
220g grated courgette



1. Turn oven to 180C (160C fan oven), and grease and line a 20cm spring form cake tin.

2. Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl.

3. Add the eggs and the oil, beating well.

4. Fold in the grated courgette, mixing until thoroughly combined.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, and bake in the oven for approximately 50 minutes. You'll know it's done when a skewer comes out clean.

6. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes, before placing on a wire rack or plate to cool completely.

for the icing:
100g unsalted butter, room temperature
225g plain chocolate,
142ml double cream
and/or 100g dark chocolate, optional

for the chocolate mice:
white chocolate bars, milk chocolate bars, dark chocolate bars as below

8. To make the icing, break the plain chocolate into small pieces and melt with the butter in a heat proof bowl over another bain mairie as before.

9. Stir it carefully, then when all melted beat in the double cream with an electric hand whisk. Take off the heat and leave the mixture to cool.

10. When the base and the icing are smooth, spread icing over the top and the sides of the cake. In an optional extra manouevre to make it even more chocolatey I then melted 100g dark chocolate and spooned that over the top of the cake, before leaving to cool. If you want this to be a dairy free cake, then spoon approx 150g-200g dark chocolate over the top of the un-iced cake,

11. When the melted chocolate is totally cool, decorate with eggs and chocolate bunnies and chicks. You can see how to make your own chocolate animals at my white chocolate mouse cake post here
Add sprinkles or anything else you fancy to decorate, the kitscher the better.

HAPPY EASTER!

This cake was baked while listening to Leonard Cohen's new album Old Ideas, and was decorated by Mr Stanley Booth aged nearly 4