Carrot, courgette and orange cake

Ingredients

• 150g courgettes 
• 1 pinch salt 
• 100g carrots 
• 5 medium eggs 
• 125ml oil 
• 225g sugar 
• 225g flour 
• 3 level tsp baking powder 
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda 
• 75g butter 
• 2 untreated oranges 
• 200g double cream soft cheese 
• 50g icing sugar 
• Greaseproof paper

Method

Grate the courgettes coarsely. Place in a sieve, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and leave to drain. Peel the carrots and also grate coarsely. Grease the bases of 2 spring-form cake tins (20cm across) and cover with grease proof paper.

Beat 2 eggs, oil and 150g sugar with an electric whisk until the mixture is white and fluffy. Mix together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate; sieve on to the egg mixture and combine. Stir in the courgette and carrot gratings. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins. Bake in a pre-heated oven (Electric: 175 ˚ C/Fan: 150 ˚ C/Gas Mark 2) for about 30 min. Remove from the oven, leaving in the tins to cool slightly then remove and let them cool on a wire rack.

For the buttercream and orange curd melt the butter in a pan. Wash the oranges in hot water and pat dry. Peel the skin thinly from 1 orange and remove just the zest from the other. Halve the oranges and extract the juice. Add the 3 eggs, 75g sugar and 125ml orange juice and peel to the pan and stir over a low heat to make a thick sauce. Leave to cool. Stir the cream cheese until smooth. Sieve the icing sugar over it and mix well. Stir in 1-2 tbsp of orange juice. Place one cake on a cake plate, spread with the orange curd and place the second cake on top, and decorate with the cream cheese and orange zest.

Our thanks to Landscape Magazine for providing this recipe.