Paul Hollywood’s courgette and lime cake

Make this easy and delicious courgette and lime cake from Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood.

Head and shoulders portrait of Paul Hollywood facing to the right and wearing a black shirt

By Paul Hollywood | Published - 9 Sep 2025

Celebrity chef and Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood shares this moist and tangy courgette and lime cake from his book Celebrate which features the joys and secrets of great baking for the whole year round.

Courgettes work amazingly well in this cake, keeping it lovely and moist. (It’s also a great way to sneak a bit of extra veg into your grandkids.)

Cream cheese icing is the classic carrot cake topping, but it works brilliantly on this cake too.

Ingredients

For the cake

300g self-raising flour
2 tsp ground mixed spice
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 medium eggs, at room temperature
250g soft light brown sugar
finely grated zest and juice of 2 limes
250ml sunflower oil, plus extra to grease
300g courgettes (about 1 large or 2 small)
11/2 tbsp poppy seeds

For the cream cheese icing

100g unsalted butter, softened
200g icing sugar
100g full-fat cream cheese
finely grated zest of 1 lime

Method

Heat your oven to 180˚C/160˚C fan/gas 4. Lightly oil a 22cm round springform cake tin; line with baking paper.
Sift the flour, mixed spice and baking powder together into a bowl.
In another large bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar and lime zest and juice, add the sunflower oil and mix well.
Coarsely grate the courgette then tip onto a clean cloth. Gather the cloth’s edges, twist and squeeze out as much liquid as you can from the courgette.
Add the courgette to the egg mixture, then add the poppy seeds, and fold through. Fold in the flour mix until it is thoroughly combined.
Transfer the mixture to the prepared cake tin and smooth the surface. Bake in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 20 minutes then release from the tin and transfer to a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.
In the meantime, make the icing. Using a hand-held electric whisk, beat the butter until very soft. Add the icing sugar a third at a time, mixing until combined after each addition. Add the cream cheese and fold through to make a smooth icing.
Spread the icing on top of the cake, using a palette knife; sprinkle with the lime zest to decorate.

A close-up shot of a courgette and lime cake sliced into sections — Image credit: Haarala Hamilto_Paul Hollywood Celebrate

Recipe taken from Celebrate by Paul Hollywood (Bloomsbury Publishing RRP: £26.00)

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(Hero image credit: Haarala Hamilton)

Written by: Paul Hollywood

Paul Hollywood is a celebrity chef and TV personality, best known for being a long-time judge on Great British Bake Off.
He is one of the UK’s leading bakers and joined his father’s bakery after training as a sculptor. Paul went on to work as head baker at hotels, including The Dorchester, before launching his TV career. He is the author of several books on baking.

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