I found myself knocking on my Mothers door, bursting with the anticipation of her putting on the kettle, grabbing a couple of plates and serving us generous slices of this cake. Whilst I know it’s important to stay humble, I’d had a sneaky taste and without sounding all “Kayne” I knew that we were in for a treat.
My prediction came true, I had tea, I had cake, I had a comfy seat and the full attention of my truly outstanding Mother. I felt like I was winning, have I mentioned the cats? There’s 4 and most of them ignore me.
I had baked this cake as a Mothers Day gift, so it feels fitting to share a few snippets about my Mother, she’s rather special. I’ve never known anyone else to arrive at a pub on Saturday night and lovingly lay out various flavors of homemade tiffin, crisps, and dinky little pots of fruit. I’ve inherited my Mothers kindness, her huge hazel eyes and feelings of frustration when food is not in abundance. I don’t share her love of Dr Martins, but I appreciate snuggling up in her huge cardigans and stealing her fluffy socks.
Let’s talk about the cake…
I had a bit of a mission making this cake, firstly I elbowed my way through the crowds at the Mini Supermarket and went on a wild goose chase to locate sugar, flour, eggs, pistachios, and limes. I returned to the office with icing sugar (incorrect, I needed Castor), a KitKat Chunky and some flour. The result of this was that I had to visit yet another supermarket and got distracted by goodness knows what and still forgot the fact I needed vegetable oil (not on the previous list). The moral of the story is simple, check the bloody ingredients at first and get everything in one hit. Anyway, Friday night was spent being part of a conveyor belt of Pistachio shelling (and tasting), cake baking and then my dreams where sweetened by excessive buttercream.
Just for the record, the addition of Limes gives this a punchy flavor that feels just like summer, teamed with the crunch of Pistachio and sweetness of the frosting and you’ve baked yourself one hell of a cake. I’d go as far as saying, it doesn’t actually need a frosting if you’ve got less of a sweet tooth and you don’t need to bake the nuts in, but in my opinion with nuts, more the merrier!
For the cake
3 Whole Eggs (Beaten)
150g Sugar
250g Self Raising Flour
250g Courgette (Grated)
One Lime (Grated zest and juice)
50g Pistachio Nuts
Pinch of baking powder
125ml Vegetable Oil
For the icing
600g Icing Sugar
Juice of one Lime
300g Butter
Instructions
Start by shelling your Pistachios, this is definitely the most time consuming element and I firmly recommend placing them in a bag and crushing them with a rolling pin. I like mine rather chunky, but it’s a completely personal choice.
Then, pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees and line a loaf tin with grease proof paper or a light coating of butter.
Grate the courgette and set aside in a large mixing bowl – Then grate the lime zest and add this to the same bowl.
In another bowl, whisk the eggs, add the vegetable oil and then the juice of the lime, The next step is to slowly add the sugar and stir everything together. Now, slowly add the flour (& baking powder & optional pistachio nuts) to the courgette/lime mix and gradually add the liquid, whilst mixing the batter.
Note- if you you have a free standing or hand held mixer, this is the time for them to get involved.
The mix will be extremely thick, especially with the volume from the courgette, so I’d recommend taking your time to ensure everything is fully combined.
Pour into the cake tin and bake for 60-70 minutes, depending on your oven
For the icing –
Whilst the bake is cooling, beat the icing sugar, lime juice and butter – You might have excess buttercream but this keeps well for weeks. Topping with additional nuts is completely optional!
Notes
If you have a free standing mixer, you can simply throw everything into the bowl and let the mixer complete all the hard work – Lazy baking!
Katie
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