(It was courgettes. Husband does not like courgettes, hence the secret.)
One of my best buddies has an allotment. Every year she grows way too many courgettes and there's a month when despite trying to give them away, it still seems she eats them in one form or another for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The hunt for interesting recipes is always on. This one was presented to me and another collegue on the last day of term to try before were told that it was courgettes. Seriously yummy cake and you absolutely wouldn't know about the courgettes if you weren't in the know. So, when a couple of her courgettes came my way I knew I was going to have to give the cake a go.
Pip and Sally were both up for getting involved in the baking, fortunately Ed took a break from all the digging and moving things in the garden (he's trying to get the electricity cable to his new office in) and took Pip out to play with him. Two children involved in the baking is at this point a recipe for disaster, especially as Pip's arms can now somehow reach the whole way across the kitchen island.
And look at all the blackberries! These were discovered lurking behind the back gate - tomorrow I might have to work out what I'm going to do with them all. Humn.
Secret ingredient time! The cake needs 200g of grated courgette which works out as about one medium courgette. We used this recipe from the National Trust https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/montacute-house/recipes/lemon-courgette-cake and as it uses oil rather than butter and a heap of bicarb/baking powder, it was an easy stirring cake with no butter and sugar to cream.
Ed got a quick picture of me and Sally together - don't we look all happy?
He tried some before he realised that it was courgette cake - he normally says that they taste like snot. Then, the most exciting part of the whole endeavour was that he went back for a second piece. There is quite a lot of lemon and cinnamon to disguise the flavour, but still - WIN.
The other major win of the evening was that I made a chicken curry for dinner and miss fussy eater actually ate it. There was a battle of the wills half way through, but it's food that I've not given her before and she ran into the kitchen telling her brother that it was chicken curry for dinner and that so yummy and then ate it. This was not what I was expecting.
This also happened while the cake was cooking.
