• Sophie Likes Cake
  • Ask Me Anything
  • Blog
  • Cakes & Sweet Treats
  • Ice Cream
  • Savoury & Meals
Menu

Sophie Likes Cake

Ok so sometimes I make a little more than just cake but I love creating and sharing it with you here
  • Sophie Likes Cake
  • Ask Me Anything
  • Blog
  • Cakes & Sweet Treats
  • Ice Cream
  • Savoury & Meals

Little Lemon Courgette Cakes With Goats Cheese Icing

April 24, 2017

Free weekends are basically unicorns. It was suggested that I fill my once-in-a-blue-moon free Sunday by baking something to blog. At first thought this sounded marvellous, then I remembered I hadn't blogged about the last two or three kinda cool things I'd made and taken nice photos of. 

So here I am, writing about something I made two-ish weeks ago. It was a toss up between these or some delish hazelnut banana cakes with muscadavo cream cheese icing but I can't for the life of me remember how long I baked those for... Thats what happens when you procrastinate for like um, four months. 

These were made as part of a dessert for The Supper Club. For those who don't know, Dylan and I often invite silly numbers of people around for dinner and then ply them with food and liquor until they have no choice but to roll home. Often a heavy desert is the last thing anyone wants at the end of one of these things so I opted for something lighter and less sweet than a typical stodgy pud. I took a recipe for a three layer cake I had written about previously and converted it into something a lot lower maintenance. 

The sponge is lightly spiced with grated courgette and a hint of lemon. It is delicious but it it is the icing that is the real game changer. Instead of using cream cheese I used a small packet of goats cheese and mixed it in with the butter and icing sugar instead. It is very similar to feta but less salty and offers a unique tang to the icing, again helping to break up the sweetness. Vegetables and goats cheese in a cake sound rather weird but trust me, it's the tits. 

I used a Texan sized muffin tin. Two of them to be exact. The trick to these being fool-proof is butter. All the butter. Get good knobs of softened butter in your fingers and smear it all about, don't be shy. Cut squares of baking paper to place at the bottom of each hole as well otherwise the bases will be a lost cause regardless of how much dairy fat you smother on. Not so much butter that you've got great big yellow streaks but enough so that the sides of the pan are super glossy. Do this even if you've got a so called non-stick muffin tin for extra safety. 

Forage around for decorative flowers and foliage. Just be sure to google the flowers and greens first if you're not too sure if they're edible. It would be somewhat of a faux pas if you managed to give every cake recipient a crook belly. I used wee sprigs of thyme, some violas and dianthus for these ones here. 

 

Lemon Courgette Cakes with Lemon Goat's Cheese Icing

Adapted from Layered by Tessa Huff.

Makes 12 small cakes

(For the three x 20cm layer cake version click here)

 

For the cakes:

315g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
150ml sunflower oil
300g white sugar
Zest of 2 regular sized lemons
3 large eggs
350g fresh courgette, grated, then moisture removed by squeezing in a tea towel a couple of times
3 (45ml) tablespoons of milk
Juice of ½ a regular sized lemon

 

For the lemon goat’s cheese icing:

115g plain goats cheese (unsalted and ash free)
115g salted butter, softened
300g icing sugar
A squeeze of lemon to bring to desired consistency
 

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius on bake. Grease and line 12 holes worth of Texan muffin pan (see notes above re greasing these).

Mix together the oil, sugar and lemon zest using a standmixer or electric beater for two minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition.

Sieve in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices then slowly mix together until just combined.

Mix the milk and the lemon juice together. Next, take the freshly grated courgette, bundle it up in a clean tea towel and twist the towel, squeezing out as much moisture as you can; do this to the courgette a couple of times. Add both the courgette and the lemon-milk mix to the batter and gently mix through.

Divide the batter across the 12 pans, I used a big ice cream scoop to do this but a 1/3 cup measure will also do the trick. 

Bake for 15-17 minutes until the tops are golden brown and a skewer or sharp knife comes out just clean (but still steams up when removed). Leave to cool fully before even thinking about icing. 

To make the icing, cream together the goats cheese and the butter until smooth. Add in the icing sugar and beat a wee bit before adding in a small squeeze of lemon juice. Beat well and add the lemon juice bit by bit until you get a soft but still pipable icing (you don't want it to be sloppy).

Remove the cakes from the pan, worst case scenario carefully run a sharp knife around the edges of the pans to release the cakes. If they have developed domes on the top, take a serrated knife and level them out before placing upside down. 

Fill a piping bag fitted with a large round tip nozzle and pipe large dollops on the tops of each cake. Decorate with a sprig of greenery, a thread of lemon zest and a wee flower or two.

Best eaten the day of making. 

 

Enjoy x

Tags small cakes, Lemon cake, goats cheese, lemony courgette cake with goats cheese buttercream and lemon drizzle, courgette cake, courgette, lemon
← Banana Hazelnut Cakes with Cream Cheese Muscovado IcingChocolate Hazelnut Baci Cakes →

What do you feel like?


Want it straight from the oven? Subscribe here.

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


On my bench now: latest and greatest

Sophie Likes Cake
Bubble Friendly Eclairs (Chocolate Eclairs with Custard)
Bubble Friendly Eclairs (Chocolate Eclairs with Custard)
about 3 years ago
Lockdown Chutney: Feijoa and Date
about 4 years ago
Sweet Lemon and Thyme Marmalade
Sweet Lemon and Thyme Marmalade
about 4 years ago
Brown Butter Pear Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Icing
Brown Butter Pear Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Icing
about 5 years ago
Strawberry and Rhubarb Filled Cakelets With Not Too Sweet Mascarpone
Strawberry and Rhubarb Filled Cakelets With Not Too Sweet Mascarpone
about 5 years ago

Fresh off the feed: 

Instagram

Recipe number 40 is rather special. A week ago today Nana left this earth. To celebrate her life we all gathered in Matamata and of course there was afternoon tea. The Aunties and I all made something of hers. I was on cheesecakes. Welsh cheesecakes
Dylan and I made this @katherine_sabbath stunner yesterday to celebrate Chris’ birthday. Needless to say it went down an absolute treat 🍳🌽🍡
Apologies for the crap photos but I’d like to share the recipe for this family favourite. I’ve written about Dad’s favourite veggie casserole over on TheSupperClubKitchen.com under recipes worth sharing. It’s 90s nostalgia at
We’ve always seen making our own croissants as a pretty daunting task. I feel like there is a lot of mystique around their making that only trained experts can get their heads around. Since we had little else to do we (Dylan) decided to give ma
Proud as punch for actually completing 
@bonappetitmag’s best ever bread recipe. It only took us three days but we’re here. Having this tonight with Ima’s chicken soup. Just call me Henny Penny.
Dylan put some words together about the long lunch we cooked ourselves last weekend. You can find it over on thesupperclubkitchen.com

Twitter

  • Sophie Edmonds
    Thai Inspired Slaw Salad https://t.co/5hcHE04G4F
    Nov 16, 2015, 12:05 AM
  • Sophie Edmonds
    Praise @CriticTeArohi for finally raising all that is scary about #fitspo!
    Apr 8, 2015, 3:36 AM
  • Sophie Edmonds
    RT @JamieLowryMe: Hi @Sophie_edo! I made your banoffee cupcakes today!! Still working on my icing but they taste incredible! #thankyou http://t.co/qIg3w4tbfu
    Mar 20, 2015, 6:49 AM

Powered by Squarespace