I’m a huge fan of vegetables and I’ve always been one to stuff as many as possible into most of my meals. It goes without saying that the trend for vegetable cakes is right up my street. All of the vegetable cakes I’ve tried making have turned out really moist and delicious and you can’t even tell there’s a whole courgette, carrot or whatever it is you’re using in there, so I thought it would be a great idea to try a gluten free one. So far with my gluten free baking experiments I’ve found that the end result can be a little dry so this might be a great way to tackle that problem.
I found a chocolate courgette cake recipe online and adapted it into a more everyday bake and to suit The Boyfriend’s gluten free needs. My favourite thing about this cake is that, because it’s a chocolate cake, it feels like a naughty treat, but in reality it’s got a load of extra good stuff hidden in it. I particularly loved the addition of the pumpkin seeds which, in my opinion, took the whole bake to the next level with that extra layer of texture.
Ingredients
3 large eggs
200g caster sugar
300ml vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 grated courgette
200g gluten-free flour
1 tsp Xanthan gum
30g cocoa powder
2 tsps baking powder
1.5 tsps cinnamon
1tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
Method
- Preheat oven to 180ºC and grease and line a loaf tin.
- In a large bowl whisk the eggs together with the caster sugar, oil and vanilla.
- Stir in the grated courgette
- Using a sieve add the flour, xanthan gum, cocoa powder, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Fold all the ingredients together until fully combined.
- Tip in the chocolate chips and pumpkin seeds and stir through.
- Pour the cake mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving.
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