Courgette Cake

Courgettes in a cake sounds bizarre, until you think of carrot cake. This is very much in that style, with orange peel and spices giving it a particularly good flavour. Like most cakes of this type it is well tempered: people cutting down on fat could use half the quantity of oil. For those who prefer to go the whole hog, an icing of cream cheese, sweetened with icing sugar and vanilla, would gild the lily.

225 ml (8 oz) caster sugar

175 g (6 oz) soft brown sugar

350 g (12 oz) plain flour

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp salt

225 ml (8 fl oz) sunflower or corn oil

1 tbsp vanilla essence

3 eggs

225 ml (8 oz) courgettes, grated

200 g (7 oz) raisins

100 g (4 oz) chopped walnuts

1 tbsp grated orange rind

1. Sieve the first nine ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix well.

2. Pour in the oil, add the vanilla essence and break in the eggs. Beat all together until well blended.

3. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Pour into a 33 x 23 cm (13 x 9 inch) cake tin.

4. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes at Gas 4 (180C) 350F. Cool in the tin on a wire rack.