Look, I’m as much a fan of an unorthodox cooking tip as the next person. I’ve tried pumpkin in banana bread, sour cream in chocolate cake, and miso in my sprouts – all with great results.
But while I love carrot cake (no, really, don’t get me started on the topic), I’ve always found the “courgette works in cake!” rumours a little suspicious.
Yes, I know Paul Hollywood includes the veg in his lime sponge. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, whose brownie recipe is the only one I trust, likes the ingredient in a honey and lemon loaf, too.
But I’ll confess it wasn’t until I saw my favourite celeb cook, Nigella Lawson, use it for a zesty, pistachio-topped bake that I finally gave it a go.
Why add courgette to cake?
Aside from wanting to finally clear those sad-looking courgettes from the bottom of my fridge, I became convinced they’d make my bake moister, too.
That’s because they contain a lot of water (in the recipe I used, I wasn’t even asked to drain the veg, which other chefs do to reduce moisture).
When starches like flour cook, they fill with water, swell, and eventually burst. These carbohydrates then release molecules that create a gel.
In turn, this substance binds to more water, keeping the baked item moist.
This is all part of a normal process called starch gelatinisation. And it means that when you bake cakes with high-moisture veg (including pumpkin and carrot), the crumb becomes moister.
Not only that, but courgette is quite a mild flavour, meaning it won’t override the taste of, say, 330g of sugar, a good heap of cocoa, and almost two whole dark chocolate baking bars.
So… did it work?
I’m surprised to report it did.
The resulting crumb was moist, tender, and fluffy – much more so than the coarser bite of carrot cake. I love both textures, but I reckon this finer finish was much better for the chocolate version.
And while the cocoa definitely helped to hide the shreds, I was really surprised that the vegetable became invisible after baking. If I hadn’t known it was in there, I might have spent ages wondering what that earthy hint was without ever realising it came from courgette.
Obviously, this recipe has another advantage too: it helped me to use up an ingredient I was about to throw away (because you grate the courgette in baking, it doesn’t have to be on its finest firm form to be included here).
All of which to say: try it if you’re on the fence! I was immediately converted – in fact, I think I prefer it to lots of other conventional chocolate recipes.
