Chocolate and Raspberry Celebration Cake
This delicious chocolate cake is perfect for a family celebration, but so easy to bake you could have it at tea time any day. And no one would ever guess the secret hidden ingredient… courgette! The courgette helps to create an irresistible texture, whilst the tangy raspberries make a pretty pink icing that perfectly complements the chocolate sponge.
Raspberries are absolutely packed with nutritious goodness. They are full of vitamin C, potassium, folate and anti-oxidant polyphenols; so pile them high on top of the cake! Courgette has such as mild taste and is the perfect vegetable to add to cake mixture.
I have used spelt flour which is an ancient wheat that is easy to digest. You can easily make this cake gluten-free by switching the spelt flour to sorghum flour or a gluten-free flour blend.
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Chocolate and Raspberry Celebration Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Sponge
- 300 g Courgette
- 3 Eggs
- 120 ml Olive Oil (light)
- 90 ml Milk (of choice)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 225 g Light Brown Soft Sugar (or coconut sugar)
- 260 g Spelt Flour
- 60 g Cocoa Powder
- 1.5 tsp Baking Powder
Raspberry Buttercream
- 75 g Raspberries
- 125 g Butter (soft)
- 325 g Icing Sugar
To Decorate
- 100 g Raspberry
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan). Line a 23cm round, spring-form cake tin.
- Finely grate the courgettes, squeeze out excess liquid and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, olive oil, milk and vanilla extract. Add the light soft brown sugar and whisk again.
- Sift the spelt flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the mixing bowl, and fold through the batter. Add the courgettes, and fold again until well combined.
- Tip the mixture into the prepared cake tin, and bake for 40-45 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean in the middle of the cake.
- Whilst the cake bakes, make the buttercream. Begin by pressing the raspberries through a sieve into a small bowl; this should yield around 3 tablespoons of raspberry puree.
- Pop the butter into a large mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon to ensure it is soft. Sift in approximately half of the icing sugar and beat well to combine, repeating with the next half. Then add the raspberry puree and mix to create a pink buttercream. Set aside.
- Once the cake is baked, leave to cook for a few minutes in the tin, then remove and place on a cooling rack to cool fully. Once the cake it completely cold, top with the raspberry buttercream and finally decorate with the remaining raspberries.
Notes
- Gluten-free: switch Spelt flour to Doves Farm Plain Gluten-Free Flour or the Free From Fairy Gluten-Free Flour or Sorghum Flour.
- Egg-free: switch 3 eggs for flax eggs (3 tablespoons ground flax and 4.5 tablespoons warm water) and two heaped tablespoons apple puree.
- Dairy-free: The cake can be made dairy-free by using a dairy-free milk (there is already no butter in the cake recipe) and swapping the butter in the buttercream for an alternative plant-based spread such as Naturli Organic Vegan Spreadable.
- Lower-Sugar: If you need to lower the sugar in the icing try Bonraw Silver Birch Icing Sugar which is made from Xylitol
- Stores in a cake tin for up to a week without the fresh raspberries on top. Freeze before icing/decorating for up to 3 months.
We made it and we loved it !!!
Delicious, the whole family loved it