It’s hard to resist the finger-lickingly ooziness of this cake’s creamy zingy icing. But, because I was baking this recipe for a village fete, I had to! I was trying a new recipe in a bid to use up a glut of courgettes and discovered the following on the Woman & Home website. Having worked there for a few years, I know how excellent w&h food editor Jane Curran’s taste in recipes is so had no worries about serving this one to the public, despite making it for the first time. You can’t really taste the courgette – it simply gives the cake a wonderful moistness and delicate greenish hue.

You will need

For the cake:

135ml sunflower oil

200g caster sugar

3 large eggs

300g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

1 tsp baking powder

335g courgette, finely grated

grated zest of 2 limes

For the icing:

200g full-fat  cream cheese

100g icing sugar

grated zest and juice of 1 lime

1. Beat the oil, sugar and eggs together in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, until light and fluffy. Sift in the flour, bicarbonate of sofa and baking powder and fold into the mixture, then add the courgette and lime zest.

2. Pour into a lined cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes in an oven preheated to 160C. Remove from the oven, leave to cool in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack.

3. To make the icing, beat the cream cheese and icing sugar together until smooth. Stir in the lime zest and juice. Smooth over the cake and decorate with courgette ribbons, if you’re feeling fancy, then serve!

(Taken from Three Sisters Bake by Gillian, Nichola and Linsey Reith)