This courgette and apple cake is a moist, delicious loaf cake. It's not too sweet and makes a healthy snack at any time of day. Healthy courgette cake is also very easy to make, rather like a courgette (zucchini) quick bread.
What you'll love about the recipe
- Courgette and apple cake is a healthy snack. It's low in added sugar and fat-free (there's no butter or oil in the cake, although the eggs do provide a small amount of fat.) Wholemeal flour also makes the cake very nutritious.
- Only 99 calories per slice!
- With a lovely moist texture, lightly spiced healthy courgette cake is ideal for lunch boxes. It doesn't taste of courgettes like carrot cake doesn't really taste of carrots. It's great at any time of day, even as a healthy breakfast cake.
- Perfect for using up a glut of courgettes, this easy courgette bread stores well and can also be frozen. (You can also make courgette pancakes and cheesy courgette muffins!)
- Dairy free, and can also be made with gluten free flour.
Ingredients for healthy courgette cake
Courgette (zucchini). You'll need one medium courgette for this courgette and apple cake recipe. Make sure it's firm textured, you can't use overgrown courgettes or marrow for this cake as they are too watery. (Turn them into a fragrant marrow curry or marrow soup!)
Apple. This needs to be a medium sized dessert apple - the sweeter the better!
Wholemeal plain flour. If you've only got self-raising flour, just omit the baking powder. You can also use spelt flour. You can also make a gluten free courgette and apple cake with gluten free flour.
Eggs provide structure to the loaf cake. I haven't tried the recipe with an egg replacer.
Honey adds a little sweetness, although this isn't an overly sweet cake.
Cinnamon also sweetens the cake slightly. You can omit it if you prefer or use another spice such as ginger, or mixed spice.
Optional ingredients
For a little extra sweetness, you can also add sultanas to the recipe.
For extra crunch, you can also add a handful of chopped walnuts
Tip: If you're making the cake in a food processor, stir in ingredients such as sultanas and nuts by hand at the end so they don't get completely chopped up.
How to make courgette and apple cake
Grease the sides of a 1lb/450g loaf tin, and line the base with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (150 fan).
Grate the apple and courgette. There's no need to peel either, just trim away the core of the apple and trim the ends off the courgette. If you are planning to use a food processor to make the cake, you can just finely chop the apple and courgette in the processor.
Put the grated apple and courgette in a colander or sieve and press down firmly to squeeze out the excess liquid. If you prefer, you can put it in a cloth and squeeze the liquid out with your hands. There'll probably only be a tablespoon or two of liquid but it does make a difference to the recipe. I have tried making the cake without squeezing out the moisture first and it was quite damp and didn't cook through as well.
Add the drained courgette and apple to a food processor. Add the flour, baking powder, eggs, honey, cinnamon and pulse to mix. You can also just use a bowl and stir the mixture together with a spoon.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin.
Bake for 45 minutes, turning partway through if necessary to ensure the cake browns evenly.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin. Remove and store in an airtight container when completely cold.
Expert tips
- This low sugar courgette and apple cake is semi-sweet, rather like a quick bread. If you want a sweeter cake, add a couple of tablespoons of sugar to the recipe rather than extra honey so that you don't add too much liquid to the batter.
- If making a gluten-free courgette and apple cake, you can switch out 25g of the GF flour for GF oat flour for added nutrition. Or replace a couple of tablespoons of the flour with ground flaxseed.
- If you want to double the recipe, use a 2lb loaf tin (900g) and add an extra 20 minutes to the baking time.
Serving and storage
It's best to store courgette and apple loaf cake in the fridge, due to the high moisture content. It'll store for 3 or 4 days.
This healthy courgette cake is also very good for freezing. Wrap well and freeze for up to 3 months. If you prefer, you can also freeze individually wrapped slices.
Frequently asked questions
That depends on the recipe! Of course, courgettes are healthy, but they could be combined with a lot of unhealthy ingredients. This healthy courgette cake is made with wholewheat flour, no added sugar, and very low in fat.
As it's a naturally moist cake, it's best to store courgette cake in the fridge where it'll keep for up to 4 days. However, you can also freeze the cake.
Other sugar free cakes
Adding fruit to a cake is a great way to add natural sweetness and also makes for a lovely moist texture. All of these recipes low sugar cakes.
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Recipe
Courgette and Apple Cake
Equipment
- 1lb/450g loaf tin
- baking paper
Ingredients
- 200 g courgette one medium sized
- 100 g dessert apple one medium sized
- 125 g wholemeal plain flour or gluten free flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 eggs small or medium
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon optional or use preferred spice
Instructions
- Grease the sides of the loaf tin and line the base with baking paper.
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (150 fan)
- Trim the ends from the courgette and grate the flesh. Grate the apple - you can grate it directly off the core and there's no need to peel it. If you want to use a food processor for the recipe, you can use that to finely chop or grate the courgette and apple.
- Place the grated apple and courgette in a colander or sieve and squeeze it down with a potato masher. You should extract one or two tablespoons of juice which can be discarded.
- Place the squeezed courgette and apple in a bowl or food processor. Add the flour, baking powder, eggs, honey and spice and mix well.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tin. Bake for 45 minutes until golden and firm.
- Leave to cool in the tin. When fully cold, store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Notes
- As an option, you can add sultanas to the recipe.
- For extra crunch, you can also add a handful of chopped walnuts.
- If you're making the cake in a food processor, stir in ingredients such as sultanas and nuts by hand at the end so they don't get completely chopped up.
- This courgette and apple cake is semi-sweet, rather like a quick bread. If you want a sweeter cake, add a couple of tablespoons of sugar to the recipe rather than extra honey so that you don't add too much liquid to the batter.
- If making a gluten-free courgette and apple cake, you can switch out 25g of the GF flour for GF oat flour for added nutrition. Or replace a couple of tablespoons of the flour with ground flaxseed.
- If you want to double the recipe, use a 2lb loaf tin (900g) and add an extra 20 minutes to the baking time.
Nutrition
Please note nutritional information is per serving and is provided for guidance only.
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