IT’S EASTER let’s bake!
With a few simple swaps, it’s easy to make baking better for you, says healthy’s food expert Rebecca Seal. From secret ingredients, like chickpeas and courgette, to alternative flours, there are plenty of ways to have your cake and eat it, too
THE REAL FOODIE
Studded with nuts and packed with courgette, this choccie cake contains plenty of dietary fibre
Chocolate courgette Easter cake
Like most of us, I find chocolate almost irresistible at this time of year. But rather than gorging on high-fat, high-sugar Easter eggs, I like to make things like this, which is halfway between a brownie and a traditional chocolate cake. It is unashamedly luxurious but, for a cake it’s relatively low in sugar. Chocolate with a high cocoa content (70 per cent or more) is rich in antioxidants and minerals. Avoid dark chocolate sweetened with xylitol, though, I find it lends a strange texture to baked goods. Using dates, almonds and seeds in the truffle-style mini eggs adds a little more goodness, as does swapping the traditional cream in the ganache for coconut cream. You can tailor this cake to your own needs. For a show-stopper, make the date truffles, cover in melted chocolate and cacao, or gold, silver or white lustre, to pop in the chocolate nests and drench the cake in the ganache, as we have here. Or, for something simpler, leave the cakes un-decorated and cut into small pieces, like a brownie; later in the year, use the ganache, and leave out the nests.
Makes 1 cake, around 12 slices
450g or 2 medium courgettes, trimmed and finely grated
250g butter, at room temperature