Recipe for Chocolate courgette cake

This cake is a perfect example of how healthy food can be delicious and
nutritious. The recipe is taken from Patrick Holford and Fiona Macdonald
Joyce’s Food GLorious Food – a great cookbook of low GL recipes.
The recipe uses olive oil instead of butter or margarine, providing healthy fat;
xylitol instead of sugar (xylitol is a natural sugar replacement which has less
effect on blood sugar levels and fewer calories than sugar and is kind to
teeth); dark chocolate is a good source of antioxidants, iron and magnesium;
courgettes improve the fibre and nutrient content; and the walnuts provide
essential fats and a little protein.

Serves 10

200g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
100g xylitol (or brown sugar)
2 medium free range or organic eggs
180ml olive oil
170g good quality dark chocolate
225g courgettes
55g chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4. Line a 20cm
loose-bottomed cake tin with baking paper and grease the sides
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
Stir in the xylitol
3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs into the oil
4. Melt the chocolate over a bain marie or in the microwave
5. Grate the courgettes
6. Stir the eggs and oil into the dry ingredients, then mix in the melted
chocolate, courgettes and nuts
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 25 – 30
minutes or until the cake is well risen, firm to the touch and a skewer
comes out clean. Allow to cool before icing
For cream cheese frosting:
250g low fat cream cheese
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp of xylitol (or caster sugar)8. To make the cream cheese frosting, mix together the cream cheese,
vanilla extract and xylitol until smooth and spread on the cake. Store in
an airtight container in the fridge.
9. Enjoy!