Tea and Cake

During lockdown, my very good friend Nicky @clarapeggoty on Instagram had the generous idea of making something for people to give to them once some semblance of normality had retuned. I was the fortunate recipient of a beautiful knitted tea cosy which is perfect as I have leaf tea from the B-corp Brew Tea Company so need a large teapot; the leaves are huge! Nicky and I are long-standing pals since the day of homeschooling our kids, as well as studying a couple of short courses with the Open University together. My knitting capabilities are in the foothills to Nicky’s Everest so it’s wonderful to be given handmade gifts like this:

This is my maternal grandparents’ Sadler brown teapot and holds about 8 cups, although I have a huge mug of tea first thing in the morning which is probably about 5 of my grandmother’s cups…

I wanted to make a cake of equal magnificence, but also using the courgettes which are becoming rather a chore as they always do at this time of year! I found this recipe from the National Trust for a Courgette and Lemon Cake so gave it a go. Here is the recipe – it couldn’t be easier to make:

• 200g grated courgette (I used a yellow one)
• 140g sugar
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 200g plain flour
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2tsp baking powder
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1 egg
• zest of 1 lemon

Mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Pour batter in to a 2lb loaf tin and bake at 160˚C for 45 minutes. How could that get easier??

The recipe suggests making a lemon syrup with the juice of the zested lemon and caster sugar to make a crunchy topping like a lemon drizzle cake, but I opted for a glacé icing using some beautiful fudge-coloured organic unrefined icing sugar:

Enjoy your weekend!