Recipe: Coconut, courgette and rosewater cakes

Coconut courgette and rosewater cakes. Photo / Babiche Martens

Makes 12

2 eggs
150g caster sugar
250g courgettes, topped and tailed then grated
1 Tbs rosewater
50g desiccated coconut
50g ground almonds
100g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Icing
160g icing sugar, sifted
2 Tbs water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 egg white
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coconut extract
A few drops of red food colouring

1 Preheat oven to 170C. Grease a 12 hole muffing tray or line with paper cases.

2 Beat the eggs and sugar together until pale. Fold in the courgette and rosewater.

3 Fold in the coconut and ground almonds. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and fold into the mixture giving a final stir to ensure all ingredients are combined. Spoon into tins, leaving 1/2 a centimetre at the top to allow for rising. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until the tops spring back when gently pressed.

4 To make the icing ; place the ingredients except for the food colouring, into a bowl and sit over a saucepan of boiling water. Stir to dissolve the sugar, which takes about two minutes.

5 When the mixture is warm, remove the bowl and beat with electric beaters until cool and peaks have formed. This step will take approximately 8 minutes. When the peaks have formed, add a little food colouring. Either pipe or spoon the icing on to the cold cakes in a swirling pattern.