Zucchini Lime Cake

• soft light‑brown sugar↗200g g
• vegetable or sunflower oil200ml ml

  plus extra for greasing the pan

• eggs↗4
• self‑raising flour↗175g g
• baking powder↗½ tsp tsp
• shelled pistachios↗75g g

  ground

• medium zucchini↗1

  (about 150 g), grated

• limes↗2

  zest and juice

• soft cheese↗275g g
• powdered sugar↗100g g
• lime↗1

  zest and juice

• shelled pistachios↗25g g

  coarsely chopped

Step-by-step instructions

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C with convection/gas 4. Grease a 900 g loaf pan with oil and line it with parchment. In a large bowl combine the sugar, oil and eggs, mixing well. Gently fold in the flour, baking powder and ground pistachios. Squeeze as much moisture as possible from the grated zucchini by hand (don’t worry about extracting every drop), then add it to the bowl together with lime zest and half the juice, and mix.

2. 2

   Bake for 40‑50 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Check the cake after 30 minutes – if it’s too browned, cover with foil for the remaining baking time. Let it cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then transfer to a rack, pierce the top with a few skewer holes and drizzle with the remaining lime juice. Allow it to cool completely. After cooling it can be frozen for up to a month. Fully thaw before serving and decorating.

3. 3

   For the cream, place the soft cheese in a bowl, sift the powdered sugar, add lime juice and mix. Spread the resulting mixture over the top of the cooled cake, then sprinkle with chopped pistachios and lime zest. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to three days.