Would you like to try a yummy Zucchini Lime and Pecan Cake Recipe? Hi everyone, it's Jillian here with another Delicious Bites recipe for you this month. This time last year, I asked Holly's readers for some recipe suggestions. A reader, Gillian, suggested a recipe for a courgette and lime sponge cake and I went to work in my kitchen.

I love cakes made with vegetables and nuts, so I made a zucchini, lime and pecan cake, photographed it and took it into work to be evaluated by my test audience. They loved the cake but when the time came to post the recipe, I'd mislaid it. I made my way back into the kitchen to create the recipe which I adapted from the carrot and almond cake recipe from 'Marcella's Kitchen' by Marcella Hazan. I scribbled the recipe onto the back of an envelope and stuck it to my fridge for safekeeping.

The addition of the zucchini makes this a lovely moist and nutty cake. Please don't skip drying out the grated zucchini on kitchen paper or a tea towel before adding it to the batter. I did that the first time I made the cake and the batter was very runny. There's no fat in the actual cake recipe but I couldn't help myself when it came to the icing.

I just love cream cheese icing/frosting and adding zingy lime to the mix only makes it better, in my opinion. In the first version of the cake I topped it with some lime glace icing, so if you'd like a lower fat version of the cake that also works really well. For decoration I added some toffee pecans which I found on this lovely Australian food blog, The Food Department. Here's the recipe for you - Zucchini Lime and Pecan Cake - makes one 8 inch cake...

Cake 275 g (9 oz) zucchini/courgette, grated and dried on kitchen paper 5 eggs, separated 250 g (8 oz) caster (superfine) sugar 2 limes, rind grated 250 g (8 oz) ground toasted pecans 100 g (3 1/2 oz) sponge finger crumbs or dried breadcrumbs 1 tsp baking powder 1 20 ml tbs lime juice

Icing 45 g (1 1/2 oz) unsalted butter 90 g (3 oz) cream cheese 1 tsp grated lime rind 1 1/2 cups sifted icing (confectioners) sugar 1- 2 tsp lime juice

Toffee Pecans 1/2 cup sugar 30 mls (2 tbs) water 12-18 toasted pecans

Cake Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F (conventional oven). Line the base and sides of an 8 inch round tin with baking paper. In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks, sugar and rind until light and fluffy and trebled in volume. Mix the ground pecans, the sponge finger crumbs and baking powder together in a bowl. Gently fold into the egg yolk mixture along with the lime juice and the grated zucchini. In a clean dry bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the whites through the zucchini mixture. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 50 – 60 minutes in the centre of the oven or until the cake is well risen and tests cooked when tested with a skewer. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool completely before icing. The cake will sink a little as it cools.

Icing Cream together the unsalted butter, cream cheese and grated rind until light and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and sufficient lime juice to form a soft icing. Beat for about 3 minutes. This makes sufficient icing to ice the top of an 8 inch cake.

Toffee Pecans In a small saucepan combine the sugar and water and bring the mixture to the boil. Boil steadily until the toffee turns a golden brown. Take the toffee off the heat and using a skewer coat each pecan with the toffee. Allow to cool on baking paper. Coarsely chop the pecans and use to decorate the cake with a little extra grated lime rind.

I hope you like the recipe. I'll be back again next month with another Delicious Bites post. Bye for now, Jillian

(text/images: jillian leiboff)