This cucumber lemon cake takes refreshing summery flavours and turns them into cake! The cucumber flavour is very subtle and is complimented well by the elderflower icing.
Cucumbers. Such a refreshing and summery vegetable. My mum used to grow great big ones as long as my arm in the garden when I was little so we had an endless supply of pickled gherkins and cucumber sandwiches. I still absolutely love a cucumber sandwich - a little mayo, some salt and American mustard - ideally on toasted bread. Controversial, I know.
I wanted to make something refreshing with this light veggie, so I thought I'd come up with a recipe to pair it with lemon and elderflower - like a summery cold drink in cake form. This is a lemon sponge with a refreshing hint of cucumber. Don't fear the added vegetable!
I didn't get myself organised enough this year to make my own batch of elderflower cordial, but I was very lucky to be given a bottle from a friend. You can buy it in the shops, or during elderflower season here is a lovely recipe for elderflower cordial from The Hedgecombers.
If you can't get hold of elderflower cordial for this recipe, you could just add some lemon juice instead or try my gin icing or Elizabeth Kitchen Diary's lime buttercream.
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Cucumber and Lemon Cake with Elderflower Icing Recipe
Ingredients
- 200 g cucumber about half a cucumber
- Zest and juice of half a lemon
- 115 g butter softened
- 150 g granulated sugar
- 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 150 g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
For the Elderflower Icing:
- 75 g butter softened
- 150 g icing sugar (confectioner's)
- 1 tablespoon elderflower cordial or lemon juice if elderflower isn't available
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170C/325F. Lightly grease 2 x 7in sandwich tins or a 9inch round cake tin.
- Leave the skin on the cucumber and de-seed it by cutting it in half lengthways and scraping the seeds out with a teaspoon. Cut into chunks and puree until smooth. Stir in the lemon juice.
- Cream the butter, lemon zest, sugar and vanilla together for a few minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating each one in well.
- Stir in ⅓ of the flour, then add ⅓ of the cucumber and continue until it is all combined.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes. Allow to cool slightly in the tin and turn out on a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
For the Elderflower Icing:
- Beat the butter, icing sugar and cordial (or lemon juice) together until smooth and fluffy. Keep in the fridge until ready to ice the cake.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is approximate and can vary depending on several factors, so is not guaranteed to be accurate. Please see a registered dietician for special diet advice.
Sapna
Made this cake and we couldnt wait to do the icing on it, we just had it as is. Loved the texuture of the cake and the beautiful pale green colour. I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour and still the cake was moist n fluffy! Will soon try this with lime/lemon icing, but for now the cake was a part of my weekend baking and it disappeared very quickly too.
Susanne
Hi Kate,
I've made this cake twice now as we have had a glut of cucumbers and I needed a couple of sweeter options to use them up in. We have this cake naked (no icing) but I'm sure I will dress it up if I bake it for a special occasion.
On the second go, I drained a little of the cucumber juice before adding the lemon juice which allowed for a lighter crumb texture. I also used the rind of one lemon since we're big fans of lemon cake here too.
It's a delicous recipe that I've saved to use many more times. Thank you very much for sharing.
Marion
Found this whilst looking for unusual cake flavours.
It made a lovely, light cake with a beautiful pale green colour.
The flavour was delightful, just a hint of something you wouldn't quite identify if you didn't know what it was.
Thank you for your recipe.
Maria
I saw this on pinterest and made it at the weekend. Everyone loved it! It was easy to make and such a great colour. Thank you.
Maureen
I had so many cucumbers from a farm share a few years ago, I googled "cucumber cake" thinking it MUST be a thing...and lo and behold! I made this for a work luncheon and my colleagues were incredulous! it's such a lovely light cake, utterly refreshing and so pretty to boot. I didn't have self rising flour in the house (Northerners in the US don't use it much) but Nigella helped me figure out the measurements; I've since bought self rising merely to make this cake.
Ella T
This sounds delicious. I am thinking of making it for my great Aunt for her 92nd birthday! She asked for a cake with lemon curd do you think you could add this in between the layers with the frosting?
Kate Hackworthy
I'm sure that would be lovely!
Sorin Vlad
Dear Kate, I think I am already a fan of your recipes. I have tried this one too and the result has been fantastic. It has been a cake made for my girlfriend birthday and it has been a success. I have changed a little bit the frosting using whipping cream with lemon juice and a few drops of orange flower water. Thank you for your wonderful idea. Your Romanian fan.
Kate Hackworthy
How lovely! Thank you for coming back to comment and your kind words. I hope your girlfriend had a happy birthday! 🙂
Erika C
Hi! I tried this last night, split the batter between two 8" -ish pans, but neither of them actually rose. I think I know what I did wrong, so I'm trying it again tonight in just the one pan. The very thin sponge stuck to the pans, so I scooped it all out into one to throw it away, and was talking to my mom on the phone, telling her about it all, and the whole time I was talking I was eating the pieces of sponge. Didn't even get to the icing. The flavor of the cake was really, really good, though. I've never used self-rising flour before, and I wonder if there just wasn't enough by my measurement. My garden is prodicing a lot of cukes right now, so I have some to spare to try again. Thank you for the delicious recipe - I'll get it eventually. 🙂
Erika C
So the night before last I used the cup measurements, and last night I used the weight measurements. Completely different cake. Lots more flour in the weight measurements, for one, though it still didn't rise very much. It is really, REALLY good!
Kate Hackworthy
How odd, Erika. Thanks for letting me know and I'll double check my measurement conversions. I'm glad you liked it anyway and sorry you had to make it twice. I've had lots of people let me know that they've made this but I'll check the conversions. 🙂
Maureen
This cake is lovely! I made it recently, in my desperation to use up an unexpectedly large farm share take one week...4 lbs of cucumbers were more than my boyfriend and I could eat in salad. I don't know what possessed me to search for cucumber cake online, but I found you recipe and gave it a try! Because I don't have a kitchen scale, I had to wing it a bit on how much cucumber I needed (a google search finally led me to a calculation of ~1.3c of chopped cuke = 200g, which worked perfectly.) I didn't have any elderflower liqueur in the house (I thought I had some St. Germaine, alas, no), so I just used lemon juice. I served it to my colleagues at work, and they loved it! in fact a number of them went back for another slice.
Kate Hackworthy
I'm so glad that you all liked the cake! 🙂
Kate Veggie Desserts
Hi Karin, I don't use rice syrup or hemp flours so I'm not sure how you would best substitute them. Perhaps it would be easier if you already have a rice syrup/hemp flour cake recipe to add in the cucumber and lemon flavors to that?
Hope that works!
Karin Alton
I should say, I don't mind too much the odd spoonful, it's just the 150g of sugar, I am trying to avoid. Also not so good with wheat, might try it with another type of flour, any suggestions? Buckwheat, Hemp, maybe?
Karin Alton
Hiya
Your food/recipes look divine! However, I am trying to cut sugar out all together, is there anything else I could use instead, say rice syrup? How much would I need to use in place of the sugar do you think?
Many thanks!
Maretta
I made this today - yum! But because elderflower isn't easy to come by in Australia, I added lemon juice and ground lemon myrtle leaves (Australian native and in our garden) to the icing - turned out really well! Loving reading your website - a wonderful resource. 🙂
Kate Veggie Desserts
Thanks for letting me know about it, Maretta! It's so nice to hear how my recipes turn out for others. Your substitution sounds great and it is so nice that you could use something from your garden. 🙂 🙂
mummymakescakes
The combination of flavours sounds lovely 🙂
Kate Veggie Desserts
Thanks, it's unusual but works. 🙂
HELEN
that looks amazing...and a great colour too! thanks for joining in with Great Bloggers Bake Off!
Kate Veggie Desserts
Thanks Helen, I'm glad to be able to join in!
Jennifer
This is really original, I have never heard of cucumber being used in baking before so had to try it! It was absolutely delicious 🙂
Kate Veggie Desserts
Thanks Aimee. It was a gamble, but I thought that since it works in drinks it may work in cake - and it did! It is just a subtle taste that matches the lemon. 🙂
Aimee / Wallflower Girl
I think it's really ingenious to use cucumber in baking and the elderflower frosting sounds divine (elderflower is one of my favourite flavours!)
jenny paulin
wow what a great coloured sponge the cucumber makes. i will def have to give this a go at some point! thank you for linking up x
Kate Veggie Desserts
Thanks for running the challenge, Jenny!
Kate Veggie Desserts
It is lovely, mjskit. The cucumber is subtle but refreshing. A different spin on a traditional lemon cake. I hope you get the chance to try it!
mjskit
What a very unusual cake! Even though it's made with vegetables, it sure looks delicious!
Kate Veggie Desserts
Thanks Javelin, I hope to enter more of your blog challenges in the future!
Hi Sam, the more I experiment, the more I seem to find things to do with cucumber. Today I'm testing out a cucumber puree-based G&T jelly.
Sam Bilton
I think cucumber is under utilised as a vegetable. This is such a brilliant idea. Well done!
Javelin Warrior
I love the sound of this cake and I'm so intrigued by the use of cucumber! And the elderflower in the frosting sounds delicious... Thank you so much for sharing with Made with Love Mondays and welcome to the series!
Kate Veggie Desserts
Thanks Anneli. I love your blog and it's nice to be a part of the challenge. I hope you get a chance to try out this recipe some time!
Anneli (Delicieux)
Oh my, that is so clever! What a fabulous idea and what a stunning green cake! I just LOVE this . Really original. I am super impressed. Thanks so much for entering this into Four Seasons Food 🙂 x