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!