• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Veggie Desserts
  • Home
  • Recipe Index
  • Vegan Recipes
    • Vegan Cake and Desserts
    • Vegan Dinner
    • Vegan Breakfast
    • Vegan Guides
  • Cookbook
    • About My Cookbook
    • Buy Veggie Desserts + Cakes
  • About Me
    • About Me
    • Contact
    • Work With Me
    • Press
    • Newsletter
  • Subscribe
  • Instagram Posts
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Tumblr
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Recipes
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • About Me
  • Cookbook
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Recipes
    • Subscribe
    • Contact
    • About Me
    • Cookbook
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • Γ—

    Home Β» Recipes Β» Vegetable Desserts

    Lemon and Cucumber Cake with Elderflower Icing

    Published: Aug 19, 2013 Β· Modified: Feb 15, 2022 by Kate Hackworthy Β· This post may contain affiliate links Β·

    Jump to Recipe

    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.

    A piece of cake on a plate, with cucumber slices.
    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.

    Get the Cucumber Cake Recipe

    If you make this cucumber cake recipe, please tag it with #veggiedesserts on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. I LOVE seeing your recreations of my recipes!

    Also, pop down to the comment and let me know how you got on with the recipe. It’s always great to hear from my readers. Your support allows me write this UK food blog and bring you vegetable cake recipes as well as vegan desserts, plus savoury vegetarian and vegan recipes and breakfasts and drinks.

    If you like vegetable cakes, my cookbook, Veggie Desserts and Cakes, is now available on Amazon (UK, Canada, USA, Australia and more) - affiliate link

    A piece of cake on a plate, with cucumber slices.

    Cucumber and Lemon Cake with Elderflower Icing Recipe

    Kate Hackworthy | Veggie Desserts
    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.
    4.93 from 14 votes
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prevent your screen from going dark
    SaveSaved!
    Prep Time 15 mins
    Cook Time 35 mins
    Total Time 50 mins
    Course Dessert
    Cuisine British
    Servings 10
    Calories 324 kcal

    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.
      A spoon removing the middle of a cucumber.
    • 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 the flour and baking powder to together, then stir in β…“ of the flour mixture, then add β…“ 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

    If you can't find Elderflower cordial, lemon juice works nicely too!

    Nutrition

    Calories: 324kcalCarbohydrates: 42gProtein: 2gFat: 16gSaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 73mgSodium: 150mgPotassium: 136mgSugar: 30gVitamin A: 535IUVitamin C: 0.7mgCalcium: 49mgIron: 1mg

    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.

    Tried this recipe?Mention @kateveggiedesserts or tag #veggiedesserts! I love seeing your recreations.

    A spoon removing the middle of a cucumber.

    « Carrot Jam (3 ingredients)
    Beet, Chocolate and Smokey Tea Truffles »
    • Tweet
    • Share
    • Email

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Leana

      August 11, 2021 at 4:00 pm

      5 stars
      I made this for an afternoon tea to go wtih cucumber sandwiches and Pimm's. Everyone loved it!

      Reply
    2. Jelena

      July 30, 2021 at 10:13 am

      5 stars
      So unsusual but tasted very good. And green!

      Reply
    3. Sapna

      October 03, 2020 at 6:25 pm

      5 stars
      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.

      Reply
    4. Susanne

      September 17, 2020 at 12:11 pm

      4 stars
      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.

      Reply
    5. Marion

      August 19, 2018 at 9:49 am

      5 stars
      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.

      Reply
    6. Maria

      January 15, 2018 at 2:15 pm

      5 stars
      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.

      Reply
    7. Maureen

      March 08, 2017 at 2:18 pm

      5 stars
      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.

      Reply
    8. Ella T

      April 01, 2016 at 7:14 pm

      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?

      Reply
      • Kate Hackworthy

        April 03, 2016 at 2:35 pm

        I'm sure that would be lovely!

        Reply
    9. Sorin Vlad

      February 23, 2016 at 6:15 am

      5 stars
      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.

      Reply
      • Kate Hackworthy

        February 25, 2016 at 2:40 pm

        How lovely! Thank you for coming back to comment and your kind words. I hope your girlfriend had a happy birthday! πŸ™‚

        Reply
    10. Erika C

      July 29, 2014 at 9:59 pm

      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. πŸ™‚

      Reply
      • Erika C

        July 30, 2014 at 2:16 pm

        5 stars
        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!

        Reply
        • Kate Hackworthy

          July 31, 2014 at 12:44 pm

          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. πŸ™‚

          Reply
    11. Maureen

      July 18, 2014 at 9:15 pm

      5 stars
      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.

      Reply
      • Kate Hackworthy

        July 18, 2014 at 10:26 pm

        I'm so glad that you all liked the cake! πŸ™‚

        Reply
    12. Kate Veggie Desserts

      February 25, 2014 at 12:06 pm

      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!

      Reply
    13. Karin Alton

      February 24, 2014 at 11:57 pm

      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?

      Reply
    14. Karin Alton

      February 24, 2014 at 11:35 pm

      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!

      Reply
    15. Maretta

      November 21, 2013 at 5:47 am

      5 stars
      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. πŸ™‚

      Reply
      • Kate Veggie Desserts

        November 21, 2013 at 7:03 pm

        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. πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

        Reply
    16. mummymakescakes

      October 13, 2013 at 7:29 pm

      The combination of flavours sounds lovely πŸ™‚

      Reply
      • Kate Veggie Desserts

        October 14, 2013 at 9:30 am

        Thanks, it's unusual but works. πŸ™‚

        Reply
    17. HELEN

      October 13, 2013 at 5:30 pm

      that looks amazing...and a great colour too! thanks for joining in with Great Bloggers Bake Off!

      Reply
      • Kate Veggie Desserts

        October 14, 2013 at 9:30 am

        Thanks Helen, I'm glad to be able to join in!

        Reply
    18. Jennifer

      October 11, 2013 at 7:41 pm

      5 stars
      This is really original, I have never heard of cucumber being used in baking before so had to try it! It was absolutely delicious πŸ™‚

      Reply
    19. Kate Veggie Desserts

      October 11, 2013 at 3:31 pm

      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. πŸ™‚

      Reply
    20. Aimee / Wallflower Girl

      October 11, 2013 at 3:29 pm

      I think it's really ingenious to use cucumber in baking and the elderflower frosting sounds divine (elderflower is one of my favourite flavours!)

      Reply
    21. jenny paulin

      October 11, 2013 at 12:09 pm

      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

      Reply
      • Kate Veggie Desserts

        October 11, 2013 at 2:47 pm

        Thanks for running the challenge, Jenny!

        Reply
    22. Kate Veggie Desserts

      August 27, 2013 at 8:50 am

      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!

      Reply
    23. mjskit

      August 27, 2013 at 2:35 am

      What a very unusual cake! Even though it's made with vegetables, it sure looks delicious!

      Reply
    24. Kate Veggie Desserts

      August 20, 2013 at 9:09 am

      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.

      Reply
    25. Sam Bilton

      August 20, 2013 at 7:38 am

      I think cucumber is under utilised as a vegetable. This is such a brilliant idea. Well done!

      Reply
    26. Javelin Warrior

      August 19, 2013 at 8:17 pm

      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!

      Reply
    27. Kate Veggie Desserts

      August 19, 2013 at 7:04 pm

      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!

      Reply
    28. Anneli (Delicieux)

      August 19, 2013 at 1:05 pm

      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 πŸ™‚ x

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    Kate Hackworthy in the kitchen

    Hi, I'm Kate, a journalist, author and multi-award-winning food blogger. I hope you enjoy my vegetarian and vegan recipes. About Me

    Collage of press logos.

    Popular recipes

    • The BEST Easy Red Lentil Dahl
    • Easy Naan Bread Recipe (yeast-free)
    • Mini Baked Potatoes
    • Easy Lentil Soup

    Spring Recipes

    • How to Make A Fruit Platter (Fruit Tray)
    • Air Fryer Asparagus
    • Easy Strawberry Compote
    • Easy Pea Soup (4 ingredients)

    My cookbook

    Veggie Desserts and Cakes Cookbook cover.

    Check out my Veggie Desserts Cookbook, full of tasty desserts with vegetables!

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    • About me
    • Contact
    • Work with me
    • Press
    • Veggie Desserts Cookbook

    Newsletter

    • Sign Up for newsletter updates

    Disclaimers

    • Disclosures & Affiliate Policies
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Accessibility Policy

    As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright Β© 2022 Kate Hackworthy / Veggie Desserts