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Lemon and Cucumber Cake with Gin Icing

Name: Lemon and Cucumber Cake with Gin Icing
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 200 g cucumber ((about half an English cucumber)); Zest and juice of half a lemon; 2/3 cup (150g) butter (, softened); 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar; 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract; 2 eggs; 1 3/4 cups (200g) plain (all purpose) flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/3 cup (75g) butter, softened; 1 1/2 cups (200g) powdered icing sugar ((confectioner's sugar)); 1 tablespoon gin (or substitute lemon juice)

Published: Apr 29, 2016 · Modified: Feb 18, 2020 by Kate Hackworthy · 29 Comments

Cucumber Cake! This delicate green cucumber cake tastes like a lemon sponge with a subtle, refreshing flavour from the cucumber. It’s a summery cake and I’ve topped it with a gin icing. The gin gives light botanical flavours to the sweet icing to compliment the lemon and cucumber in the cake.

Cucumber Cake

Cucumber works fantastically well in cake. I should know, I’ve tried soooo many vegetable cakes for this blog!

Cucumber lends a cool and refreshing subtle flavour to the lemony sponge in this cake. You can just about taste it, but if you weren’t looking for a cucumber flavour, you probably couldn’t quite place it.

It’s overpowered by the lemon, but it’s there in the background. Cucumber makes it delicately green and beautifully moist.

Gin Icing

Gin icing is a dream. Choose your favourite gin to get all of those lovely botanical flavours shining through the sweet icing.

Strictly for grown ups, it works very well with the cucumber cake.

A Cucumber Cake to celebrate the blog’s 3rd birthday

My, how time flies. My blog has now turned three. A mere toddler, but at the same time all grown up. It can walk and it can talk, though it has many miles yet to run.

Happy birthday to my little space on the internet. You are more than my shadow, more than my heart, you are me.

Three years ago I was crushed by redundancy, like an anvil dropped on a cartoon me. But inspired by vegetables, I sat down at the computer and started a blog.

My hobby for creating desserts with vegetables was suddenly thrust out into the big wide (virtual) world. I had no plans for it, I just needed something to do. A project, a distraction.

Veggie Desserts

Three years later and this is my job. I’ve had the opportunity to develop recipes (like this awesome cucumber cake), create recipes for some fantastic brands and to try some amazing products.

There was a weekend in Paris, trips around the UK and I’m blogging at a festival in a few months. I’ve made new friends and bonded with souls that I’ve never met. This new community picked me up and dusted me off, and they don’t even know it.

A huge highlight has been writing a monthly national magazine column about reducing food waste. I’ve been writing it for nearly a year now and I love opening my copy every month and seeing my work in print.

Baking

Those years ago, when I curled up and felt worthless, redundant and lost, I stared at the fork in the road, turned instead and went to the kitchen for a wooden spoon.

With kids at my feet I baked, blogged and poured my heart onto my keyboard time and again.

And then people started to read it. Honestly, that astounded me.

They baked my vegetable desserts, emailed me their results, asked me questions. Suddenly I wasn’t alone, blogging merrily. You are all here with me. It’s a party. Bring gin. Use it for a cucumber cake.

Vegetable Cake

I forget about you all most days. I write and blog and forget that you’re all there. But then you write to me, comment, like and share.

You bake my kale cake and do crazy things with cauliflower. The legendary Nigella has even mentioned me. It all really does mean so much to me.

So thank you. Thank you for listening, reading, baking and commenting. Thanks for coming back to my site and making it possible for me to still do this. You’re making me misty. Ahem. It’s just a little something in my eye. *sniffle*.

Now, let’s get drunk on a salad cake, shall we? Let’s top it with gin and dance.

Thanks for checking out my recipe! I love hearing from my readers; you all allow me to do what I love and write this UK food blog, sharing vegetarian and vegan recipes, vegetable cake recipes and also easy vegan desserts.
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Get the Cucumber Cake Recipe with Gin Frosting

Thanks for checking out my recipe! I love hearing from my readers. You all allow me to do what I love and write this UK food blog, sharing vegetarian and vegan recipes, vegetable cake recipes and also easy vegan desserts.
Kate x