Grainne Joughin has been busy in the kitchen all through the lockdown period, creating a range of simple-to-follow recipes that she shares on her ’Cook With G’ Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Okay, so I know courgette doesn’t sound all that celebratory but I promise you, it is!

This is such a great cake for entertaining. It’s a little bit different from the ’norm’ and I’ve honestly never had anyone say that they don’t like it.

I chose this recipe for Tynwald Day because of it’s great grassy, green colour and textures, reminiscent of sitting on the fairfield surrounded by brass bands, Manx dancing and silly string.

Also, for all you gardeners out there, pretty soon you will be inundated with huge quantities of courgettes from your vegetable plots and allotments which will need to be eaten quickly and, let’s face it, you can only eat so much ratatouille.

I hope you love it as much as I do. Enjoy!

Courgette and Lime Cake

Feeds loadsa people!

You will need 500 grams of fresh courgettes.

Four large fresh Manx eggs.

300 grams of caster sugar.

250ml of vegetable oil.

225 grams of Laxey Mills self raising flour.

The zest of one lime.

One teaspoon each of bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.

For the Lime curd, you will need:

70 grams of salted Manx butter, the juice of six limes and the zest of one lime and 75 grams of caster sugar

For the frosting, you will need:

300 grams of cream cheese, 150 grams of icing sugar, two tablespoons of cornflour and 125ml of Manx double cream, whipped.

First thing to do is to make your lime curd, so you can leave it to cool fully.

The best way to get the juice from your six limes is to warm them for 30 seconds in the microwave to yield the maximum amount of juice before giving them a good squeezing. You want roughly 120ml.

Gently melt the butter in a saucepan and then add all the other ingredients, always whisking as you go and cook until the consistency of thick custard.

Done! Told you it was dead easy!

If you find it’s a little lumpy, turn the heat down.

You can always press it through a sieve afterwards as well if you need to.

If you don’t have time, buy some lemon curd and add the zest of one lime and half the juice and you’ll get a pretty good version of a lime curd.

Then start on your cake.

First, preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

Wipe down your courgettes to get all the muck off!

Using a coarse grater, grate into a clean cloth or tea towel.

Squeeeeeeeze so you get out all of the courgette juice and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until smooth.

Add the oil and lime zest and mix again.

Give your grated courgette one last big squeeze and carefully tip into your cake mixture. Don’t drop the cloth in too!

Sift in the flour and the raising agents, and start gently folding in about a third at a time until just combined and all the flour has disappeared into the green gooey mixture.

Take two 21cm cake tins and grease with butter before lining with lining with some baking parchment.

Divide your mixture equally into both tins and pop in the oven now for 45 mins.

As I say, this cake is massive so if you want to make a small version just halve everything and reduce your cooking time to 30 mins. That should do it!

Making the frosting is easy.

Whisk your cream cheese in a bowl until just smooth and sieve in the icing sugar and cornflour and mix together.

Finally add in the whipped cream and combine until thick and smooth.

If you do find it’s too runny (it should hold its shape), mix with a hand whisk. This should thicken it further. It will also firm up in the fridge if needs be.

Now all you need to do is get building your courgette creation.

Turn the first cake upside down onto a cake plate and slather on all of your zesty lime curd. Don’t be shy!

On you go now with the other cake, this time right side up so the dome is on the top.

Finish with plenty of the frosting, making sure it is good and thick!

Stand back and admire your amazing cake building ability!

There we go folks. Job done!

A cake to share with your friends and family, fit for any celebration, especially on Tynwald Day!

Enjoy x