Hazelnut and Courgette Fruitcakes

This recipe contains ingredients better suited to Autumn - courgettes, apples, hazelnuts, spices and dried fruit - but I was looking for something to use up excess courgettes without using citrus flavours, which have dominated my baking recently.

The recipe comes from the revamped Good Food site, and all I did differently was to bake the mixture in two 1lb loaf tins, rather than a 8" round cake tin. I also squeezed out some of the moisture from the grated courgette and apple. For the dried fruit, I used a mixture containing raisins, apricots, pineapple and papaya. After tasting, I realised the tropical fruits were a mistake and I should have stuck to fruits more in keeping with the other flavours from more temperate regions  - dried pears, peaches or cranberries would have been better additions to vine fruits and apricots.

The cake was very moist and quite dark in colour - I think it might have been better made with white caster sugar rather than  light muscovado, as more of the colour from the courgettes might have shown through. As it was there were only occasional flecks of green to be seen.

Although the cake, as I made it, wasn't quite to my taste, with a little tweaking and a better choice of dried fruit, I'm sure it would make a good cake for colder afternoons in front of the fire.