'5 A Day' Cake

This is basically a banana cake with a whole lot of extras added.  I decided to use up as many items as I could in one cake, the result was delicious, thank goodness!  I used two of the carrots in our Wonky Veg Box in this cake, along with a large courgette from our veg draw in the fridge which needed using up, and 4 spotty over ripe bananas from our fruit bowl.  I decided to add some dried fruit as we had various part packets that were leftover from Christmas and I wanted to use them up too.  

This cake was a definite hit with my family and it was a welcome treat in lunchboxes for a couple of days.  I'm sure there must be at least a couple of your 'five a day' in this cake as it is packed with fruit and vegetables.  I was wondering what to call this scrumptious creation when my 9yo declared it to be "5 A Day Cake!" and who am I to argue.

'5 A Day' Cake

150g grated courgette
150g grated carrot or sweet potato
225g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g caster sugar
75g sultanas
75g dried cranberries
75g dried apricots, finely chopped
3 medium free range eggs
300g mashed banana, use over-ripe ones if you can
150ml oil

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas Mark 6.  Grease and line a 23cm/9 inch round springform cake tin.  

Squeeze as much moisture out of the grated courgette as you can using your hands.  Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb into a bowl.  Mix in the sugar and dried fruits.  Add the eggs, mashed banana and oil to the dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Add the grated courgette and carrot then beat the mixture for a minute or so until the vegetables are evenly distributed through the cake batter.

Pour the batter into your prepared cake tin.  Bake for an hour then check if the cake is done by inserting a skewer into the centre, it should come out clean.  If not, turn the oven down to 180C/160C Fan/Gas Mark 4 and bake for a further 10 - 15 minutes.  Test again with the skewer.  When the cake is cooked through, remove from the oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.  

I am entering this delicious cake into Credit Crunch Munch, created by Helen and Camilla, hosted this month by Travels for Taste.

I'm also entering this cake into Extra Veg, the blog challenge created by myself and Helen to encourage us all to eat extra portions of vegetables.  Helen is hosting this month.