Cardamom Lime Zucchini Bread

We had such a lovely Saturday morning! We took Bracken to the park, poor girl, she hasn't had any real exercise in days. Stephen took care of that, and wore her out with the Frisbee in about 20 minutes. That may not sound like very long, but when he's standing on top of a VERY steep hill, and she has to run back UP it every time... and she's a little overweight, I will admit. Then we dropped her off at home, took care of groceries, and realized - The Farmer's Market is open Saturday!!! So we went to check out what the Provo farmer's market had to offer. Not bad! Although honestly, I love you people, but how many jewelry stalls do we need?? The boys each got to pick a treat, Joe picked a cookie and little Stephen picked fresh limeade. (That's my boy!!) We split one, it was heavenly. They squeezed, mixed, and poured it all right in front of us; it was tart, tangy, ice cold, and had fresh MINT in it! I remember my mom putting mint in our lemonade every summer in Michigan. If you have never had mint in your lemon/limeade, you have not lived.

We picked up some green beans, peas, plums, and zucchini. I was SOOO excited that they had plums!! There's a cake I've been dying to try... and zucchini!! I didn't know there was such a thing as yellow zucchini. Yellow squash, sure, but not zucchini! It was so pretty I just had to get one.

 Now, I hate squash. And all of it's "friends and relations". My mom used to put squash in ANYTHING. She's one of those cooks who just can't leave a dish alone, she has to add something. This resulted in lots of awesome meals that she could never repeat, because she couldn't remember what she did, but it also ended with things like squash...in chicken noodle soup. Or squash in pasta. Or squash with rice. During a rather chunky period of my life she fed me scrambled egg whites with squash and zucchini in them. *shudder* I love you Mom!! Anyway, the point is, even though I hate squash with a passion, who doesn't like zucchini bread? Most of the time, though, it's nothing to write home about. (at least in my experience) So when I saw this recipe at The English Kitchen, I thought it had potential to be something really interesting! (I like interesting!) But it required zucchini. And there was no WAY I was going to buy some from the grocery store, that somehow defeats the purpose... in my mind... so I HAD to get zucchini from someone's garden, a roadside stand, or... The Farmer's Market! :)

Cardamom Lime Zucchini Bread (original recipe)
Printable Recipe

250g of grated courgettes (2 medium zucchini, grated)
100g caster sugar (1/2 cup)
100g butter (scant 1/2 cup)
100g runny honey (1/3 cup)
3 large free range eggs, beaten
3/4 tsp ground cardamom
the zest and juice of one unwaxed lime
325g of self raising flour (generous 2 1/2 cup)*
75g of ground almonds (3/4 cup)
3 TBS thick Greek Yogurt (or sour cream, that's what I used)

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark4. Butter a 9 inch loaf tin and line with parchment paper. Butter the paper. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Beat in the honey and the eggs. Fold in the cardamom, lime zest and lime juice. Squeeze as much liquid as you can from the courgettes and fold them into the creamed mixture along with the flour and ground almonds. Stir in the yoghurt. Spread the batter in the prepared tin, smoothing the top off.

Bake for one hour until baked all the way through and well risen. A toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean. Place (still in the tin) on a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the Icing, beat all the ingredients together until smooth. Cut the cold cake into slices and sandwich them together with some of the icing to serve. Alternately you can just spread the icing on top of the loaf and cut into slices to serve.

*Make Your Own Self Raising Flour: You can make your own self raising flour by adding 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt to every cup of plain flour.

This smelled SO good baking! I've never used cardamom before, and I wasn't sure what it would taste like... and to be honest, I'm still not sure I can describe it. The lime is very faint in this bread, which I like, I think it would fight too much with the other flavors if it was stronger. 

The zucchini adds texture, the bread is moist and light and a bit buttery... I think the cardamom reminds me of pepper and nutmeg. It isn't spicy, but it has a warmth. And it makes me think of the holidays. But this bread is all summer. I know that doesn't make sense... the important thing is, I like it a LOT!

And aren't those little yellow and green bits of zucchini pretty??

I used my own plain cream cheese frosting recipe, Stephen thinks it doesn't go with the bread, I think it is yummy but also think YOU should try the lime frosting that comes with the recipe. I'm going to turn my frosting into lime tomorrow.

You know when you find a recipe that makes you think, "Okay, I'm never making this the old way again."? To me, this is one of those recipes. And hey, you're getting your veggies, right??