Specials Board: Courgette & Chocolate Brownie Cakes

Courgette & Chocolate Brownie Cakes & Vegan Mofo Day 3

My courgette plants are still producing fruits, in all I have 3 different varieties, pattypan squash, eight ball courgette and courgette Atena Polka F1. The most productive have been the pattypan squash but a close second is the eight ball courgette, pictured below.

Eight Ball Courgette

This one was huge and I only used half of it for this recipe! When they get this big they do have a cavity like a winter squash where the seeds are growing. I normally scoop them out when the courgettes are this big! You can dry out the seeds and try planting them next year!

Now, I love courgettes, but when you have so many, you need to be creative on how you eat them. One can only eat so much ratatouille! Shaheen over at Allotment2Kitchen made a gorgeous looking chocolate and courgette loaf cake, (which I need to bake soon) but today I fancied something a little different. I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted brownies or cupcakes so my recipe is somewhere in between, hence the name!

I'd still got a packet of unopened coconut sugar in my cupboards which was included in a past vegan kind box. I'd been meaning to try it for ages so I thought this might be the perfect opportunity.

Ingredients 

250g Plain flour

50g Cocoa powder

1 Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1 Tsp Baking powder

½ Tsp Salt

165g Coconut sugar

80ml Light olive oil

250ml Soy yoghurt

1 Tsp Vanilla Paste

315g Courgette, grated

100g chocolate chips

Method

Set your oven to a moderate heat, as a regular reader you will know that I have 'cleaned' off my  oven temperatures from around my oven knob! 

Sieve the first 5 ingredients into a bowl and add the coconut sugar. 

In a separate bowl add the soy yoghurt and olive oil and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla paste and whisk again, then add the grated courgette and mix. 

Tip the wet ingredients into the dry.

Give everything a good stir until all the dry ingredients have been mixed into the wet ingredients. Add the chocolate chips and stir through so they are evenly distributed.

Pour the batter into cup cake cases and fill to two thirds up. I use silicone cake cases as they are easy to remove after baking. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until you insert a skewer into a cake and it comes out clean. The tops should spring back too if you press them lightly.

Leave the brownie cakes to cool in the cases before removing, especially if you have used paper cupcake cases.

Enjoy! Now I have a freezer, I like mine served with a dollop of vegan vanilla ice cream and some melted chocolate drizzled over. Naughty but nice!