Mary Berry Chocolate Courgette Cake Recipe

If you’ve ever grown courgettes in your garden, you’ll know that by late summer you’re basically drowning in them. Mary Berry’s chocolate courgette cake is, without question, the most delicious solution to that problem. I served this at a family gathering without telling anyone what was in it, and every single person asked for the recipe. The courgette revelation at the end went down a treat.

What Is Mary Berry’s Chocolate Courgette Cake?

Mary Berry’s chocolate courgette cake is a deeply rich, impossibly moist chocolate sponge made with grated courgette folded through the batter. The courgette doesn’t add any vegetable flavour; what it does add is extraordinary moisture and a tender, almost fudgy crumb that a standard chocolate cake simply can’t match. It’s one of those recipes where the “secret ingredient” genuinely earns its place.

Think of it as chocolate cake’s more interesting, better-textured cousin. And yes, it absolutely counts as one of your five a day. (It doesn’t. But let’s not ruin the fun.)

Ingredients You’ll Need

For the Cake

• 250g (9oz) courgette, coarsely grated (approximately 2 medium courgettes)
• 200g (7oz) plain flour
• 50g (2oz) good-quality cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 200g (7oz) caster sugar
• 150ml (5fl oz) sunflower oil (not butter, oil is key for moisture here)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g (3½oz) dark chocolate chips

For the Chocolate Ganache Topping

• 150g (5oz) dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 150ml (5fl oz) double cream
• 1 tbsp golden syrup for shine and that glossy finish

FYI, use oil, not melted butter, in this batter. Butter solidifies when cold and can make the crumb denser. Oil keeps the cake moist and tender at any temperature, which is exactly what you want in a cake packed with grated vegetables.

How to Make Mary Berry’s Chocolate Courgette Cake

Step 1: Prepare the Courgette

Coarsely grate the courgettes’ skin on, no need to peel. Once grated, place them in a clean tea towel and squeeze out the excess moisture firmly. You’ll be surprised how much liquid comes out. Too much water in the batter will prevent the cake from setting properly and leave you with a sunken, gummy centre. Squeeze, and then squeeze again for good measure.

Step 2: Mix the Dry Ingredients

Preheat your oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / Gas 4. Grease and line a 23cm (9-inch) round deep cake tin with baking parchment. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt. Whisk briefly to combine and set aside.

Step 3: Mix the Wet Ingredients

In a separate large bowl, whisk together the caster sugar, sunflower oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth and well combined, about 1 minute with an electric whisk. Don’t skip this step. Properly combining the wet ingredients before adding the dry ones gives you a more even, consistent crumb throughout the finished cake.

Step 4: Bring It All Together

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold together with a spatula until just combined. A few streaks of flour are fine at this stage, but overmixing develops the gluten and makes the cake tough. Fold in the squeezed courgette and chocolate chips, distributing them evenly through the batter.

Pour into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Bake for 45–50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs attached.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before adding the ganache.

Step 5: Make the Chocolate Ganache

Place the finely chopped dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the double cream and golden syrup together in a small saucepan until it just begins to steam. Don’t let it boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and leave it undisturbed for 2 minutes. Then stir from the centre outwards in small, gentle circles until the ganache is completely smooth, glossy, and irresistible.

Leave the ganache to cool for 10–15 minutes until it thickens to a pourable but not runny consistency. Pour it over the cooled cake and use a palette knife to spread it right to the edges, letting it drip naturally down the sides for that effortlessly elegant finish.

Tips for the Best Chocolate Courgette Cake

• Coarsely grate, don’t finely grate. Fine grating makes the courgette almost invisible in the batter, which is fine for texture but means you lose those subtle flecks of green that look beautiful in each slice.
• Use good-quality cocoa. This is a deeply chocolate cake; the cocoa flavour carries the whole thing. A decent Dutch-process cocoa makes a noticeable difference over a basic supermarket version.
• Dark chocolate chips work best. Milk chocolate chips can make the overall cake too sweet and cloying alongside the ganache topping. Stick with 70% dark chocolate for balance.
• Storage: Keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. The ganache keeps the top sealed, and the cake stays remarkably moist. IMO, it actually tastes even better on day two.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you taste the courgette in the cake? Not at all, and I say this as someone who tested this theory rigorously on unsuspecting family members. The courgette completely disappears into the batter flavour-wise, leaving only moisture and texture behind.

Can I use frozen courgette? Yes, but thaw it completely and squeeze out every drop of water before using. Frozen courgette holds significantly more moisture than fresh ones. Skip the squeezing step, and you’ll end up with a very sad, soggy cake.

Can I make this cake in a traybake tin? Absolutely. Pour the batter into a lined 30x23cm traybake tin and reduce the baking time to 30–35 minutes. It works brilliantly as a traybake and cuts into neat squares for easy serving.

Final Thoughts

Mary Berry’s chocolate courgette cake is one of those rare recipes that genuinely surprises people both in how easy it is to make and how extraordinarily good it tastes. The courgette does its quiet, unassuming job in the background while the chocolate, ganache, and that impossibly moist crumb take all the credit.

Bake it once, and it’ll become your go-to chocolate cake. And if you grow courgettes? You’ve just solved your annual abundance problem in the most delicious way possible.