Vegan chocolate macadamia cake with blackberries

This evening we cooked dinner for six, including a friend who is vegan.  I decided to turn my chocolate courgette brownies recipe into something a bit more sophisticated - made with macadamia nuts instead of walnuts, a little coffee essence and baked it in a round cake tin.  I topped it with a mound of fresh blackberries, dusted with cocoa. Telling people once they've eaten the cake that it contains courgettes is great fun to watch - especially our friend Jon who refuses to eat vegetables. No-one would be able to guess, but their inclusion means this is really moist and magic!

Ingredients

4 fl oz (½ cup) vegetable oil

10 oz sugar

2 tsp Camp coffee essence

8 oz self-raising flour

3 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

8 oz courgettes, peeled and grated

2 oz macadamia nuts, chopped

To decorate

4 oz blackberries

2 tbsp cocoa powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and line a 9 inch round cake tin.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar and coffee essence.
3. Sift in the flour, cocoa and salt and fold together to combine.
4. Fold in the grated courgette and macadamia nuts.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 25 minutes.
6. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. 
7. Once cool, top with fresh blackberries and dust with sifted cocoa powder.