What to do with one giant gherkin?

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I was surprised yesterday when I found what appeared to be one giant gherkin hiding under the leaves of what I had thought was a squash-type plant. I mean it was obviously a gherkin plant, it was just that I had forgotten I’d planted any, I thought it was a squash plant. But in spring I did make an effort to use up all the packets that just had a few seeds left in them and had been hanging around for two or three years, and this must have been the result. Obviously I hadn’t noticed it before and now it was more like a small yellow rugby ball. And there weren’t any others, the plant must have put all its energy so far into producing this one giant! So it didn’t seem worth the trouble of slicing it up and pickling it. I decided I would make a cake because I knew I had a recipe for cucumber cake that I tried once before when I had a glut of cucumbers. This is the result – cucumber and lemon cake with elderflower frosting. Again I made it with gluten-free flour. As usual we had eaten almost all of it before I thought of taking a photo It was certainly unusual but it went down well! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2026.