Parsnip cake

Vegetables in cakes: are you for or against?

There are loads of wonderful cakes made with weird ingredients: would you have thought of using tahini in a cake? And yet it works a treat in this fancy confection.

Vegetables in cakes are an age-old bone of contention. I know people who firmly believe all vegetables belong with gravy on a dinner plate. In fact, I used to be one of them, until a chance encounter with very good carrot cake converted me. Beetroot and courgettes, pumpkin and squash are widely used too and make good cakes, because the value that vegetables add is - sorry, there’s no escaping this word - moistness.

Parsnip is a significantly less common bakery ingredients than other vegetables but it is perfectly respectable. Carrot cake is hugely successful so it’s only right to give a chance to the poor cousin. Parsnip is in fact higher in sugar than carrot, so it should make a fitting baking material. And indeed it does.

How to prepare the parsnips?

Parsnips have a lower water content than carrots, so I increase the egg and oil amounts in the cake batter, to keep it moist.

The parsnips should be peeled and finely grated. If you’re proficient at carrot cakes, this will be like a classic tearoom recipe, except with pale white parsnips replacing vibrant orange carrots.

Parsnip cake batter

And it is as easy as any old carrot cake: sugar whisked with the oil – or beaten with a mixer if you want it super fluffy – then eggs added one by one. The grated parsnips can now be folded in, followed by flour enhanced with baking powder.

That’s it, folks. Scrape it into a buttered loaf tin and bake it.

Flavouring parsnip cake

That’s a more important point as parsnips, let’s be honest, add practically zero flavour. That’s why a lot of orange zest and a hefty amount of cinnamon is needed, as well as some raisins for extra interest.

If you like, make it more Christmassy-festive in fragrance, adding mixed spice and cloves.

Parsnip or carrot then?

It bakes into a handsome dome with a handsome crack (a crack is actually desirable in a loaf cake, resulting from the tight tin restricting expansion, with the batter in the centre slower in rising). It tastes, let’s be honest, mainly of the orange and cinnamon but then a carrot cake wouldn’t very easily pass a blind test on taste alone.

I’ll say it’s possibly not as round in texture as a carrot cake, but a very, very decent runner-up to the tearoom champion.

It will keep for a good few days, wrapped well, at room temperature if unfrosted.

Icing and frosting

It is very good plain, with perhaps a dusting of icing sugar. But by all means you can top it with cream cheese frosting or buttercream.

Try also making a glaze by heating up a few spoonfuls of apricot jam to drizzle over the cake top. And a simple, good lemon or orange icing will work well.

More cake with a vegetable ingredient recipes

Carrot and ginger cake, two of the best cake flavours together, with cream cheese frosting on top. Easy to make like all carrot cakes but the end result is stunning.

Easy pumpkin bread recipe, about 5 minutes from start to finish excluding baking. A great pumpkin cake baked in a loaf tin, with dried cranberries and walnuts, a perfect autumnal recipe for pumpkin bread.

Courgette bread, baked in a loaf tin with cinnamon and vanilla flavouring. Easy courgette cake recipe which can be frosted with simple icing if you wish.

More easy loaf cakes

Cherry and marzipan cake recipe, a simple buttermilk cake batter with glace cherries and a layer of homemade marzipan. This cherry and marzipan loaf cake might be an easier alternative to a Simnel cake for Easter. Just make sure you make your own marzipan - it’s easy.

Orange and lavender pound cake with crunchy sugar topping. Pound cake, or quatre-quarts, with orange and blue lavender is easy to make and the lavender gives it wonderful flavour.

Perfect banana cake, with raisins and cinnamon. This banana bread recipe is very easy and the mix can alternatively be made into banana muffins or banana cupcakes.