A birthday cake for a parsnip lover

[shewhomust]

rushthatspeaks was inspired by Niki Segnit's The Flavor Thesaurus to build a cake on the flavours of parsnips, anise and lemon. Well, why not? Carrot cake is familiar enough, and parsnips are even sweeter. durham_rambler refers to parsnips as "God's own vegetable", so obviously what he needed for his birthday was a parsnip cake. I refer you to the original recipe for the sheer pleasure of the writing; this is my working version, with my modeifications / conversions / approximations:

1 lb. (4 or 5 medium) parsnips, peeled and ended
1/2 cup + 1/3 cup granulated sugar + 1/4 cup light brown sugar (call that 5 or 6 oz fructose in all)
4 oz unsalted butter
6 oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting the tin
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon aniseed, ground
the seeds of six cardamom pods, ground
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
2 eggs
scant 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses

Grate the parsnips, using the fine disk of the food processor. Toss the grated parsnips with 2 oz sugar, put into a seive and leave to drain at least 20-30 minutes.

Preheat oven to Mark 4 (approx 300°F, but this is using fructose, which needs longer cooking at a lower temperature than sucrose). Line, grease and flour a 9-inch cake tin.

Melt the butter over medium-low heat, stirring often, and cook until golden brown, 8-10 minutes. Let it cool at least another 10 minutes, until cool enough not to melt sugar.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices and set aside.

Squeeze the liquid out of the parsnips.

When the butter has cooled, whisk in the remaining sugar, the eggs, one at a time, then the molasses, combining everything thoroughly before adding the next ingredient. Stir into the flour mixture, and when the batter has almost combined add the parsnips.

Scrape it into the cake tin and smooth it out with a spatula. Bake until it feels firm in the center when you press it lightly and a toothpick run into the center comes out perfectly clean, about an hour. Transfer the pan onto a wire rack, and let cool 10 minutes before removing from the tin and cooling on the rack.

rushthatspeaks gives instructions for a Sour Cream Lemon Icing, at which I totally failed. This may be because the recipe requires "confectioners' sugar", which I assume is icing sugar, and don't have. This may be a case where you can't just substitute and hope. Or it may be that I really don't like this kind of frosting, which contains a large proportion of butter, and it shows. By the time I had added lemon juice and sour cream to my taste, I was able to beat it to a thick emulsion which made an agreeable sauce, but wouldn't stay on the cake long enough to be called icing.

Despite which, it was a delicious cake, moist and very spicy, and I'd like to experiment with it further. I don't think my version came out exactly as intended: rushthatspeaks says "it's a lighter cake than it seems..", which it wasn't, really. Another time I might work a bit harder at squeezing the moisture out of the parsnips (give them a bit longer, or just use more force) and see if that helps.

Other than that, there are two possible lines of experiment. On the one hand, it seems like a lot of effort to put parsnips into a cake and then disguising them to such an extent that durham_rambler couldn't identify the mystery ingredient: it ought to come as a surprise, but of the "oh, yes, now I know I can taste it" variety. So I might try a similar recipe, but with a honey and ginger spicing.

The molasses and aniseed version really is very good, but does need something fresh and sharp, so if I did it again, I'd have to substitute something for that frosting. Maybe sour cream alone would work, turning the dish into a pudding rather than a cake. And when I start thinking on those lines, I realise that it would be wonderful with a rhubarb compote...

Comments

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Last year Chaz made me a chocolate beetroot cake for my birthday. Yummm....

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I've baked a chocolate beetroot cake (from a booklet I bought at a National Trust property somewhere - probably Cragside); it was disappointing - the chocolate wasn't dark enough, and the beetroot didn't blend in enough.

Perhaps I should ask Chaz to show me how it's done...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Um. Darker chocolate, mostly?

I sort of fudged the recipe, because almost all those I could find on the internets wanted the beetroot cooked first, and I just wanted to grate it straight in. Which I did. I will rootle around and see if I can reverse-engineer a recipe, for it was good. Or at least not disappointing.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I am glad you liked it. Confectioner's sugar is icing sugar, and not really substitutable in my experience.

Let me know if you wind up experimenting with the spicing; I am curious about the honey and ginger also.