Three Layer Parsnip Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
We are celebrating our one year blog anniversary with cake. We wanted an extraordinary cake for the occasion, one with a funky twist, moist flavor and sumptuous icing. Three Layer Parsnip Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is our adaptation of the wonderful Diane Morgan's recipe. This fantastic, vegetable loaded cake mimics the spice and texture of a carrot cake, adding a mysterious subtle sweetness with the nutty flavor of grated parsnips. Since we discovered this parsnip cake a year ago, carrot cake just doesn't do it for us anymore.
Yield: Serves 12
Ingredients:
Cake:
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 4 cups grated parsnips, washed, ends trimmed, unpeeled
- 1 cup dried coconut (preferably unsweetened)
- 1 cup chopped walnuts (preferably toasted)
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 cup canola oil
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cup butter
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Steps:
- Heat the oven to 350. Butter and flour 3 cake pans (we used 9" standard cake pans).
- For the cake: In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, powder, soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and cloves). Mix in the parsnip, coconut and walnuts. Set aside.
- With a stand (or hand) mixer on medium speed, whisk together the sugar and oil for 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking well between each addition. Add the flour and parsnip mixture slowly and mix briefly until just incorporated. With a spatula, mix the cake dough to ensure the mixture is evenly combined. Do not over mix.
- Distribute the cake batter evenly between the three cake pans, about 2 heaping cups per pan.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the edges are starting to pull away from the sides.
- Remove the cakes from the cake pans after 15 minutes of cooling. Let cool completely before frosting.
- For the cream cheese frosting: Whisk together the cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer) at medium speed for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the confectioners sugar and vanilla. Mix at medium speed for an additional two minutes.
- To assemble the cake: Place one cake, top side down on a cake holder or plate. Evenly spread 1/3 of the frosting over the first cake. Place the second cake on the frosting, top side down. Again, evenly spread 1/3 of the frosting over the top of the second cake. Set the third cake, top side down, on the frosting. Spread the remaining frosting over the top of the final cake. Decorate with walnuts, or coconut to your preference.
Notes:
- Parsnips, while related to carrots, have a much longer cultivation process, and thus a more expensive price. They are planted in the spring and often spend 6-9 months in the ground before being harvested after a hard frost.
- If you bought more parsnips then the recipe calls for, they are wonderful in our french cabbage stew.
Aunt Mary's Spiced Pumpkin Bars
My Great Aunt Mary was a meticulous and brilliant woman, who also happened to have a stellar repertoire of holiday baked goods. She passed her recipe for Spiced Pumpkin Bars down to my mother years ago. I returned to Aunt Mary's recipe after a run of failed pumpkin bar experiments. Aunt Mary's Spiced Pumpkin Bars are a homey old-fashioned bar, with a soft texture, warm spices and gooey cream cheese icing. With only a few minor tweaks from the original, I present to you, the best pumpkin bars you will ever eat.
Apple Almond Tart
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some eat greatness in an apple tart. We count ourselves in the third category. Our Apple Almond Tart is a trifecta of dessert greatness. A crisp and flaky butter pastry base, creamy almond cheese filling, and delicately cooked apples for tart contrast. We recommend that you go ahead and double this recipe the first time, as we we polished off an entire tart ourselves in record speed.
Maple Walnut Baklava
We love maple syrup! Possibly my own craving for this iconic sap is the result of my Canadian heritage. But then there’s my American husband, who obsessively drizzles maple syrup over everything in sight, from a sweetener in his tea and coffee, to pork roasts, chili, ice cream, to salmon. Regardless of the origins of our maple passion, the maple-fication of Baklava was really quite inevitable. Maple syrup accompanies us camping and hiking, vacationing and traveling. Little bottles of maple syrup were stowed away in my suitcase headed to Ethiopia by my mother, and were in our packs as we traveled by moto in Vietnam and hitchhiked in Thailand. Maple Walnut baklava is a fantastic dessert, managing to be both light and flaky and also rich and gooey. This dessert features sheets of delicate filo, layered with the toasted flavors of browned butter, roasted walnuts, cinnamon, oranges and clove. Once cooked, the flaky pastry is bathed in a concentrated maple syrup, with a deep caramel flavor and subtle sweet notes.
Blackstrap Molasses & Fresh Ginger Cake
Blackstrap Molasses and Fresh Ginger Cake is a dark, moody, and moist dessert masterpiece. Warm spices are on prominent display with fresh ginger, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, and the rich and smoky tones of blackstrap molasses. This cake is a great foil to a rich frosting (stay tune for Paul's salted maple buttercream next week), but has the verve to stand alone as simple seasonal dessert. Blackstrap Molasses and Fresh Ginger Cake is crowd favorite whenever we make it and is a stunning high holiday treat. We've adapted this recipe from one of our favorite dessert authors, David Lebovitz. Check out our review of his cookbook at our Bookshelf.
Apple Walnut Bundt Cake with Caramel Glaze
Thanks for following along with our new adventures! We recently moved from Pittsburgh to Haiti where we are starting a 5 year volunteer assignment with a non-profit relief and development organization. We will be in transition for the next few months as we complete our in-country orientation, language study, spend time living with host families in both the countryside and capital... and lest we forget, have our first baby somewhere in there as well! Please bear with us as we will not have ready access to internet or a kitchen throughout this time. We will continue to share new recipes that we've prepared in advance, and updates on our new life in Haiti as often as we are able.
As much as we love the tropical fruits and Caribbean flavors of our new home in Haiti, we are nostalgic for the apple and spice combination, so classic to this time of year in North America. We love this old-fashioned Apple Walnut Bundt Cake with Caramel Glaze, pungent with cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and ginger, glazed with a salty caramel.
