Baking with Vegetables - Parragon Book Buddy Review and #CookBlogShare

Recently I became a Parragon Book Buddy. Each month I will be trying out and reviewing one of their fantastic cook books! I love cook books and have a great collection already but I do not really use many of them now, so I am hoping that reviewing these books will help me, and you the reader, discover some new books to fall in love with.

In August I was sent Baking with Vegetables which I was immediately excited about. I love trying new ingredients in my bakes, especially when the ingredients are good for you. I love to experiment more with bakes so I knew that I would love this book!

This book goes further than simply adding carrot to make a carrot cake. Within this book there are a wide variety of bakes that use the following vegetables...

• Beetroot
• Pumpkin
• Parsnip
• Swede
• Red pepper
• Even peas!

There are so many delicious recipes to choose from I really did struggle to select a bake to feature in this review. After much consideration and changing my mind I decided to bake the Spinach and Apple Cake with Apple Icing.

This is how I got on...

Spinach and Apple Cake with Apple Icing - Parragon Baking with Vegetables

Ingredients

250g spinach (original recipe 500g baby spinach)

250g spelt flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs

150g golden caster sugar

125 mls rapeseed oil

Juice of 1 lemon (original recipe 3 tbsp)

100g eating apple, I used Braeburn, coarsely grated

1 tsp vanilla paste (original recipe 2 tsp vanilla extract)

Frosting

2 cooking apples, cut into large chunks

225g icing sugar

25g butter

1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Method

1 - Heat the oven to 180C

2 - Place the eggs and caster sugar in a large mixing bowl and using an electric whisk beat until they are light and creamy

3 - While the eggs and sugar are beaten together steam the spinach for 2 and a half minutes, squeeze out the excess water and blend into a puree

4 - Once the eggs and sugar are light and creamy gently whisk in the lemon juice, rapeseed oil, apple and vanilla paste

5 - Gently fold in the spelt flour, baking powder and salt until all of the ingredients are evenly combined

6 - Pour the mixture in a prepared cake tin that has been lined and greased with extra rapeseed oil

7 - Place in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for 25 - 30 minutes

8 - Once thoroughly baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before removing it and leaving to cool completely on a cooling rack

9 - To make the frosting place the cooking apple chunks in a pan with a little water

10 - Bring to the boil and allow to simmer until the apples are soft

11 - Mash the apples up with a fork and push through a sieve with a spoon into a bowl

12 - Add the icing sugar, butter and lemon zest to the bowl and whisk up until you have a creamy frosting, if you like your frosting thicker you can always add extra icing sugar

13 - Take the cool cake and trim a little off each side and using your hands make them into crumbs, these will be used to finish the decoration of the cake

14 - Spread the frosting over the top of the cake and sprinkle over the crumbs

This cake is a delicious way to add vegetables to the families diets without all of the moaning! Everybody loved this cake and I will definitely be making it again.

This book has been a real success. I can see that this book is going to inspire many future bakes and next time we have a glut of homegrown vegetables instead of cooking the same meals I will be referring to this book for ideas!

Disclosure: I was sent the Baking with Vegetables book for the purpose of this post. No cash payment was received, I am a Parragon Book Buddy. All of the views and opinions are my own and 100% honest.

For this weeks Cook Blog Share I thought that I would share not only a recipe but also Baking with Vegetables book. Please link up any foodie posts, both old and new, discover new recipes and Cook Blog Share! If you want to remind yourself of the linky rules you can do here. I look forward to seeing what you have been cooking this week!

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