The Underrated Vegetable That Belongs In Your Cakes

Infusing sweet treats with vegetables isn't exactly unfamiliar territory — over the years, cooks have added pumpkin to pie, beetroot to brownies, and carrot to cake. On occasion, they've even done the opposite (hello, sweet mashed potatoes with marshmallows). One of the reasons why this combo works so well is because vegetables can take on a slightly sweet character when cooked, which pairs well with the warm, nutty, autumnal flavors often used in baking. Putting vegetables into cakes, in particular, can also help keep them moist. 

One such vegetable that may not be on your baking radar just yet is the humble parsnip, which shares a similar appearance and texture to its cousin, the carrot. Because of this you will often see parsnips used in carrot cake-style recipes, though it's important to note that the two vegetables have quite different flavors. Carrots have more of a one-dimensional sweetness to them when cooked, while parsnips have an almost spicy, aniseed-forward flavor in addition to their sweetness. Overall, parsnips are considered to have a sweeter flavor than carrots when cooked. 

It may come as a surprise to learn that parsnips and sweets share a long history, dating as far back as the Middle Ages — before the availability of cane sugar and the sugar beet — when they were widely used as a sweetener (this was a sort of honey, made from the boiled liquid of crushed parsnips). Desserts featuring parsnip jam, and parsnip fritters sprinkled in sugar were also popular. 

Today's parsnip-laced treats are generally less labor-intensive than those of medieval times. Most parsnip cakes simply call for the vegetable to be grated into the cake batter, while others require it to be chopped, roasted, and pureed (not unlike the process for making pumpkin pie). Regardless of how the vegetable itself is prepared, parsnip cakes commonly share the same kinds of ingredients — think brown sugar, nuts, spices, and orange zest — paired with cream cheese or mascarpone icing. This is often spiked with maple, ginger, and other complementary flavors.

Parsnip cake certainly has some friends in high places. One such well-known individual is Chef Jamie Oliver, who makes a delicious apricot cake with root vegetables featuring parsnip, carrot, and beetroot. This is topped off with a tangy yogurt and honey icing, garnished with orange zest, pumpkin seeds, and edible flowers. 

Rachel Khoo also features a Swedish praline and parsnip cake (tårta med pralin och palsternacka) in her cookbook "The Little Swedish Kitchen", which incorporates ground hazelnuts and homemade praline into the mix; while Yotam Ottolenghi has been know to sling parsnip-laced cakes with star anise and pecans from his London delis. Then there's the late chef Michel Richard's maple-parsnip cake, which is decorated with pecans.

Dorie Greenspan is another famous fan of this unlikely treat, gifting us a recipe for triple-layered parsnip and cranberry cake in her cookbook, "Everyday Dorie: The Way I Cook" (as a five-time James Beard award-winning cookbook author, you can definitely trust her judgment on the whole parsnip-in-cakes situation). As she demonstrated in a segment for the Hallmark Channel on YouTube, hers is akin to a carrot cake, but with a little twist: Cranberry jam between the layers. So, if you find yourself in possession of parsnips, do yourself (and your lucky guests) a favor and bake a cake with them.