0 Parsnip, apple and maple syrup cake for Harvest Home Clandestine Cake club event

The theme for this months clandestine cake club is Harvest Home - fruit and vegetable cakes. I enjoy baking with vegetables even the more unusual such as avocado as I appreciate the flavour, texture and moisture they can bring to your cake.

This cake is an easy bake and is already featured on the blog here 

For this cake club I decided to pimp the decoration and also make it a layer cake suitable for the event. Its easy to make a layer cake just carefully slice across your 2 sandwich cakes, hey presto 4 layers. These were then filled with vanilla buttercream and one layer was homemade damson jam and then topped off with spun sugar decorations, the secret to perfect soft fluffy buttercream is to whip the mix for at least 6 minutes and to ensure that the butter is soft before using.

Spun sugar is relatively straight forward to make from sugar melted in a pan, once golden in colour, remove from the heat and stir until you sense some resistance. This is the point you make the shapes you wish, I chose free form shapes. Protect your spun sugar from humidity and only prepare an hour or so before you wish to use it otherwise it melts and goes very sticky.

I had a minor disaster on the way to the venue where the top two layers slid off the two bottom layers, so apologies for the slightly shoddy appearance  As a seasoned cake clubber I am used to this sort of thing happening and managed to arrange a recovery of sorts, the spun sugar decoration were added once I got to the location so survived intact.

Detail: Parsnip, apple and maple syrup cake for Harvest Home Clandestine Cake club event

0 Carrot, parsnip and leek soup

I hate to waste food, so often as not I tend to make a soup with vegetables that are getting a bit long in the tooth in the bottom of the fridge. This soup was made with the remains of a pack of multi-coloured carrots I had picked up locally, a couple of parsnips and a sad and lonely leek.

The secret to a good soup is to use a quality stock, I either make my own (if I have time) mostly though I use a quality stock powder such as Essential Cuisine, I find their stocks are really tasty but light at the same time and not over salted.

This is a wholesome soup rich in vegetables and is ideal to serve to vegetarian guests and it complements homemade crusty bread perfectly.

Ingredients

• Carrots - peeled and finely diced
• Parsnips - peeled and finely diced
• 1 large leeks, washed and sliced into rings
• A little vegetable oil
• Vegetable stock or butter
• Salt and Pepper

Method

• Warm a little vegetable oil in a large saucepan
• Fry the chopped vegetables very gently (sweat) without colouring
• Stir frequently to make sure no vegetables catch
• Add enough stock to cover the vegetables, bring to a gentle simmer
• Simmer, covered until the vegetable are softened.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly
• Blend with a hand blender to your desired consistency
• Add a little more stock to thin and taste for seasoning
• Bring back to a gentle simmer, serve in attractive soup bowls

Detail: Carrot, parsnip and leek soup

0 Parsnip, lentil and bacon soup

I've been clearing out the fridge after the festive period and came across a bag of parsnips that needed using up, Christmas is like that we all buy too much stuff and then end up chucking it out, however we try not to let that happen at Lancashire Food. So here is a comforting warming recipe that is falling of a log simple yet produces great results from some fairly humble ingredients. The recipe would also work well with ham instead of bacon or if you are cooking for vegetarian eaters omitted entirely. 

Ingredients

• 500g bag of parsnips, topped and tailed, peeled and chunky chopped
• 1 large white onion, peeled and chopped fairly finely
• 1 cup of red lentils
• Vegetable stock
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 small pack of Pancetta / or a couple of rashers of bacon chopped up into small pieces
• Small knob of butter

Method

• Start by melting the butter in a large saucepan, once melted add your bacon and cook until golden, remove from pan
• Now add the chopped onion and parsnips and cooks for a few minutes without colouring, now add the red lentils to the pan and add enough vegetable to cover.
• Bring to the simmer and cook until the lentils have disintergrated and the parsnip is soft, watch the quantity of liquid you may need to add more water.
• Once cooked allow to cool slighty, then blend with a stick blender until you reach you desired consistency, add more water if you want a thinner soup.
• Add the bacon back to the pan and reheat gently
• Serve with crusty bread

Detail: Parsnip, lentil and bacon soup