Catherine Berwick's Parsnip & maple syrup cake

Catherine Berwick's Parsnip & maple syrup cake

4.82677

(127 ratings)

By

Cooking time

Prep: 20 mins Cook: 45 mins

Skill level

Easy

Servings

Serves 8

The winner of Good Food's 20th birthday cake competition, we think this is the new carrot cake

Nutrition and extra info

Additional info

  • Unfilled sponges can be frozen
Nutrition info

Nutrition

kcalories
697
protein
8g
carbs
79g
fat
41g
saturates
22g
fibre
3g
sugar
52g
salt
1.12g

Ingredients

  • 175g butter, plus extra for greasing
  • 250g demerara sugar
  • 100ml maple syrup
  • 3 large eggs
  • 250g self-raising flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp mixed spice
  • 250g parsnips, peeled and grated
  • 1 medium eating apple, peeled, cored and grated
  • 50g pecans, roughly chopped
  • zest and juice 1 small orange
  • icing sugar, to serve

For the filling

  • 250g tub mascarpone
  • 3-4 tbsp maple syrup

Buy Ingredients

Buy the ingredients for this recipe now via:

Want to know how this works? Read all about it here.

Method

  1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease 2 x 20cm sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment. Melt butter, sugar and maple syrup in a pan over gentle heat, then cool slightly. Whisk the eggs into this mixture, then stir in the flour, baking powder and mixed spice, followed by the grated parsnip, apple, chopped pecans, orange zest and juice. Divide between the tins, then bake for 25-30 mins until the tops spring back when pressed lightly.
  2. Cool the cakes slightly in the tins before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely. Just before serving, mix together the mascarpone and maple syrup. Spread over one cake and sandwich with the other. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.

Recipe from Good Food magazine, November 2009

Comments, questions and tips

Sign in or create your My Good Food account to join the discussion.

Comments

Show comments
sierra1's picture

just as Donald said I cannot believe that a person able to profit $8702 in 1 month on the computer.
have you seen this page buzz55.com

ahiscott's picture
5

Moist and delicious, nobody could guess what was in it they thought it was apple and cinnamon.

franziska's picture
5

This is one of my all time favourite cake recipes. I can't wait to use it for one of my winter weddings. It is the type of cake people should try before they know what is inside it. I cannot imagine anyone not liking it!

pab3032's picture
5

Brilliant! My Daughter helped and we made a great job of it!
Maple syrup is my favourite and the addition of a one a day bonus!
only used 150g of Mascapone which seems enough! Very nice!
My son had 2 helping of the "Surprise Cake" (he doesn't like Parsnip's) Loved it!!!

lildripping's picture

I've just made this for a group of cake loving friends who are coming to my house tonight. There is a long standing joke about me and parsnips (just cos I'm a vegetarian) so I cant wait to see their faces when I tell them whats in it!
I only had smaller cake tins so with the leftovers I made some cupcakes, I'm looking forward to trying them.
It states 20 prep time - it took me nearly 3 times that long with all the weighing, grating and mixing - hopefully it's worth it.

allikennelly146's picture
5

This was a brilliant cake. So moist and yet not too rich. I kept everyone guessing what the ingredients were!

allikennelly146's picture
5

This was a brilliant cake. So moist and yet not too rich. I kept everyone guessing what the ingredients were!

laura_dickson's picture
5

One of the best cakes I've ever made! Like some others have said, I baked it for a bit longer, about 50 minutes. I made it in one big deep cake tin instead of two sandwich tins and it turned out wonderfully. I also used golden syrup and left out the nuts and orange juice. The only problem is it doesn't last very long :)

erinvermaak's picture
5

Took this to a friend's house last night for dessert. Disappeared fairly quickly! Definitely needs longer than 25 mins at 160 though; at least 40. 180 might be a better temp - will have to give it another go.

edwards14's picture

I substituted parsnip for sweet potato, maple syrup for golden syrup and marscapone for Philadelphia light! Really good, my husbands favourite cake so far.

claudiasherlock's picture
5

Never had parsnip cake before, and can't say I found the idea all that appetising. Glad I decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised.

sarahprince2's picture
4

Baked this for a birthday - took about 45 mins in fan oven, also used slightly less maple syrup in filling than suggested. I know it is meant to be moist but did wonder if it was a tad too moist, hard to know when it was cooked although did usual skewer test. No complaints from the eaters!! Would definitely make again, nice flavour.

basilmonkey's picture
5

I made this cake with walnuts instead of pecans and it was delicious. The parsnip keeps the cake moist without adding a parsnippy flavour. Would definately make it again.

jwwhyte's picture

Made this for my other halfs birthday - it was fantastic, and even after 3 days it was still moist. Very easy, and the pecans are a delicious addition.

tink1963's picture

Love this cake! I've previously made it sticking to the exact ingredients but today had a go at changing it and it was just as delicious. I used Clover light instead of the butter and 2/3 the amount of mascarpone which in total saved over 1,000 calories. I didn't have an orange so used a lemon and didn't have maple syrup (which is over £5 a bottle) so used agave syrup (which is available plain as I used or in maple syrup flavour). Baked at 160*c in my fan oven and it took 25 mins to be perfectly cooked through.

Pages

Questions

Tips