French Fridays with Dorie - Spur-of-the-Moment Vegetable Soup

Today´s recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie Group is a wonderfully colorful and healthy “Spur-of –the-Moment Vegetable Soup”.

With this basic vegetable soup recipe, all you really need is chicken stock, some herbs and vegetables. This soup can be compared to a “canvas”, that you can get creative with any which way you would like. I started with making my own chicken stock in the morning. After a few hours of simmering away, I strained the soup and degreased it. Then apart from the onions, garlic, rosemary, thyme and bay leaf, I chose the following wonderful colorful things: parsnips, sweet potatoes, small peas, potatoes, carrots, yellow and purple French cauliflower.

Since we eat a fair share of puréed soups such as cream of carrot, cauliflower, broccoli or potato, I opted to leave all the wonderful colorful vegetables intact and serve this soup “chunky style” with lots of chives as garnish and since not everyone is fond of too much cauliflower in his or her vegetable soup, I chose to serve some of the florets on the side!

This was one easy and simple Vegetable Soup, the taste of which entirely depends upon the ingredients that you choose to use, a good homemade stock as the base for this soup certainly greatly improves the taste as well.

Since I had baked some Pumpkin Biscuits with some Hokkaido pumpkin purée, I served those alongside the soup, another colorful accent and a delicious one too!

To see how the other Doristas prepared the “Spur-of-the-Moment Vegetable Soup”, please click here.

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART IV - PUMPKIN - Mini Pumpkin Muffins and Pumpkin Biscuits

Pumpkins are the most famous of all the winter squashes, and are most associated with Halloween lanterns. Inside the hard orange or yellow skin, the bright orange flesh is sweet. They are a particularly good source of fiber, as well as a range of vitamins and minerals. Make sure that you go for pumpkins that feel heavy for their size, with a smooth, firm skin. Smaller pumpkins tend to have more flesh. Pumpkins do tend to have tough skins, some elbow grease is usually needed to get into them.

To safely get to the flesh, put the pumpkin on a thick tea towel to keep it steady, then use a large strong knife to cut it in half, then try to work in sections until you reach the bottom. Once one side is cut, turn the pumpkin around and cut down on the other side, until it is split in two. Using a large metal spoon, scrape and scoop out the seeds and any stringy parts.

Blend the flesh into smooth, thick soups, finished with a swirl of cream. Or bake small pumpkins and stuff with rice and spices such as cinnamon, chilies and cumin. Or roast thick slices and serve with an Italian style tomato sauce. Baking with pumpkin does not mean you have to limit yourself  to pumpkin pie, go for pumpkin breads, sweet rolls, cookies or cakes. Stir puréed pumpkin into a cheesecake filling. Roasted pumpkin seeds are great on their own as snacks and can be incorporated into flapjacks and biscuits, or used to garnish tarts, cakes or ice cream. You could also bake these wonderful Mini Pumpkin Muffins.

Recipe for Mini Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients for the Mini Muffins

• 1 cup self-rising flour (such as King Arthur Unbleached Self-Rising Flour)
• 2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar (I used Tate & Lyle)
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I mixed my own using cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger)
• 1 eg (L), organic or free range
• 1/2 cup puréed pumpkin (I used pumpkin purée from a small Hokkaido pumpkin)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
• 1/3 cup sour cream (room temperature)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used homemade vanilla sugar)

Ingredients for the Decorations

• 24 marzipan or sugar flowers
• a few pieces of dark chocolate

Equipment

• mini muffin pan (24 muffin capacity)
• mini paper liners (24 mini liners)

Preparation of the Mini Muffins

1. Preheat your oven to 350° degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Line 24 mini muffin cups with grease proof paper liners.
3. Mix flour, golden brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice in large bowl.
4. Whisk egg, canned pure pumpkin, vegetable oil, sour cream, and vanilla extract in medium bowl.
5. Add the wet ingredients mixture to the dry ingredients and carefully stir to fully combine.
6. Spoon or scoop the pumpkin batter into paper liners (batter will almost fill liners).
7. Bake the muffins for about 16 to 18 minutes and transfer to a wire rack for a few minutes.
8. Remove the muffins from the pan and let them cool completely on a rack.

Decoration of the Mini Muffins

1. In a small bowl, melt the dark chocolate, either over a water bath or in the microwave, let cool a bit.
2. Using a small brush, dab a bit of the cooled chocolate on each muffin and place a decorative item such as a small marzipan flower on each muffin. Let set for a few minutes until the chocolate hardens.

Pumpkin purée is not readily available in cans around here so when I need some for baking, we take a trip to a nearby pumpkin farm and buy a few pumpkins while admiring their displays. There is a vast array of pumpkins and squashes available there and you can choose between different tons of varities, sizes, and colors…

…and the owners go out of their way to display them in interesting ways…

There are piles upon piles of turban pumpkins…

…and “pumpkin pigs"….

There is also a “pumpkin buffalo”…

…and a “pumpkin tractor”..

Not only the  kids love going there and looking around while I choose my pumpkins. This is really a fun place to visit around fall!

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Since I bought way too many pumpkins and had some pumpkin purée left over from the mini muffins, I decided to bake some Pumpkin Biscuits as well.

The recipe for these bright orange Pumpkin Biscuits can be found on Monet`s delightful and beautiful blog called “Anecdotes & Applecores”. Thank you, Monet, for sharing this wonderful recipe! The Biscuits were delicious with farm fresh butter and their color was incredible, kids and adults alike devoured them when I served them alongside an autumnal soup.

PART V of my CAKES AND VEGETABLES SERIES will feature a very moist Old- Fashioned German Potato Gugelhupf which the kids have declared to be their new favorite cake!

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CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART I - CARROT - European-Style Carrot Cake

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART II - BEETROOT - Nigel Slater's Extremely Moist Chocolate-Beetroot Cake with Crème Fraîche and Poppy Seeds

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART III -SWEET POTATO - Sweet Potato Bundt Cake with Bourbon and Pecans
CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART IV - PUMPKIN - Mini Pumpkin Muffins and Pumpkin Biscuits

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART V - POTATO - Old-Fashioned Potato-Raisin Gugelhupf

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART VI - PARSNIP - Parsnip Spice Cake

CAKES & VEGATABLES - PART VII - BEETROOT - Nigel Slater´s Beetroot Seed Cake

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART III - SWEET POTATO - Sweet Potato Bundt Cake with Bourbon and Pecans

This is the third cake that I am featuring in of my October Series called “CAKES AND VEGETABLES”. Today the chosen vegetable is the wonderful sweet potato. A root vegetable that resembles a potato, although it is not related to it. It is quite different in taste and texture. It has a pinkish-orange skin and a deep-orange, creamy-textured flesh that is much lighter and fluffier than that of the potato. As their name suggests, sweet potatoes have a slightly sweet flavor.

Sweet potatoes can be cooked in similar ways to the potatoes but cook much more quickly. You can use the sweet potato for mashing or roasting, or you can use them in vegetable soups and stews. You can also add them to risottos, pasta dishes such as ravioli and curries or make sweet potato fries and fritters. But you can also bake with them and create sweet potato pies (with or without meringue) or crème brulée or bake this fantasticly simple yet wonderful Sweet Potato Bundt Cake with Bourbon and Pecans.

Recipe for Sweet Potato Bundt Cake with Bourbon and Pecans
(as adapted from Dorothy Dalquist)

Ingredients for the Bundt

• 300 grams (1 1/2 cups) firmly packed light brown sugar 
• 75 grams (1/3 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus some more for the Bundt pan
• 2 eggs (L), organic or free range
• 250 ml (1 cup) cooked and puréed sweet potato, cooled (you willl need about 1 1/2 sweet potatoes)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used homemade vanilla sugar)
• 390 grams (2 3/4 cups) plain/AP flour, plus some more for the Bundt pan
• 200 ml (3/4 cup) milk, room temperature (I used 3.5% milk)
• 75 ml (1/3 cup) bourbon or apple juice
• 1 tbsp baking powder (I used baking powder with ground saffron)
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I mixed my own using cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger)
• one pinch of fine salt (I used fine sea salt)
• 50 grams (6 tbsp) chopped pecans (you can substitute walnuts of other nuts)
• some confectioner´s sugar for serving

Equipment

• one 10 or 12 cup Bundt or Gugelhupf baking pan 

Preparation of the Bundt

1. Lightly butter and flour a 10 or 12 cup Bundt or Gugelhupf baking pan, shaking out the excess.
2. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
3. In the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the brown sugar, butter, and eggs until the mixture is very light and fluffy.
4. Add the cooked and puréed sweet potato than the vanilla and beat to combine.
5. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
5. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until until just incorporated.
6. Switching to a rubber spatula, fold in the chopped nuts.
7. Distribute the batter in the pan and smooth the top (best done with a small offset spatula).
8. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes.
9. Transfer the cake to a wire rack and cool for about 10 minutes.
10. Remove the cake from the pan and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
11. Dust with some confectioner´s sugar before serving.

This Bundt is a delicious and moist cake with a wonderful warm orange color, great texture and just the right amount of spicyness – make sure to use the freshest spices that you can, it will make a big difference. This is as much a great coffee cake as it is lovely for serving at a fall dinner party. Not too sweet and full of flavor, it's simply delicious. This cake keeps very well for several days

Since this time of year there is a lot of wonderful and cute marzipan creations in the stores, I picked up a bag of so-called “marzipan potatoes” (“Marzipankartoffeln”), filled mini handmade baskets with them and placed them on the table with the cake. Guests love nibbling on these marzipan treats, the little baskets add a nice decorative touch to an autumnal table.

Sources:

• light brown sugar from "Tate & Lyle" (available for example at http://www.english-shop.de)
• baking powder with saffron from "Dr. Oetker" (http://www.oetker.com)
• Gugelhupf baking pan from "Kaiser" (http://www.kaiser-backform.de)
• marzipan "potatoes" from "Niederegger (http://www.niederegger.de)
• fabric for the tablecloth called "Critter Community" from "Robert Kaufman" (http://www.robertkaufman.com)

PART IV of my CAKES AND VEGETABLES SERIES will feature the extremly versatile Pumpkin.

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CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART I - CARROT - European-Style Carrot Cake

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART II - BEETROOT - Nigel Slater's Extremely Moist Chocolate-Beetroot Cake with Crème Fraîche and Poppy Seeds

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART III -SWEET POTATO - Sweet Potato Bundt Cake with Bourbon and Pecans
CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART IV - PUMPKIN - Mini Pumpkin Muffins and Pumpkin Biscuits

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART V - POTATO - Old-Fashioned Potato-Raisin Gugelhupf

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART VI - PARSNIP - Parsnip Spice Cake

CAKES & VEGATABLES - PART VII - BEETROOT - Nigel Slater´s Beetroot Seed Cake

Tuesday with Dorie - Bagels

Today´s recipe for the Tuesdays with Julia group are Bagels.

Bagels are by no means common around here – they are just starting to make an occasional appearance at bakeries and some well-known American bagels chains have opened a few bagel shops. But to say that they are easy to find would be an exaggeration.

When I first read that we were baking Bagels for the Tuesdays with Dorie Group, I felt a bit intimidated because although I have tasted the famous New York and Montréal Bagels before, I certainly never baked any. I remembered tasting bagels with “different toppings” such as sesame, poppy or caraway seeds, plain or flavored with cinnamon and raisins (which I particularly enjoyed) and the Bagels that I remember with “real affection” were those slathered with really good cream cheese, thinly sliced tomatoes and lox! So in order to be able to enjoy those Bagels, I decided that despite my trepidations, I should give the recipe a try. And I am quite happy that I did.

The recipe which was contributed by Lauren Groveman looks complicated and long but, in fact,  it is very simple and the different steps can be followed easily. Bagels are made with a yeast dough and high-gluten flour (which I found at an Italian store), the rest of the ingredients are quickly put together, water, sugar shortening (I used unsalted butter with no apparent ill effect) and salt. After some good kneading and a first rise, the dough gets deflated and chilled for a few hours in the refrigerator.

After the second rise came the fun part, shaping the Bagels. Very meditative. The Bagels need to be boiled for a good minute an each side in water, sugar and soda then transferred to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and dusted with cornmeal. Then they get brushed with egg whites and water, topped with seeds (I chose a mixture of sesame, poppy and sunflower seeds) and baked for about twenty to twenty five minutes. Before baking, you will have to toss some ice water and cubes onto the oven floor to create some serious steam.

These Bagels were so wonderful, they emerged from the oven so much nicer looking than I had imagined they would look like and they were delicious. We ate them for dinner and the whole family was crazy about them – this recipe is a keeper, for sure! While we were shopping for vegetables yesterday, I had picked up some “Smoked Sausage Spread” (“Mettwurst”) in a Weck jar  - this is a local specialty that certainly has a rustic appeal and it was delicious with the Bagels. As you may have noticed from a few of my previous blog posts, we do love those “Weck” jars around here not only for jams and jellies but also for pickles, sausages, pesto but also for baking cakes and I always buy them whenever I see them and then my collection just keeps on growing.

To see all the other Bagels by the very talented and enthusiastic members of the Tuesday with Dorie group, please do click here. The recipe can be found at Heather´s delightful blog Heathers Bytes - thank you so much for hosting, Heather!

Green Tea and White Chocolate Cookies

Baking with tea or powdered tea is a wonderful way to add very interesting flavors to cakes and cookies. I have baked Earl Grey Cookies and Green Tea Shortbread and Cupcakes before and made Chai-Spiced Honey Bundt Cakes (see also my post of Feb. 10, 2012) and was always intrigued by the taste that the different teas, whetther in powdered from, ground up or used as an infusion, add to baked goods. So when I came across a recipe for Green Tea and White Chocolate Cookies on Nami´s fantastic blog called Just one Cookbook, I knew that I had to try out her recipe.

The cookies are very pretty when baked and mine had a pronounced flavor of green tea which I adore. The white chocolate added not only a nice visual effect but tasted wonderful in combination with the green tea. Just make sure that you use a really good quality white chocolate such as Lindt.

The powdered green tea that I used in this recipe is called “Matcha” and since it is quite expensive, you should not skimp on the other ingredients for the cookie and try to use the best ingredients that you can get.

I chose to give some of these cookies as gifts and instead of packing them in cookies tins, I went to my favorite Asian market and bought the smallest steamer baskets with matching covers that I could find. I placed a layer of brown unbleached parchment paper at the bottom of the baskets and just placed the cookies inside – just make sure that you let the recipient know that the cookies should be wrapped if they intend to keep them for a few days.

The recipe for these amazing and pretty cookies can be found on Nami´s blog! Thank you for sharing this fantastic recipe Nami!

Sources:

• Japan Matcha Yume Organic from “Tee Gschwendner” (http://www.teagschwendner.com)
• Lindt Excellence White Chocolate from "Lindt" (http://www.lindt.com)
• Table linens from "Butlers" (http://www.butlers.de)

French Fridays with Dorie - Crispy, Crackly Apple-Almond Tart

Today`s chosen recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group is “Crispy, Crackly Apple-Almond Tart”, a very pretty and simple rectangular apple tart with lots of crunchy layers of phyllo dough. The phyllo dough consists of paper-thin sheets of unleavened flour dough used for making pastries in Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisine.

We have been eating a very similar tart for the longest time, I cannot remember how many times I made an apple tart with a puff pastry base and rows of delicious sliced apples, sometimes I also make a hazelnut cream as a layer beneath the rows of sliced apples and most of the time I serve a homemade warm vanilla custard sauce (”Vanillesauce”) alongside. But this time, I followed Dorie´s wonderful recipe exactly and the result was an amazingly delicious “Crispy, Crackly Apple-Almond Tart”.

The first step is the preparation of the almond cream with all but six ingredients, namely almond flour (easily done by grinding almonds into a fine meal, I should mention that I left the skins on the almonds), superfine white sugar, an egg, vanilla extract (I used homemade vanilla sugar), a pinch of fine salt and a few tablespoons of cream (I used 35% cream). Since the almond cream needs a three hour rest in the refrigerator, a bit of planning is required. Once the almond cream has had a rest, the next step in the recipe calls for layering eight sheets of phyllo (I made nine layers), brushing each layer with melted butter and sprinkling a bit of sugar over each buttered layer. 

After I layered the phyllo dough on a baking sheet, I spread the almond cream (leavening a border) on the dough, peeled the apples and arranged them in rows on top of the almond cream. The tart needed to bake for a good forty minutes. The sides of the baked tart curled up around the layers of the apples and the almond cream - an effect that is wanted for this tart.

Last step in this recipe is the “finishing touch”, brushing a glaze of apple jelly over the apples – this will make the tart taste even more delicious and it looks even prettier with the rows of “shiny looking” apple slices.

Usually I use a local apple jelly to brush my apple tarts but this time, I used an apple jam with cinnamon (“Confiture Pommes à la Cannelle”) that I heated ever so slightly and strained before brushing it over the tart. I found this cute Weck jar with the apple cinnamon jam in my favorite Dutch kitchen supply store “Dille Kamille” and just could not resist – it added a delicious finishing touch to the tart, all 80 grams of it (which is not more than a heaping tablespoon).

I brought the apple tart to the table "whole", as Dorie so aptly points out, bringing this tart to the table before it is cut, makes for a pretty presentation. This is a fun tart to prepare with ingredients that are fairly easy to procure. I like that you can make it with local produce such as apples and apple jelly from your favorite farmer´s store or market. This recipe is a keeper and a nice change to our usual puff pastry apple tart.

To see how the other Doristas fared with this wonderful “Crispy, Crackly Apple-Almond Tart”, please click here.

For more Filo Tart inspiration on my blog, have a look at:

December Filo Tart with Mini Brussels Sprouts (Winterliche Filotarte mit Rosenkohlröschen) (HERE)
Filo Tart with fresh Figs & Prosciutto (Filotarte mit frischen Feigen & Prosciutto) (HERE)
River Cottage "Veg Everyday" Courgette and Filo Rice Pie (HERE)
Filo Tart with White Asparagus, Goat Cheese & Meadowsweet Blossoms (Filotarte mit weißem Spargel, Ziegenkäse & Mädesüßblüten) (HERE)
• Red Swiss Chard & Mushroom Filo Tart (Filotarte mit rotem Mangold & braunen Champignons) (HERE)

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART II - BEETROOT - Nigel Slater's Extremely Moist Chocolate-Beetroot Cake with Crème Fraîche and Poppy Seeds

This is the second cake in of my October Series called “CAKES AND VEGETABLES”. Today the chosen vegetable is the wonderful beetroot. The deep ruby earthiness of a beetroot is surprisingly well suited for bittersweet chocolate cake. No matter how you feel about beetroots in salads or soups, today´s featured cake will not be an acquired taste. Crushed beetroots are a wonderful way to make a moist, nearly molten cake. In this "Extremely Moist Chocolate-Beetroot Cake with Crème Fraîche and Poppy Seeds", the beetroots make themselves known, but only barely, or "elusively", as Nigel Slater says.

If you are pruchasing beetroots, look for small beetroots with the stalks still intact. To store fresh beetroots, cut off the leafy tops and then place to dry in a single layer in a wooden or cardboard box. To cook wash - but do not peel - the beetroot and either boil, steam or bake until tender. Once cool enough, the outer skin should be rubbed off. To avoid stained hands, wash them and anything else you have used as soon as possible. Beetroot leaves and stems can also be eaten, cook them as you would any other spring greens.

Consider beetroot recipes for salads, risottos, dips, tartare or soups with a dollop of sour cream. You can also prepare beetroot chutney, relish or sauce or you can simply pickle them, caramelize or roast them or make pancakes and soufflées with them. The possibilities are endless.

Recipe for Nigel Slater's Extremely Moist Chocolate-Beet Cake
(as adapted from “Tender” by Nigel Slater)

Ingredients for the Cake

• 240 grams (8.4 ounces) fresh beetroots
• 200 grams (7 ounces) dark chocolate (I used Lindt Excellence 70%)
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) freshly brewed espresso
• 200 grams (3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus some for greasing the pan
• 135 grams (1 cup plus 2 tbsp) plain/AP flour, plus some for the pan
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp good quality cocoa powder 
• 5 eggs (L), free range or organic if possible, separated
• one pinch of fine salt
• 200 grams (1 cup) superfine sugar

Ingredients for the Topping 

• crème fraîche (I used about 200 grams / 7 ounces of a French crème fraîche) – according to Nigel Slater the use of crème fraîche here “it is an important part of the cake”.
• poppy seeds (I used about two tbsp) 

Equipment

• one 22 centimeter (8 to 8 1/2 inches) spring form pan or other round cake pan
• some parchment paper (unbleached if possible) for lining the pan

Preparation of the Cake

1. Lightly butter an 8-inch springform cake pan and line the base with a round of parchment paper. Heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
2. Cook the beetroots, whole and unpeeled, in boiling unsalted water. Drain them, let them cool under running water, then peel them, slice off their stem and root, and process in a blender or food processor until you end up with a coarse purée.
3. Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a small bowl set over a pot of simmering water. NOTE: Do not stir!
4. When the chocolate looks almost melted, pour the freshly brewed espresso over it and stir but once. Cut the butter into small pieces and add them to the melted chocolate. Push the butter down under the surface of the chocolate with a spoon and leave to soften.
5. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa.
6. Separate the eggs, putting the egg whites in a large mixing bowl. Stir the yolks together.
7. Now, working quickly but gently, remove the bowl of chocolate from the heat and stir until the butter has melted into the chocolate. Let sit for a few minutes, then stir in the egg yolks. Do this quickly, mixing firmly and evenly so the eggs blend into the mixture.
8. Fold in the beetroots.
9. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold in the sugar. Firmly but gently, fold the beaten egg whites and sugar into the chocolate mixture. Take care not to over-mix.
10. Lastly, fold in the flour and the cocoa.
11. Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan and put in the oven, decreasing the heat immediately to 165 degrees Celsius (325 degrees Fahrenheit). Bake for about 40 minutes. The rim of the cake will feel spongy, the inner part should still wobble a little when gently shaken.
12. Set the cake aside to cool (it will sink a tad in the center), loosening it around the edges with a thin offset spatula after half an hour or so. It is not a good idea to remove the cake from its pan until it is has completely cooled.

Preparation of the Topping and Serving

1. Stir the crème fraîche ever so slighty and carefully spread in an even layer over the cake (this is best done with an offset spatula).
2. Sprinkle the poppy seeds over the cake.
3. Serve in thick slices.

Sources:

• “Tender Volume I: A Cook and his Vegetable Patch” by Nigel Slater (http://www.amazon.co.uk) published September 14, 2009 or for the US edition (http:// www.amazon.com),  published April 26, 2011.
• Baking pan from “Kaiser” (http://www.kaiser-backformen.de)
• Chocolate from “Lindt” (http://www.lindt.com)

If you do not mind showcasing vegetables in baked goods based on their flavor, texture, moisture, or even their nourishing qualities, this "Extremely Moist Chocolate-Beetroot Cake with Crème Fraîche and Poppy Seeds" is one fantastic way to do so. It has a sweet, earthy flavor and a warm color. Chocolate and beetroot are a particularly heavenly combination. This cake was so well received at our house, that I almost did not believe my eyes - except for the very youngest taste tester (who is all of four years old), the kids loved this cake - and they knew before they tasted the cake that it contained cooked and puréed beetroots.The crème fraîche topping is indeed a "must", it adds so much in taste and texture to this cake that I would not dream of serving a slice of this cake without its tangy topping.

If you continue to follow my series, you will notice that there will be one more cake with beetroots but this time they will be raw rather than previously cooked and they will lend a completely different texture to the baked cake.

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CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART I - CARROT - European-Style Carrot Cake

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART II - BEETROOT - Nigel Slater's Extremely Moist Chocolate-Beetroot Cake with Crème Fraîche and Poppy Seeds

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART III -SWEET POTATO - Sweet Potato Bundt Cake with Bourbon and Pecans
CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART IV - PUMPKIN - Mini Pumpkin Muffins and Pumpkin Biscuits

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART V - POTATO - Old-Fashioned Potato-Raisin Gugelhupf

CAKES & VEGETABLES - PART VI - PARSNIP - Parsnip Spice Cake

CAKES & VEGATABLES - PART VII - BEETROOT - Nigel Slater´s Beetroot Seed Cake