Vegetables in pastry???

A cake made with vegetables? The idea startles, and then it delights: carrot, potato, courgette and turnip slip into pastry as easily as they do into savoury cooking. Here are four recipes to start the adventure.

Carrot cake (serves 8)

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 100 g of brown sugar
• 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
• The juice and zest of one lemon
• 75 g of ground almonds
• 50 g of starch
• ½ sachet of baking powder
• 150 g of grated carrot
• Butter for the tin

• 1 lemon
• 1 carrot
• 100 g of sugar

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 150 °C.
2. Separate the yolks into a bowl, add 3 tablespoons of boiling water and whisk.
3. Add the brown sugar, the vanilla sugar and the lemon zest and juice. Mix, then stir in the grated carrot and the ground almonds. Set aside.
4. In a small bowl, mix the starch and the baking powder.
5. In another bowl, whisk the whites to stiff peaks with a pinch of salt.
6. Stir the starch and baking powder into the first mixture.
7. Fold in the whisked whites gently, lifting the mixture as you go.
8. Pour the batter into a buttered deep tin (a charlotte mould works well) and bake for 1 hour.
9. For the decoration: slice the lemon and the carrot thinly, then cook them in 100 g of sugar and half a glass of water for about 25 minutes, stirring now and then so they do not catch. Leave to cool.
10. Once the cake is baked and cool, turn it out and chill it for 1 hour.
11. Serve the cake under its carrot and lemon confit.

Baking times shift from one oven to the next: test with the blade of a knife, which should come out clean.

Potato cake

Ingredients

• 1 medium potato
• 8 cl of milk (80 g on the scales)
• 50 g of bitter chocolate
• 200 g of sugar
• 60 g of butter
• 125 g of flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• ½ teaspoon of liquid vanilla
• 2 eggs

• ½ litre of crème anglaise
• 1 teaspoon of coffee extract

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 180 °C.
2. Boil the potato in salted water to make a purée. Once cooked, blend it with 3 cl of the milk.
3. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a bain-marie.
4. Beat the butter with the sugar until pale.
5. Add the purée, the chocolate and the baking powder, and whisk well.
6. Separate the yolks from the whites.
7. Stir the yolks into the mixture, along with the sifted flour, the remaining 5 cl of milk and the vanilla.
8. Whisk the whites to firm peaks with a pinch of salt, then fold them in gently, lifting the mixture from the bottom up with a spatula or a whisk.
9. Butter your tin, pour in the batter and bake until the blade of a knife comes out clean.
10. While it bakes, stir the coffee extract into the crème anglaise and chill for at least 1 hour. Serve the cake cool, with the crème anglaise alongside.

Courgette loaf

Ingredients

• 300 g of grated courgette
• 150 g of chopped walnuts
• 350 g of flour
• 300 g of caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• ½ sachet of baking powder
• ½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 200 ml of oil
• The zest of one lemon
• 10 g of butter
• A pinch of salt

• 1 small courgette
• Walnut halves

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 160 °C.
2. Wash and dry the courgettes, then grate them, skin and all.
3. In a large bowl, sift the flour, the baking powder, the bicarbonate of soda and the cinnamon.
4. In another bowl, beat the eggs and the sugar until pale.
5. Stir in the courgette and the oil, then beat again.
6. Add the lemon zest, the nutmeg, the chopped walnuts and the pinch of salt, and mix.
7. Work the dry ingredients in a little at a time, using a spatula.
8. Butter and flour a loaf tin, pour in the mixture and bake in a low oven.
9. Meanwhile, cut the small courgette into medium rounds and grill them lightly in a pan. Set aside.
10. Once the loaf is baked, turn it out onto a rack and decorate it with the courgette rounds and the walnut halves.

Note: to check it is baked, use the blade of a knife, which should come out clean.

Turnip cake

Ingredients

• 500 g of turnips
• 250 g of flour
• 200 g of sugar
• 125 g of butter
• 75 g of ground almonds
• 2 eggs
• 100 ml of milk
• ½ teaspoon of cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon of nutmeg
• A pinch of bicarbonate of soda
• A pinch of ground cloves
• A pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Wash and peel the turnips, cut them into pieces, then steam them.
2. Once cooked, mash them to a purée (you should have 150 g). Meanwhile, heat the oven to 180 °C.
3. Beat the sugar and butter until you have a pale, creamy paste.
4. Add the eggs one by one, working them into the mixture.
5. Stir in the sifted flour, the turnip purée, the ground almonds, the pinch of cloves, the pinch of bicarbonate, the cinnamon, the nutmeg and the pinch of salt.
6. Add the milk and mix carefully with a spatula, making sure everything binds.
7. Butter a tin (non-stick for preference), pour in the mixture and bake for about 40 minutes, testing with the blade of a knife.
8. Out of the oven, let it rest for 5 minutes, turn it out, then leave it to cool before serving.