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Cutting board with cranberry orange parsnip cake with cream cheese frosting

Orange Cranberry Parsnip Cake

The real title of this recipe should be Orange Cranberry Parsnip Cake with Honey Syrup and Cream Cheese Frosting but that is too long. Really it’s kind of a carrot cake with the carrots swapped out for parsnips and the raisins swapped out for dried cranberries. I added the honey syrup because it is a secret little weapon for cakes like this. It adds a bit of sweetness but is really there to keep everything moist.

Are you wondering when I’m going to address the elephant in the room? When am I going to talk about the parsnips? That, my friends, is called burying the lede and here we’ve gotten to it in any case. Why would I switch out the carrots for parsnips? In this case it was because I had extra parsnips and I didn’t have any carrots. To my surprise, the parsnips work in the same way as the carrots (holding moisture and adding a nice texture) without the carroty-ness or any parsnipy-ness so what really comes through in this recipe is the orange flavor and the spices.

I understand that takes a leap of faith and, honestly, if you don’t already enjoy carrot cake this probably isn’t going to be the thing that gets you across that particular line. But if you like a nice, fresh cake that is pleasantly spiced and dressed with the sweet tang of cream cheese frosting I think you’ll find a lot to like here.

The possibilities are also nearly endless depending on what you like. If you don’t like dried cranberries, you can use raisins or golden raisins or chopped up dates. You can add toasted pecans instead of the walnuts or leave the nuts out all together. If you really like cloves, you can add that flavor in or up the nutmeg. Tinker to your heart’s desire because this is a very sturdy recipe. I made mine in a loaf tin but it would also work as a snack cake or as cupcakes. What I’m trying to say is that this cake is here for you. It can be what you need it to be and make you forget you ever wondered if parsnips in cake was a good idea.

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10-12 slices in a loaf tin

20 minutes to mix, 45 minutes to bake

Ingredients

For the cake

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 packed cup parsnips, grated

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Zest of one orange

Juice of half an orange (you’ll use the other half in the frosting)

1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

For the honey syrup

1/3 cup runny honey

1/3 cup water

For the cream cheese frosting

150g softened cream cheese

50g softened unsalted butter

Up to 500g icing sugar

Juice of 1/2 an orange

1 tsp vanilla essence

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C / 160C fan and butter your bread tin. Put the walnuts on a sheet pan and put them in the oven while it is warming up. They will be toasted by the time you need to add them to the batter.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the EGGS, OIL and PARSNIPS. When that is all incorporated, add the SUGAR, BAKING SODA, BAKING POWDER, GROUND CINNAMON, GROUND NUTMEG, ORANGE ZEST and ORANGE JUICE. Give everything another good mix so you have a very wet batter. Fold in your WALNUTS and DRIED CRANBERRIES.

If you have a sieve, sieve in the SALT and FLOUR. Mix until everything is incorporated and pour into the butter loaf tin.

Set your timer for 40 minutes and put the tin in the oven. It could take up to an hour to bake, depending on your oven but start checking at 40 minutes. It is done when a skewer stuck in the center comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, make the honey syrup and the frosting. For the syrup, just put the RUNNY HONEY and WATER in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for a minute and then take off the heat and let cool.

Cream cheese frosting is a little-bit-of-this-and-little-bit-of-that game until you get the consistency right but you need the cream cheese and butter to be soft from the beginning or you’re stuck. If you’ve forgotten to leave them out, wait until the cake is done and put them in the turned off oven for a few minutes in the residual heat to soften.

Once they are, put the CREAM CHEESE and BUTTER in a bowl and mix with a hand mixer on high speed for a minute or two until you get a very smooth consistency.

Add the ORANGE JUICE and VANILLA and mix again until smooth.

Start with half the ICING SUGAR and mix. Keep adding icing sugar and mixing until you have the consistency you like. It tends to stay loose so if you want it to hold its shape you need to keep adding icing sugar.

When the cake is done, let it cool on a rack for about ten minutes. Then take your skewer and poke regular holes all over the top and pour your honey syrup in. Let it continue to cool until you can pick it up with your bare hand on the bottom.

Turn out onto a plate upside down and then flip back over. Yes, it is an extra plate to clean but I’ve not figured out a better way to do it without mangling the whole thing. Smear your frosting on (or pipe it, if you’re feeling fancy) and scatter some extra orange zest if you have some laying around. Great with a cup of Earl Grey tea with almond milk. Yum!

Tags:Easy