Veggie Desserts + Cakes: Carrot Cake and Beyond by Kate Hackworthy {review}

To be honest with you I've not ventured far into the world of baking with vegetables beyond the "normal" things like carrot cake and pumpkin pie. Kate's book has opened my eyes and my mind to the possibilities of the roles vegetables can play in my baking!

Kate Hackworthy is a fellow blogger and baker and after following her blog on social media for the last few years I jumped at the opportunity to review her new book Veggie Desserts + Cakes! Not only does she write for her own blog, but she always writes a column for Vegetarian Living magazine where she writes about healthy recipes for kids.

This book isn't an "how to hide vegetables in your baking to make it healthier" this is a book that showcases vegetables as the star of the show! With recipes for Kale and Apple Cake with Apple Icing and Avocado Chocolate Cupcakes with Cherry Icing and Sweet Potato and Salted Hazelnut Cookies there is no hiding that these recipes are still going to hit the sweet spot!

Those are just a few of the recipes I would love to try out! The chapters cover Cakes, Cupcakes, Cookies, Squares + Traybakes, Pies + Pastries, Frozen Desserts, and more Sweet Treats. All the things you can expect in a great baking book! I should know I have read many baking books over the years!

As with all book reviews I do I always like to make a list of recipes I'd love to try and with 60 original recipes choose from it's hard not to list all of them! But I've narrowed it down to these...

Kale and Apple Cake with Apple Icing
Beetroot Chocolate Bundt Cake with Earl Grey Icing
Pea and Vanilla Cake with Lemon Icing
Pear and Parsnip Cake with Salted Honey Buttercream and Chocolate Ganache
Cucumber and Lemon Cake with Gin Icing
Chocolate Mashed Potato Cupcakes with Espresso Icing
Avocado Chocolate Cupcakes with Cherry Icing
Pumpkin Cupcakes with Avocado Icing
Sweetcorn and White Chocolate Cookies with Blackberry Glaze
Sweet Potato and Salted Hazelnut Cookies
Pumpkin Gingernuts
Parsnip Coconut Macaroons
Sweet Potato and Pecan Brownies
Carrot, Parsnip and Coconut Flapjacks
Beetroot Seedy Squares
Black Bean Chocolate Brownies
Mascarpone Tart with Beetroot Pastry
Avocado Lime Tarts
Pumpkin Pie with Chai Cream
Beetroot and Vanilla Sorbet
Chocolate Beetroot Baked Doughnuts with Blueberry Glaze
Butternut Squash Cinnamon Rolls with Almond Glaze
Sweet Potato Dessert Waffles
Sparkling Carrot Lemonade

As you can see there is a lot of variety of baked goods and different vegetables to choose from! If you are looking for a new way to use up vegetables or just to try something new give Veggie Desserts + Cakes a look!! This weekend I will be trying out the Pumpkin Cupcakes with Avocado Icing and I can't wait to share with you how they turn out!!

This book offers so much and to get a taste of what the book is like visit Kate's blog Veggie Desserts or see more of her delicious recipes on one of social media channels - Facebook or Instagram or Twitter! 

*I was given a copy of Veggie Desserts + Cakes: Carrot Cake and Beyond by Kate Hackworthy to review by the publisher, Pavilion, Retails at £14.99 and available now from your local book retailers or online! All opinions are my own, I was not given any other compensation nor was I asked to give a positive review, please see my contact/policy page for more information.

Silky’s Pop Cakes! Inspired by The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton

My favorite part about being a parent is sharing my love of books with my girls. Okay my favorite part is hearing two little voices tell me that they love me and then talk back to me all in the same sentence. That is my favorite part, but my second favorite part is sharing my love of books with them.

I am pretty lucky that they both enjoy a good story! Now that they are a bit older I made an executive decision to start reading them a chapter book before bed instead of children books. I don’t mind some of the children’s books like The Gruffalo, but some are tedious. When I say some I mean at least half of them. It’s great that they can read these books themselves now which means I don’t have too.

We started with The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton and we've been reading one or two chapters a night. We’re almost finished. I was just as excited as they were because I've never read it before either. So, far we've enjoyed the journey’s up the tree and meeting all sorts of crazy characters like Moonface, Silky, Mr. Whatshisname, and The Saucepan Man.

The tree not only has interesting characters living in the tree, but interesting treats. The one that intrigued us the most was Silky’s pop cakes that are small cakes that have a delicious honey filling.

So, one afternoon we made our own version of Pop Cakes, no way are they as good as Silky’s I’m sure, but they turned out pretty darn good!

We made honey cakes, filled them with a bit of honey and popping candy they were super tasty and made a perfect after school treat!

Pop Cakes!

110g unsalted butter

75g light brown sugar

2 tablespoons honey

2 eggs

150g self-rising flour

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon milk

12 tsp of vanilla flavored honey

12 tsp of popping candy (optional)

Heat the oven to 180C and line a muffin pan with fairy cake liners. Beat the butter before adding the sugar and honey beat until lighter in color. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until combined, beat slowly then fast it might look a little curdled but once you add the flour, which you should do now it will be fine. Add the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and milk and mix until combined. Spoon one tablespoon into each fairy cake liner. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes.

They should be a nice golden brown color. Once they have cooled gently take an apple corer and take out the middles, but save the cake part. Then whisk the honey and popping candy together before adding a tsp of the mixture into each hole in the cakes replace the cake that was taken out and press down.

Icing: Now I iced them with a little bit of icing sugar, milk, and honey. I didn't think to weigh it out I just eyeballed it as I didn't want a lot. It was probably about 100g of icing sugar 1-2 tsp of milk 1-2 tsp of the vanilla flavored honey. Then I took about a tablespoon and drizzled it on top of the cakes and sprinkled a pinch of popping candy on top of each one!

Have you read The Enchanted Wood? If you have, did you always wonder what Silky’s Pop Cakes with there gooey honey centers might taste like?

If you haven’t have you read anything else by Enid Blyton? What one of her novels/books was your favorite?

notes: This post is written in conjunction with my new project #storybookbakes, it is where I will be sharing recipes that were inspired by some of my favorite books!

The last book I was inspired by was Paddington and I made Huffkin’s!!