The idea of sneaking ingredients that you or your family might not like into foods is not new.
Nor is the idea of packing some of our favourite foods with nutrient high ingredients to get more bang for our buck.
I am always experimenting with ways of getting as many nutrients into on one sitting as I possibly can. Why waste an afternoon snack on just a slice of banana bread when you can pack this bread full of nuts and seeds to increase its protein and fibre. Why simply mash potatoes for your dinner when you can mash in some white beans or cauliflower to increase the vitamins and minerals.
I especially use this technique for picky eaters who aren’t getting enough variety in their diet - they’ll never know!
Well, with the turnip I felt as though I had met my maker. Although I enjoy this vegetable occasionally, roasted, baked or mashed, when I received a glut of them in my vegetable bag over the last few weeks, I hit a wall.
Not wanting to be defeated, I decided to use the natural sweetness of this root vegetable and exploit its moist richness. I created this turnip cake with all of the winter spices around me. Cinnamon, ginger. nutmeg are all naturally sweet spices and work so well with root autumnal vegetables.
I could easily reduce the amount of butter and sugar I would usually put into a cake as the turnip provided the moisture and sweetness.
You’ll be surprised just how nice this cake is. I treated like a banana bread and sliced it warm or toasted it lightly. You could ice it or put some frosting but, frankly, who needs the extra sugar.
Spiced Autumn Turnip Cake
1/2 cup of butter (130 g)
1/2 cup of brown sugar (100 g)
3 eggs
1 medium turnip (ends up being about a cup of mashed turnip)
1 1/4 cups of flour (140g)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of dried ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
A dash of vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
A handful of chopped cashews or almonds
Line a loaf tin (3 * 7 inches) with greaseproof paper or a little oil
Pre heat oven to 160 oc fan or 180 oc.
Cream the butter and sugar by whisking it with an electric whisk. Mix well until it has gone quite pale in colour.
Whisk in the eggs and then all of the rest of the ingredients.
The mixture will be quite wet.
Pour into tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes.
Test to see if its done by sticking a skewer or fork into the mixture. If it comes out fairly dry the cake is done.
I love it served warm with a little low fat natural yogurt 
