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    Home » Vegan Recipes » Vegan Baking Recipes » Parsnip Cake with hazelnuts

    Parsnip Cake with hazelnuts

    Published: May 17, 2022 by Kate Ford · This post may contain affiliate links.

    Parsnip Cake
    JUMP TO RECIPE JUMP TO VIDEO
    Pinterest pin for Parsnip Cake

    This deliciously moist parsnip cake with hazelnuts is a quirky twist on a classic carrot cake. Layered with a cream cheese icing, it is easy to make even for novice bakers.

    🍴 Why you will love this recipe

    If you're a carrot cake lover like me, why not try this delicious twist - parsnip cake with hazelnuts? Parsnips are sweet and earthy so it makes perfect sense to bake them into a cake, as you would carrots.

    This is a really easy cake to make with no food mixer needed - just combine the ingredients in a large bowl, then bake.

    You could swap in any nuts you like if you don't have hazelnuts to hand - pistachios, walnuts or pecans would be absolutely delicious! For a more intense flavour, toast the nuts in a dry frying pan or under the grill, (but watch carefully, they can burn in seconds!).

    Jump to:
    • 🍴 Why you will love this recipe
    • 📝 What you need
    • 👩🏽‍🍳 How to make your Parsnip Cake
    • 🔪 Top Tips & FAQs
    • 🍽 If you liked that...
    • 📖 Recipe
    • 💬 Comments and Reviews
    Ingredients for Parsnip Cake

    📝 What you need

    Ingredients

    Parsnips This cake is a great way to use up leftover parsnips if you grow your own or have surplus from a roast dinner. You will probably need 2 fairly large parsnips, but do weigh them so you get the right amount.

    Hazelnuts are a buttery, creamy nut, and a great pairing with parsnip. If you prefer you could use walnuts, pistachios or pecans instead.

    Rapeseed oil is a good flavourless oil for baking - sunflower oil would also work well.

    Ground almonds add a moist texture to the cake, but you can blitz more hazelnuts to a fine powder if you like, or swap them out for the same weight of self-raising flour instead.

    Soya milk is the best milk to use for baking as it has the highest protein content, but the cake will still turn out well with oat or nut milks instead.

    Equipment

    Whilst you don't need a food mixer for the cake mix itself, (a large bowl and a good spatula or spoon will do fine), the icing does really benefit from a good beat in a mixer or with an electric whisk.

    A good hand whisk like this one from Morphy Richards *at under £13 will definitely do the job, and will spare your arm from an awful lot of beating by hand.

    But a good food mixer, although quite a big investment, really does make a huge difference for very light and fluffy cakes, buttercreams, and also kneading bread or pizza dough, whisking plant cream or aquafaba, and anything else that needs a lot of power. I have this KMix by Kenwood* which is £289 and worth every penny - I've had it for over 10 years now and it is really good quality.

    The only other bit of kit that makes a difference is decent cake tins. I love my loose-bottomed tins from Lakeland* - pleasingly heavy, and nothing ever seems to stick.

    👩🏽‍🍳 How to make your Parsnip Cake

    For a full, printable recipe with ingredients and detailed instructions, scroll to the bottom of this page 👇🏼 .

    mix dry ingredients and grate parsnip

    In a large bowl mix the self-raising flour, ground almonds, soft brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Peel and grate the parsnips and finely chop the hazelnuts.

    mix wet ingredients into dry

    Combine the rapeseed oil and soya yoghurt. Mix the wet ingredients into the bowl, then stir through the parsnips, hazelnuts and sultanas.

    bake and make icing

    Divide the cake mix between the two tins and bake for 30-35 minutes. Leave to cool. Make the icing by beating together dairy-free margarine, vegan cream cheese and icing sugar.

    layer and scatter with hazelnuts

    Sandwich the two cakes together with icing, then spread the remainder over the top and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts.

    Vegan Parsnip Cake

    🔪 Top Tips & FAQs

    Storing the cake overnight in an airtight container or tin before icing makes a huge difference to the texture.  The crust will become soft and the cake will become even more moist.  

    As soon as the wet ingredients are mixed into the dry, try to work quickly to get the cakes into the oven as soon as possible. The raising agent will get to work as soon as it is mixed with the yoghurt, and you want this to happen in the oven, not beforehand!

    Can I freeze my parsnip cake?

    The cakes freeze very well, but the icing doesn't. So you can make the cakes well in advance, put a layer of baking parchment between the two cakes, and freeze in an airtight container. Then defrost and layer with icing before serving.

    Can I make this into individual cakes?

    Yes, this works very well as mini individual layer cakes, (I love this mini loose-based sandwich tin from Lakeland for this), or as cupcakes. The recipe as it is will make 14-16 individual cakes so you may want to reduce the quantities slightly.

    How long will this parsnip cake keep?

    If kept in an airtight tin or container the cake stays moist for 3-4 days.

    🍽 If you liked that...

    .... you might also enjoy these vegan recipes from The Veg Space:

    • vegan carrot cake
      Easy Vegan Carrot Cake
    • Curried Parsnip Soup
      Curried Parsnip Soup
    • parsnip curry
      Creamy Parsnip Curry with lentils
    • Vegan Jaffa Cakes
      Vegan Jaffa Cakes

    Loved this recipe? ⭐️ Leave a star rating below! 📸 Snap a photo of your finished dish and share it with me on Instagram, tagging me @thevegspace or #thevegspace 📩 And get all my latest recipes in a weekly e-mail by subscribing to my newsletter.

    📖 Recipe

    Parsnip Cake

    Parsnip Cake with hazelnuts

    Kate Ford | The Veg Space
    This deliciously moist parsnip cake with hazelnuts is a quirky twist on a classic carrot cake. Layered with a cream cheese icing, it is easy to make even for novice bakers.
    5 from 7 votes
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    Prep Time 15 minutes mins
    Cook Time 30 minutes mins
    Total Time 45 minutes mins
    Course Cake
    Cuisine British
    Servings 12 slices
    Calories 666 kcal

    Ingredients
      

    For the cake:

    • 325 g self-raising flour
    • 75 g ground almonds
    • 240 g light brown sugar
    • 2 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • ½ teaspoon salt
    • 250 g parsnips
    • 120 g hazelnuts
    • 120 g sultanas
    • 400 ml soya milk unsweetened
    • 160 ml rapeseed oil

    For the icing:

    • 400 g icing sugar
    • 100 g dairy-free block margarine at room temperature
    • 100 g dairy-free cream 'cheese'
    • 1-2 tablespoon soya milk
    • handful hazelnuts

    Instructions
     

    For the cake:

    • Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.  Grease two 23cm (9 inch) cake tins and line with baking parchment / greaseproof paper.
    • In a large bowl combine the self-raising flour, ground almonds, light brown sugar, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt.
    • Peel and trim the parsnips and grate them. Chop the hazelnuts.
    • Add the soya milk and rapeseed oil into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
    • Stir through the parsnip, hazelnuts and sultanas.
    • Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake for 30-35 minutes until a knife or skewer comes out clean.
    • Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack, peel off the paper and leave until fully cool.
    • TOP TIP: If you have time, the cake will be even better if you now put it in an airtight container or tin overnight.  The crust will become soft and the cake will become more moist.  

    For the icing:

    • Mix the icing sugar, margarine and cream cheese in a food mixer (or large bowl with a hand whisk), and beat together until completely smooth. 
    • Add the soya milk one tablespoon at a time until the icing is light and fluffy.
    • Sandwich the two cakes together with a layer of icing in the middle (use about one third of the icing for this), and spread the remaining icing over the top of the cake. 
    • Sprinkle with roughly chopped hazelnuts if you wish.

    ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION

    Video

    Notes

    Storing the cake overnight in an airtight container or tin before icing makes a huge difference to the texture.  The crust will become soft and the cake will become even more moist.  
    As soon as the wet ingredients are mixed into the dry, try to work quickly to get the cakes into the oven as soon as possible. The raising agent will get to work as soon as it is mixed in, and you want this to happen in the oven, not beforehand!

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1sliceCalories: 666kcalCarbohydrates: 90gProtein: 8gFat: 33gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 7gMonounsaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 1gSodium: 308mgPotassium: 328mgFiber: 4gSugar: 61gVitamin A: 437IUVitamin C: 7mgCalcium: 156mgIron: 2mg
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was! Mention @thevegspace or #thevegspace
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    Vegan in 15 by Kate Ford

    For more quick and easy vegan recipes take a look at my latest book Vegan in 15.

    "Brilliant! Chock full of easy recipes and great tips and advice"  Hello! Magazine

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    « Celeriac Steak
    Creamy Parsnip Curry with lentils »

    About Kate Ford

    Hi! I'm Kate, vegan home cook and blogger behind The Veg Space and author of Vegan in 15. I'm passionate about creating easy vegan recipes that even a first-time cook can follow.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Jesse-Gabriel says

      May 22, 2022 at 3:11 pm

      Ich kenne Kuchen mit Pastinaken, super lecker.
      Den Kuchen sieht traumhaft aus, der kann nur schmecken!
      Viele Grüße,
      Jesse-Gabriel

      Reply
      • Kate Ford says

        May 23, 2022 at 4:23 pm

        Vielen Dank! Schön, dass dir der Kuchen geschmeckt hat. Kate

        Reply
    2. Caitlin says

      May 17, 2022 at 5:10 pm

      This cake is fantastic! So tasty and easy to make, love it for springtime.

      Reply
    3. Mirlene says

      May 17, 2022 at 5:07 pm

      What an interesting use of parsnips in a cake! I'll make this cake for my kids and hope they wont know that parsnips were involved. I'm sure they'll love it

      Reply
    4. Claudia Lamascolo says

      May 17, 2022 at 4:56 pm

      What an intriguing and unique recipe. I have never had a parsnip and now I am off to get some to try this!

      Reply
    5. Suja md says

      May 17, 2022 at 4:31 pm

      This looks amazing and such a treat! Thank you!

      Reply
    6. Cara says

      May 17, 2022 at 4:02 pm

      I love parsnips, and definitely have never thought of putting them in a cake before! It was so delicious - and such a great idea!

      Reply
      • Jools Miller says

        September 12, 2023 at 11:44 pm

        Hello, I am so excited to find you, I have been vegan a couple of years, it's my birthday in September I will be trying this cake for sure.

        Lots of love
        Lush London...x

        Reply
        • Kate Ford says

          September 22, 2023 at 9:36 am

          That's great to hear - thanks Jools!

          Reply

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