Tell your children the beautiful chocolate cake in front of them is made with beetroot and the chances are they will turn their nose up.
Tell them after they’ve eaten it and they won’t believe you.
Sisters Jane Slater and Fiona Woodcock created The Cake Root company after becoming interested in substituting a good deal of the sugar in traditional cake recipes with root veg.
The result of their many hours’ experimenting in their kitchen is some of the best cakes we’ve yet to taste, all made with local ingredients and using a good deal less sugar than conventional recipes thanks to the sweetness of vegetable ingredients such as parsnip, sweet potato, beetroot and carrot.
The latest flavour, an unlikely sounding but absolutely delicious courgette, pistachio and lemon cake is baked with fresh courgettes, sunflower oil, free range eggs, lemon juice and lemon zest and has a tangy lemon drizzle topping.
Jane and Fiona, who have until recently been based in Longframlington near Morpeth, have just bought a redundant sawmill near Belford and hope, planning restrictions allowing, to convert one of the buildings into The Cake Root Bakery.
Their ingredients are all local, with free range eggs from Sunny Hill Farm, honey from Chainbridge Honey Farm and the vegetables direct from Titlington Farm or local farmers’ markets.
Cake Root signature varieties include parsnip with lime and ginger, sweet potato with coconut and honey, and carrot with orange and walnut. Individual portions are packed in practical biodegradable and compostable containers, complete with biodegradable serviettes and little cake boards.
Cake Root products are available at a variety of outlets, including Shoreline Café, Craster, Stewart and Co, Jesmond, Great Coffee, Gosforth and Newcastle Quayside, Eleanors Byre, Embleton and online at www.foodlocalfood.com
For more info, see www.thecakeroot.co.uk
