THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 14, 1994 TAG: 9407190537
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By BETTY DOUGLASS, SPECIAL TO FLAVOR
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
MY LOVE OF fresh vegetables is most satiated in spring and summer, when tomatoes, corn, spinach and other produce is are abundant.
But my love of sweets remains untamed.
Recently, I remembered a Tomato Soup Spice Cake I made many years ago. It combined the goodness of tomato with sweet, luscious cake. Soon, I was searching for other cake recipes that use vegetables as ingredients.
Perhaps carrot cake is the most widely known among these ``neighborhood'' recipes, which are passed from one neighbor to another and are often found in community cookbooks.
Most are quick and inexpensive. They aren't fancy, just moist and tasty. Some are baked in layers, some in tube or bundt pans and some in oblong one-layer pans.
They're often served plain, or lightly dusted with confectioners' sugar, a sugar glaze or a frosting of one's choice.
Ingenious cooks have added vegetables to cakes for decades, partly because they have the produce on hand and partly because adding two or three cups of grated, pureed or chopped vegetables adds moistness to a simple cake.
Among the recipes I found is George Washington's Tea Cake, first served in 1783. It uses few ingredients and is flavored with carrots and cinnamon.
The sweetness of carrots makes them a natural for cake batters. Although modern carrot-cake recipes and those served in restaurants often are topped with cream-cheese frosting, the cake is just as tasty without icing.
To share here, I chose recipes in which the vegetable flavor does not predominate. I had fun asking tasters to determine what vegetables were in the cakes. Even the sauerkraut in Ray Kraft's Sauerkraut Surprise Cake was undetectable!
For a picnic or backyard gathering, Sweet Potato Chocolate Nut Cake, with its marbled effect, is a winner. Bake it in advance, wrap it well and store. When you're ready to serve it, cut it in wedges. It's great for eating out-of-hand.
Summer squash and zucchini are readily available in summer. They are delightful in Summer Squash Orange Cake and Chocolate Zucchini Cake. The latter is a layer cake with Seven-Minute Coffee Frosting. MEMO: Betty Douglass is a free-lance food writer and home economist in
Portsmouth. All recipes in this article have been kitchen-tested by the
author.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photos by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
Right: Sweet Potato Chocolate Nut Cake is great for a backyard
gathering.
Middle: Chocolate Zucchini Cake is topped with seven-minute coffee
frosting.
Bottom: Tomato Soup Spice Cake gains its moistness from canned
soup.
by CNB