interesting cakes to try

1. http://harryeastwood.com/archives/416 

1. Take one eggplant, weighing around 400-450gm and poke it a few times with a knife. Steam for 5-10 minutes until starting to sag and look rather sorry for itself.
2. Allow the eggplant to cool down a little and then peel the skin off before blitzing it in a food processor to create a puree.
3. Put the eggplant in a small pan and reheat slightly.  Remove from the heat and then add 300gm of dark chocolate, broken in to chunks.  Mix and allow the heat of the eggplant and warm pan to melt the chocolate.
4. In a bowl mix together 50gm cocoa powder, 60gm ground hazelnuts, a pinch of salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 3 eggs and 200gm honey.
5. When the chocolate is completely melted in to the eggplant add the entire contents of the pan to your other ingredients.
6. Mix everything together then pour in to a 21cm spring form tin which has been greased and lined completely with baking paper.
7. Pop the cake in to an oven pre-heated to 180 degrees and cook for 30 to 35 minutes.
8. The cake will remain moist, so use your cake instincts to tell you when it is ready to come out of the oven.
9. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely in the tin.  This will take at least 3 hours – be patient!
10. Carefully remove the cake from the tin and place on a plate before dusting with extra cocoa powder.

2 small whole aubergines/1 large weighing 400g
300g best dark chocolate you can find (minimum 70% cocoa solids) broken into pieces
50g good quality cocoa powder
60g ground almonds
3 medium eggs
200g clear honey (I used seggiano chestnut honey)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp brandy

1 x 23cm diameter x 7cm cake tin
A skewer
A microwave
A blender (I used a stick blender)

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Line the tin with baking parchment and lightly grease the base and sides.
Cook the aubergine: prick all over with a skewer, place in a microwaveable bowl, cover with cling film and cook on a high heat in the microwave for 8 minutes until limp.
Leave until cool enough to handle then skin, discarding any water.
Purée in the blender and then add in the chocolate. Heat a little more in the microwave if the chocolate needs help melting.
Whisk all the other ingredients together in a large bowl.
Add the aubergine mixture. (this mix will be thick, don't worry)
Pour it into the tin, place in the bottom of the oven and cook for 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven. let it cool in the tin and then invert it onto a rack to finish cooling.

UNBELIEVABLY rich. Oh my. I had to make it in a square tin as my round tins were not deep enough, but it worked well. Do not over cook it, really. It is like a super rich, squidgy, honey scented brownie.


 http://www.tresnalee.com/chocolate-eggplant-torte/

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/22/zoe-williams-vegetable-cakes


For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare a 10-inch spring-form pan by lining it with baking parchment.

dry ingredients:
¼ cup ground almonds (I ground blanched almonds in the food processor)
1 ½ cups self-rising flour
5 Tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder

wet ingredients:
3 eggs
¾ cup sugar
4 oz. raw beet, peeled and finely grated
4 oz. low-fat buttermilk
2 Tablespoons strong coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


N.B. I don’t have any self-rising flour, so I mixed my own from all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt: 1 ½ teaspoons of aluminum-free baking powder and ½ teaspoon salt per cup of flour. I use aluminum-free baking powder because it does not have the potentially bitter, tinny taste of regular baking powder. I used Rumford.

Combine dry ingredients and stir well.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs with sugar until very light, almost to a ribbon but not quite (5-7 minutes on medium speed if you have an electric mixer). Add the beets and combine well. Add the buttermilk, coffee, and vanilla. Finally, add the dry ingredients, mixing well but not over-working the batter. Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes before unmolding.

for the chocolate glaze:

Melt in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over a pan of hot (not boiling) water:
½ cup dark chocolate

Stir in vigorously:

2 Tablespoons strong coffee
2 tablespoons honey


http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/08/beet-season-birthday-cake.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Velvet-Chocolate-Heartache-feel-good/dp/0593062361


Banana and toffee sticky cake
Ingredients
For the cake
3 medium free-range eggs
160 g light Muscovado sugar
250 g peeled and finely grated butternut squash
1 tbsp vanilla extract
50 g white rice flour
100 g ground almonds
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
80 g Brazil nuts, roughly chopped (or use pecans or macadamia)
150 g banana, peeled and finely sliced
For the syrup
50g unsalted butter
100g golden syrup
3 tbsp boiling water
Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the base of a 22 cm-square by 5-cm deep brownie tin with parchment paper. Grease parchment and sides of tin with butter.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and cappuccino coloured (roughly five minutes on full blast). Beat in the grated butternut squash and vanilla extract with a whisk until well combined.
Whisk in the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt until smooth. Finally, with the help of a spatula, mix in the Brazil nuts and banana (reserve a small handful of banana slices for the top).
Tip the mixture into the prepared tin. Dot the reserved banana slices over the top of the cake (flat, so that they look like circles) before placing the cake in the oven for 35 mintues.
Once cooked, remove the cake from the oven and let it stand in its tin to cool while you make the toffee syrup.
In a medium-sized saucepan melt the butter and the golden syrup with the water on a low heat until the butter has become liquid. Turn up the heat and, once boiling point has been reached (when the surface is covered in smallish bubbles), continue to boil hard for three minutes exactly.
Once the three minutes are up, take the pan off the heat immediately and beat the bubbles out of the mixture, which should take no longer than 30 seconds.
Drizzle the hot liquid over the cake quickly, which couldn't be happier for the warm, sticky syrup. I tend to tilt the cake in its tin left, right and back and forth whilst the toffee is still hot and runny to get it spread over the surface. If you go and answer the telephone even for 10 seconds, you will have missed the boat and the toffee will refuse to move, let alone run. If this happens, I'm afraid that the only thing to do is to start the toffee stage again and curse yourself for thinking that you could outwit the stuff.
Once the toffee has drenched the top of the cake, let it stand to sink in for 10 minutes before serving. This is heaven with vanilla or toffee ice cream.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/health-nutrition/nutrition-features/a-new-cookbook-subs-veggies-for-butter-and-sugar-in-sweet-treats/article1288926/page2/