Unusual Cake Ingredients
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Just browsing through recipe books at home for inspiration. Some of the F800 books have cake recipes with kidney beans and beetroot in them.
Has anyone tried them? Are they any good? Any other weird and wonderful typically savoury ingredients you'd recommend putting in a cake recipe (aside from carrots for carrot cake, obvs)?
I like trying cakes (and other treats) using unusual ingredients. Although, beetroot is becoming more common. Pre-COVID I often saw some kind of beetroot cake and/or beetroot latte on a cafe/restaurant menu. Likewise, avocado, I had a really tasty avocado brownie in a cafe. While on holiday I went to a place called Pâtisserie Potager (sadly now closed), which specialised in cakes made with locally sourced seasonal organic vegetables. They sold things like Leek Baked Cheesecake and Pumpkin Chiffon.
ACR wow, I wonder if they tasted nice? Amazing the types of ingredients you can put in a cake that might not be typical cake ingredients.
HappyTravels I've liked all of the vegetable cakes I've tried. They're always different to what you expected before your first bite.
I read one which was sweet potoate in a chocolate cake and courgette lemon and thyme in a cake too. Sounds adventurous hope they turn out nice.
Also you could look at BBC food Garden glut food cakes for some insperation https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/garden-glut-cake-recipes/amp
MelanieMason wow, who knew? There are a few recipes there that I’d be interested in trying. Thank you 
I’ve made bran flAke brownies from slimming world before. Tasty!! Oh and a Christmas cake and am sure it was beetroot. Delish!
My Aunt belongs to a fruit and veg conglomerate, where people all rent a piece of land and share the fruit and veg produced.
As such she finds herself with a ton fruit and veg that she wants to do something a little different with.
So far we've had a cake with courgette in (Not that nice) and a chocolate and beetroot cake which was delicious.
I'm dreading Sprout season though....
HappyTravels rossruby1977 You never know a strong enough cake flavour might just disguise the taste. 
There is a coca cola chocolate sponge cake. I think nigella. Its nice, as the cola makes the Sponge very light!
I've tried a few of these. A chocolate cake made with beetroot was nice - rich and moist. A cake made with grated marrow which was very much like a carrot cake but with the marrow instead. Also remember making chocolate truffles many years ago with mashed potato.
James Wong does a parsnip and banana loaf that's great ...and I have cooked various cakes with carrot and beetroot too ....all great.
I’ve always thought the veg are used to add sweetness without using sugar, and to make the cake more moist. Whether the total carb content is any less I don’t know. My granddaughter has just developed diabetes and we have to count carbs so I’d be interested to know.
I’ve had beetroot cakes and it’s fine. For me, beetroot does have a sweetness to it, so it works well
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