My favourite baking pan is not some third generation heirloom treasure but a ten dollar bargain I once purchased from the department store. As with most things, time will eventually allow that attractive patina of age to settle into it’s spring form frame. In the meanwhile, I’m rather enjoying the fact that nothing whatsoever sticks to it. Not even a batter, sticky with threads of sugary beetroot or slightly singed and caramelised raisins.

I baked this cake a few days ago and several days later, only a small slab of it remains on the kitchen counter. Testament to our greed and the cake’s deliciousness. The recipe is based on Joanne Chang’s classic carrot cake recipe from Flour. If you don’t like beetroot, make it with carrot, and be sure to make it in your favourite baking pan.

Beetroot cake with cream cheese frosting :

2 eggs
200g light brown sugar
150g vegetable oil
3 tablespoons yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
160g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
260g peeled and grated raw beetroot
80g raisins

Preheat the oven to 175’C. Butter and flour an 8-inch cake pan.

In a small bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger.

In a stand mixer, whisk the eggs and brown sugar for about 3 to 4 minutes until light and thick. In a small jug, whisk together the oil, yogurt and vanilla. Slowly pour the oil mixture into the egg mixture, mixing on low speed.

Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture, until just incorporated, then fold in the grated beetroot and raisins. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely on a wire rack before removing it from the pan and covering it in frosting.

For the cream cheese frosting :

250g cream cheese, at room temperature
80g unsalted butter, at room temperature
150g icing sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

Place the cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and salt in a bowl of a mixer. Beat well until smooth and creamy. Set aside until ready to be used.

This is going to be one of those times.

A time when you find yourself faced with someone enthusiastically insisting you simply must try what could possibly be as pedestrian or as bizarre as :

1) chocolate and bacon.. in a milkshake
2) avocado as a secret ingredient in perfect mashed potato
3) yet another chocolate chip cookie recipe

and you find yourself politely nodding and agreeing, swearing in butter and sugar that you will definitely bookmark the recipe to try soon. But inside you’re really thinking, what does she know! She :

a) is vegan
b) eats muesli for breakfast, for goodness sake!
c) uses the words ‘Wonderful!’ and ‘amazing’ too often.

Well, guilty as charged, I’m afraid. Maybe I had cake for breakfast this morning and perhaps it’s the sugar high talking, but freshly toasted parsnip cake, really is amazing and wonderful and totally worth succumbing to every cliche to share.

To further feed the cliche, creating cake of a parsnip inclination turns out to be as simple as taking your favourite banana bread or cake recipe and substituting an equal amount of mashed parsnip for the banana component. Here I’ve used a recipe from Flour by Joanne Chang. Include other flavours if you wish. Walnuts are a suitable match, as well as coffee essence. Then if possible, wait until the very next day to toast thick slices of the cake and serve with a flourish of honey or maple syrup. I used pine cone bud syrup because I foolishly bought a rather pricey bottle of it while on holiday once and have been struggling to use it in a meaningful way. Parsnip cake turns out to be one such way.

Parsnip and cocoa nib cake :
(based on a recipe in Flour by Joanne Chang)

210g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
230g sugar
2 eggs
50g melted butter
50g vegetable oil
about 340g of cooked parsnip puree [should be the same consistency as mashed banana]
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
2 tablespoons cocoa nibs

Preheat oven to 160’C. Butter a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

With an electric mixer, whisk the sugar and eggs until very light and fluffy. On low speed, slowly drizzle in the oil and melted butter. Mix in the parsnip puree, yogurt and vanilla until just combined. Fold in the flour mixture and cocoa nibs. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour. The top of the cake should be well browned and spring back when pressed lightly.

Cool completely before removing from tin. This cake can be eaten straight away but is even better the next day, when sliced thickly and toasted.

I enjoy government functions like I enjoy getting kicked in the nuggets with a steel toed boot. But this hotel always served bacon wrapped shrimp. That’s my number one favorite food wrapped around my number three favorite food.

— Ron Swanson, Parks and Recreation.

Two full days of gloom and rain has left me no choice but to give myself guilt-free permission to do nothing more strenuous than curl up on the couch for a whole afternoon, watching Parks and Recreation, and contemplating life’s big questions. Such as, can man live on cookies alone. And if so, why so many of us sing the praises of chubby, soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies when the wider family of chocolate cookies has much more to offer.

I first encountered ultra thin chocolate cookies like these at Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. We’d bought a selection of baked treats, which due to a prior visit to Humphrey Slocombe on the opposite side of the street, meant I only got a chance to devour much later in our hotel room (after walking off the excesses of the day).

A single bite of the ultra crisp, deeply chocolate cookie filled me with so much regret. Regret that I hadn’t bought more and that I wouldn’t have time to return to the bakery either.

With great thanks to Alice Medrich however, I stumbled upon this recipe several months ago and am happy to report that the end result very closely resembles the magical cookie I first tasted. These crispy chocolate chunk cookies are my number one favourite food encased in my number one favourite texture. Worth every last shattered crumb and chocolate smear that may displease the couch you’re curled up on.

Ultrathin Chocolate Chunk Cookies :
(recipe from Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy by Alice Medrich)

6 ounces/170g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 sticks/140g unsalted butter, melted
1.5 ounces/42g quick rolled oats
3.5 ounces/95g granulated sugar
1.75 ounce/50g dark brown sugar
2 ounces/55g light corn syrup
2 tablespoons whole milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 ounces/200g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped into chunks

Combine the flour and baking soda in a small bowl and mix together thoroughly with a whisk or fork.

In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, oats, sugars, corn syrup, milk, and salt. Mix in the flour mixture. If the batter is warm from the butter, let it cool before adding the chocolate. Stir in the chocolate chunks. If possible, let the dough rest for at least several hours at room temperature or (better still) overnight in the fridge. The rest makes for an especially crisp and extra-flavourful cookie!

Preheat the oven to 325’F/160’C. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

Divide the dough into 15 equal pieces. Lay out 3 sheets of aluminium foil, cut to fit your cookie sheets, on the counter. Arrange 5 pieces of dough well apart on each sheet of foil, remembering that the cookies will spread to 5 inches. Flatten each piece of dough until it is about 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Slide two of the sheets onto baking sheets.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cookies are thin and very brown. If they are too pale, they will not be crisp. Rotate the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking. Slide the foil with cookies onto racks to cool completely before removing the cookies from the foil. Repeat with the third batch – you can even slide the next foil and cookie dough onto a hot baking sheet as long as you put the pan in the oven immediately. Cool the cookies completely before stacking or storing. May be kept in an airtight container for at least 3 days.