Friday, August 27, 2010

Oh, For Goodness Cake!

I've come to discover that I'm totally and completely a creature of habit. In a way, of course, I did know that - being human! I'm quite comfortable in knowing what is what most (if not all) of the time, and even when I don't plan things to recur whenever the same catalysts are present, they always seem to! Take, for example, the vegetable garden I've been keeping since we moved in. Every year, I plant heirloom tomatoes, radishes, candy-cane beets and purple carrots. Every. Freaking. Year. Do I ever know what I'm going to do with everything once it's all ripe and ready? Am I forethinking in the amount of weeding, thinning, turning soil and general maintenance keeping any organic veggie garden (and especially one with heirlooms like mine) requires? Nope. If anything, I forget all those details by Christmastime (if not sooner), instead creating a notion that I was always able to deal with a tiny harvest. After all, it's just a few plants, right?

So I just continue on every season with the seed-starting, and only when I've been out weeding for two hours because I left the plots alone for two weeks does it come rushing back. Then comes the harvesting. Now, I love my veggies and all, but even I was sick of seeing cucumbers, radishes and carrots in my salad bowl! If the tomatoes would come, that would be a different story - I can eat them by the tonne, but I'm still waiting on my heirloom fruits to ripen.  

So I suppose it comes down to the fact that I'm now just admitting that I'm ridiculously habitual. And like previous years - remember the Carrot Glut of 2008? - there will likely be a rash of "holy crap I have all these vegetables" creations. I've already started with the pickle-fest this year, making almost 12 litres of the tangy, delicious snacks, and it's only the generous offer from a friend of mine to take the majority of my second (almost 12 lb) harvest that I'm not currently marketing cucumbers to everyone under the sun.

I'm not complaining that my garden, overflowing as it is, is doing so well - I too remember several years where we'd get nothing all Summer - not even a single cherry tomato. But sometimes, you just have to throw up your hands at all the insanity. It's a darn good thing that homegrown veggies are so tasty, otherwise I'd just ignore them to turn into compost!

For the cake (made as a way of both using up fresh produce and what was in my pantry), I was lucky enough to have a good amount of the fruit and veggies either come from my garden or the yards of nearby producers. I can't think of a better way to enjoy the local harvest when you just can't face another salad!


For Goodness Cake!
Makes 1 10" tube pan, 16 slices
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
1/4 cup hot water
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup psyllium fibre husks (optional)
2 tbsp chia seed (optional)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 large banana
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup pumpkin (or butternut squash) puree
1 1/2 cups pureed strawberries
1 Ataulfo (honey) mango, peeled and diced
1 medium peach, peeled and diced
1 tbsp vanilla
3 large, finely shredded carrots
1/3 cup sultana raisins, soaked in hot water and drained
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 10" tube pan.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together flaxseed and hot water. Set aside.
  3. Whisk together the flours, wheat germ, psyllium, chia seed, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
  4. In a food processor, blend together banana, ginger, sugars, oil, oumpkin puree, jam, mango, peach and vanilla. Pour into a large bowl and beat in the flaxseed mixture.
  5. Add the dry ingredients, beating well.
  6. Fold in the carrots, raisins and nuts.
  7. Bake 1 hour. Cool completely in the pan, then turn onto a serving plate and glaze if desired.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 305.0
Total Fat: 10.0 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 32.8 mg
Total Carbs: 53.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.6 g
Protein: 4.4 g

1 comment :

  1. Wow, the combination of produce in the cake sounds really interesting. I'm having the same problem trying to get rid of all the corn we have around here, so it went into a cake as well :D

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