Lemon and lavender swede cake

This is from Harry Eastwood’s Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache, a wonderful book of cake recipes made using vegetables (think carrot cake, then beetroot, then take a big leap of faith and try sweet potato, swede and potato!).  I promise you cannot taste the swede in it – but I found it was best not to tell people it was in there until after they’d tucked into it and said how good it was; the look on their faces of such confusion that they were enjoying a cake made of swede was brilliant!  My first attempt at this was a huge success (the original recipe uses wheat free rice flour but I’ve substituted it for plain flour), although I have to confess that I made it again recently but tried using mini loaf cases – this did not work very well at all and it went a bit soggy and collapsed slightly.  Stick to a loaf tin in future...

Ingredients

200g swede, peeled and diced into 2cm cubes
120g clear honey
2 medium eggs
Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
1 heaped tbsp dried lavender flowers
60g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

For the drizzle
3 tbsp golden caster sugar
2 tbsp water
Juice of  1 lemon

To decorate
1 tbsp golden caster sugar
A few lavender flowers

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line the base of a loaf tin with baking parchment and lightly brush the parchment and the sides of the tin with a little vegetable oil, then set aside.
2. Place the diced swede in a heatproof bowl with a splash of water and cover with cling film. Cook in the microwave on high for 7 minutes, until soft to the touch.  Once cooked through, drain off the excess water and blend to a fine purée.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the honey and eggs for 2 minutes, until bubbly.  Add the lemon zest, lavender flowers, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt, and whisk again for 20 seconds.
4. Once all the ingredients are fully incorporated, whisk in the swede purée to combine.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and put in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes.
6. While the cake is cooking, prepare the drizzle. Dissolve the sugar in the water by heating slowly in a small pan. As soon as the sugar has dissolved, take off the heat and set aside. Add the lemon juice when the sugar syrup is cool.
7. Remove the cake from the oven, leave it in the tin and prick it right through to the bottom with a skewer so that it is covered in lots of little holes.
8. Drizzle the lemon syrup over the cake while the cake is still hot and at its most absorbent.
9. Once cooled slightly, sprinkle with the remaining sugar and some lavender flowers.