I enjoy baking as a hobby, especially baking easy “snacking cakes” as popularized by my favorite recipe developer, Yossy Arefi. I also enjoy desserts that contain unexpected or savory flavors. And so this season I made a fun challenge for myself to bake cakes to share at UFI that contain vegetables that we grew.
First I baked parsley cake, a recipe that Food52 adapted from Roberta’s Cookbook. Yes, parsley in a cake! And no, it isn’t savory, as it’s got twice as much sugar as it has parsley. I’ve made this recipe a few years in a row now, and I always think it’s fun to share and hear people’s reactions. To paraphrase the recipe’s header, if we accept mint in our ice cream, why not parsley in our cakes? I harvested the exactly perfect amount of parsley growing at ReVision Urban Farm (our farm site on Fabyan Street) to make it. I always substitute the mint that the recipe calls for with more parsley. I baked it in a 9×13-inch pan, which took at least double the baking time listed in the recipe. I suspect that halving the recipe and baking it in an 8-inch square or 9-inch round cake pan would work well, but I haven’t tested it (yet). This cake is especially enjoyable toasted in the toaster oven and served with a drizzle of olive oil and flaky salt.
Leftover parsley cake, toasted, served with honey-sweetened Greek yogurt, lemon zest, and flaky salt.
Next up, I used carrots that were also harvested from Fabyan Street to make Yossy Arefi’s carrot loaf cake with tangy lemon glaze. But — this will be a recurring theme — I skipped making the glaze. With cinnamon and cardamom, this cake makes for a cozy snack. Yossy Arefi has developed a number of carrot cakes, and I think my favorite is the tahini carrot cake.
Giant carrots from our second planting at Fowler Clark Epstein Farm in 2026.
After the familiar comfort of a carrot cake, I went rogue again and made tomato upside-down cake from Erin Jeanne McDowell’s cookbook The Fearless Baker (page 112), using Al-Kufa tomatoes grown at Fowler Clark Epstein Farm on Norfolk Street. I challenged the cake-eaters to guess what produce item the cake contained. Only Greg got it correct, proving himself to be a true urban ag head. Shoutout to the youth in the Young Farmers Project for having the adventurous palates to taste this unconventional cake. Two notes on baking this cake: I substituted sour cream for the creme fraiche and whole wheat flour for the graham flour, since that’s what my local grocery store carries. And Erin Jeanne McDowell isn’t exaggerating wen she says in the recipe to use a springform pan or a pan that’s at least 3 inches high, because this recipe makes a lot of batter and the cake is really tall.
In late July, the first week of the tomato harvest.
Of the thousands of pounds of tomatoes that we harvested, this one was the most amusing.
I returned to the classics with PJ Hamel’s recipe for chocolate zucchini cake from King Arthur Baking. We grew an abundance of zucchini and summer squash at Astoria Quarter Acre Farm on Flint Street. I decided to be frugal about it, so I omitted the chocolate chips and made Yossy Arefi’s cocoa glaze that uses cocoa powder instead of the icing in the recipe that uses chocolate chips. Despite these two omissions, farmer trainee Tracey still described the cake as rich!
Giant squash awaited us after the Fourth of July weekend.
More chocolate, this time with chocolate beet cake from BBC Good Food. Chocolate and beet are complimentary, earthy flavors. Come to think of it, chocolate beet cake is probably the vegetable cake that I’ve been consistently making for the longest, although I don’t have loyalty to any particular chocolate beet cake recipe. This recipe calls for vacuum packed beets, while I used roasted beets harvested from ReVision Urban Farm on Fabyan Street. It also calls for self-rising flour, which isn’t a common ingredient in our region, but is very easy to substitute by combining flour, salt, and baking powder. Instead of making the frosting, I sprinkled turbinado sugar over the cake before baking.
The beets grew to be very large this year.
The cake had a slight reddish hue from the beets and a crunchy top from the sprinkling of turbinado sugar.
Finally, I made gingery winter squash cake from Yossy Arefi’s Snacking Cakes (page 120) using one and a half petite kabocha squashes grown at Astoria Quarter Acre Farm. I’m most familiar with pureed canned pumpkin in cakes, but this cake uses shredded raw winter squash or sweet potato. Since it’s essentially a vehicle for candied ginger, I’ve made this recipe three times.
A stylish kabocha squash.
The cake was an appealing golden color.
I’m already dreaming and scheming about what vegetables I’ll bake into desserts next growing season. I didn’t decide which fennel cake recipe to try before the plants bolted. How much cilantro can I get away with putting in Jesse Szewczyk’s cilantro-lime sugar cookies? In the meantime, I hope you enjoy some fun and tasty baking projects.
Khadejeh Al-Rijleh is UFI’s Farm Stand Coordinator. She has been involved in urban farming since 2023 and is excited to be growing veggies and connecting with the people who enjoy eating them.