Saturday, June 22, 2013

Kale Cake and Garden Updates

Last night Nim settled the snuggle territory dispute.


Meanwhile I made the Kale Cake I was thinking about doing all quarter long. As you can see I actually made baby loaves.


The kale cake is actually pretty darn good. I omitted the cream cheese frosting because I have never liked it, vegan or not, and I omitted the sweet potato filling because it just sounded too weird which I realize doesn't make a lot of sense considering I made a kale cake.

It actually would probably be very good with a white frosting and if I wasn't so anti-dishes right now I probably would have made it. It hints more towards carrot cake than zucchini bread.

My modifications to the cake recipe:
  • Three EnerG eggs rather than the 6 tablespoons of flax seed meal (adjusted water to 1/2 cup)
  • 50/50 whole wheat and all-purpose flour
  • Omitted 1/2c oil, subbed with 1/2c applesauce
  • Stayed on the low side of the sugar - 1 cup
I did puree the blanched/shocked kale with all the wet ingredients before combining with the dry. I did it in a Cuisinart and it made every thing a nice green color. If you read the comments on the recipe page it sounds like if you don't puree you end up with a white cake with green leaves and I bet people really don't want to eat it then. 

If you are feeding people that would eat carrot cake they will enjoy this cake, if you are feeding people that wouldn't touch carrot cake they REALLY won't touch kale cake. I bet if you frosted it, kids would totally eat it.

This cake also has held up well for storage unlike the "green monster" style baked goods I have attempted (spinach).

On to garden updates...


The above photo is my Brussels Spouts. They don't look right at all. I finally looked up how they grow and apparently this is a normal stage. So I will be patient.


As you can see I have finally grown something edible! My first peas.


I have decided that the above box will here forward be known as "Nim's Garden." I thought as things started growing he might be less inclined to rearrange it. I thought wrong. At least things are still growing.


Today I had a special coupon for flowers I just couldn't let go to waste so I did three more flower pots.


Nim helped, I think he is actually licking that one.


Mostly these are begonias, dahlias, and those purple ones are some sort of hybrid petunia. That pot is in the elk "flower throwing" zone as years previous have demonstrated so I am curious to see how they hold out.


I finally took pity on Nim and let him in the house to sleep. He just won't quite settle enough in the yard and he gets so tired his eyes can hardly stay open.


As you can tell, we have some sunshine today!

8 comments:

  1. Oh no dog cooties on the snuggle! The cats will never use it again. Congrats on growing your first edible produce. I think it will take a few more to make a meal ;-)

    I love carrot cake so maybe kale cake would be good to try.

    Have a good weekend.

    Cindy

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    1. You really should try the cake. The 6 tablespoons of flax seed meal would = 6 eggs, which seems a bit excessive to me which is why I did the equivalent of 3 EnerG egg replacer, but at least you have an idea if you make it with real egg. I am not sure how much it would have changed the recipe to make it more fluffy? Especially considering I put some wheat flour in there.

      You have a good weekend too. :) Emile might be offended about the dog cooties, but not Leela.

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  2. Here you go with that baking again! Where's my husband? He should have been home from the grocery store by now!

    I'm happy for you that you got your first edible growth! Looks great! I love how Nim is doing in his garden too, lol.

    Such pretty flowers. I love flowers. They just don't live very long around here, but I still like to get them to enjoy them in the short time I do have them.

    From my weather I was watching this morning on my local news, looks like you will be having much rain today. Hope you got all your sunshine in yesterday. Have a great Sunday!!

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  3. I remember back when zucchini bread and carrot cake sounded gross to people, and now they seem like such common bakery items even the culinarily unadventurous will brave them. Kale cake sounds DELICIOUS to me!

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  4. Jealous over your garden! Looks great! Kale Cake sounds really good to me! I need to try that!

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    1. Well, don't be too jealous yet. :) We have to see what really takes. The kale cake was really good. I bet you could mess with GF.

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