Parsnip Morning Glory Coffee Cake
Sweet parsnips are used instead of carrots in this moist morning glory maple coffee cake. Enjoy warm with a cup of coffee or tea!
Why We Love This Recipe For Parsnip Coffee Cake
This moist and fragrant Morning Glory Parsnip Maple Coffee Cake is perfect for a weekend brunch, Easter a holiday breakfast. I came up with the idea because I couldn’t stop obsessing about the idea of using parsnips instead of carrots in a morning glory recipe. I wondered if it would taste good, so I just had to make it happen.
I ended up making morning glory coffee cake instead of muffins; a celebration-worthy recipe, if you will. And I’ll just cut to the chase… it came out amazingly well. The maple syrup and naturally sweet parsnips and raisins make this ultra moist and fragrant. You can serve it for a special occasion or just for any reason really! It’s a delicious way to enjoy parsnips in baking!
In the spring when we get parsnips in our CSA, I’ll just simply roast parsnips or add them to stew. But I was recently thinking about the fact that they are so similar to carrots, that they seemed like a likely candidate to shred and add to a baking recipe, just as you would for carrot cake or… morning glory muffins. Then the idea of making a festive spring celebration worthy coffee cake came to mind and I was grabbing my whisk in the blink of an eye.
Key Ingredients For This Recipe
Parsnips
The star of this recipe is fresh parsnips. With this recipe, I definitely confirmed that indeed you can bake with parsnips, and they are a great sub for carrots in this morning glory recipe! Peel them and grate them with a box grater. Parsnips have an aromatic earthy yet caramel/honey flavor that goes very well with the flavors typically used in a morning glory recipe.
Cane Sugar
To Sweeten the Streusel topping, I used cane sugar because it helped the texture of the topping stay crisp. You can find cane sugar in the bulk department in health food stores or in the natural baking section of large supermarkets. The streusel topping I used is the same as in these apple streusel muffins– which means I called for natural cane sugar. The contrasting crunch it adds is such a delight!
Maple Syrup
Parsnips are very sweet naturally, so the amount of added sugars needed to sweeten the cake was less than a typical coffee cake. I ended up dropping the maple syrup down to 3/4 cup. Partially because the cake was TOO MOIST (yes apparently there is such a thing) but also because I felt it was too sweet for a breakfast cake. Plus, the raisins really help to sweeten it up quite a bit. When I dropped the maple down, the flavor of the parsnips was more pronounced, which I really loved.
Applesauce
I used applesauce in place of butter in the cake, and also used avocado oil (only 1/2 cup for 12 servings!)
Spices
I added ground ginger to the spices because the flavor works well with the parsnips. Plus cinnamon in both the coffee cake batter and streusel topping. I didn’t use coconut in this recipe because I didn’t want to overpower the flavor of the parsnips or maple.
Other Ingredients For the Streusel Topping
- ¼ cup old-fashioned oats
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Other Ingredients For The Cake
- ½ cup organic canola or avocado oil
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup white whole-wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup chopped toasted walnuts
Step By Step Instructions For This Recipe
Step 1: Prepare pan and preheat oven
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 10-inch spring-form pan or mist it with cooking spray.
Step 2: Make Streusel
Rub together the oats, flour, cane sugar, butter and ½ teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl with clean fingertips until crumbly. Set the mixture aside for the topping.
Step 3: Make Wet Mix
Whisk maple syrup, applesauce, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl.
Step 4: Make Dry Mix
Whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a small bowl.
Step 5: Stir Batter and Bake
Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir to combine with a silicone spatula. Add the parsnip, raisins and walnuts and stir to combine.
Spread batter in the pan, top with streusel and transfer to the oven.
Bake until the cake is puffed and the top is golden, about 55 minutes.
Step 6: Cool and Serve
Let cake cool at least one hour. Cut into wedges and serve.
FAQs and Expert Tips for Morning Glory Parsnip Maple Coffee Cake
We love this cake fresh from the oven, but because it is so moist it also can be made ahead. This can be made ahead up to two days. We recommend wrapping it loosely in foil, setting it on a baking sheet and warming at 325 degrees F for 20 minutes before serving.
This cake can be frozen u to one month. Wrap cooled cake in plastic wrap and a layer of foil before freezing. Remove any frosty plastic before thawing on the counter.
Coffee cake is less sweet cake served for breakfast, whereas crumb cake is a sweeter dessert cake served after a meal.
More Recipes You May Like
- Our Roasted Parsnips are a favorite way to prepare them as a side dish.
- Don’t miss our Morning Glory Muffins, which are another yummy baked treat for breakfast.
- This Sweet Potato Coffee Cake is another coffee cake with stealthy veggies added in.
- For a gluten-free brunch baked good, try these Sweet Potato Praline Mini Bundt Cakes.
- This Parsnip and Carrot Mash is a great side dish alternative to mashed potatoes. Also this Vegetable Mash features parsnips giving it a light sweetness.
- Don’t miss our collection of Healthy Quick Breads too!
At Healthy Seasonal Recipes, we specialize in cooking with fresh veggies and creating weeknight meals. Sign up HERE to get more produce-forward dinner ideas for FREE! If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought! Happy Cooking! ~Katie
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Parsnip Maple Coffee Cake
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 12 1x
Description
Maple Parsnip Morning Glory Coffee Cake made with applesauce, whole-wheat flour avocado oil. Flavored with raisins, cinnamon, walnuts and crunchy sweet streusel topping.
Ingredients
Streusel Topping
- 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated natural cane sugar (evaporated cane juice)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Cake
- 3/4 cup dark pure maple syrup
- 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup organic canola or avocado oil
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup white whole-wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups shredded peeled parsnips
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 10-inch spring-form pan or mist with cooking spray.
- Make Streusel: Rub together oats, flour, cane sugar, butter and ½ teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl with clean fingertips until crumbly. Set aside
- Make Coffee Cake: Whisk maple syrup, applesauce, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a small bowl.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir to combine with a silicone spatula. Add parsnip, raisins and walnuts and stir to combine. Spread batter in the pan, top with streusel and transfer to the oven. Bake until the cake is puffed and the top is golden, about 55 minutes.
- Let cake cool at least one hour. Cut into wedges and serve.
Notes
Freezing
This cake can be frozen u to one month. Wrap cooled cake in plastic wrap and a layer of foil before freezing. Remove any frosty plastic before thawing on the counter.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/12 cake
- Calories: 290
- Fat: 16
- Carbohydrates: 34
- Fiber: 3
- Protein: 4
More Baking Recipes You’ll Love:
Mini Gluten-free Sweet Potato Praline Bundt Cakes
Maple Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Leek and Parmesan Savory Muffins
Hello. This looks wonderful, but I am trying to up the protein in my breakfasts — so, do you think I could substitute whey or hemp protein powder for some of the flour? And/or possibly use half oil and half whole milk yogurt? I am not a baker, and I know that measurements are more important than in cooking. Would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks.
Protein powder is not a good substitute for the flour because they have different attributes in baked goods. Flour (and the gluten in it) provide structure. Most protein powders are designed to dissolve in liquid, so they (by their nature) do not provide structure. If you want to try adding a few scoops into the batter, go for it, but I would not take anything out. As far as taking out half of the the oil and using yogurt instead- I don’t think that will be a problem.
This is seriously amazing!! The combination of flavors is perfect! Thanks for the recipe!
This is really the perfect treat for coffee lovers! Thanks for the recipe!
This is my absolute favorite coffee cake recipe! I’ve made it several times and it’s always delicious!
I never would have thought to use parsnips like this. This coffee cake looks amazing.
This is wonderful!! Thank you for sharing this!
Could these be made as muffins and some frozen? If so, how long would you suggest?
I think they should bake into muffins well. Try 28 minutes at 350. To freeze them, let them cool completely, then seal them in a freezer bag or place into a resealable container and freeze up to 6 weeks. Let me know how it goes!
I run a small cooking/recipe group on Facebook – I’m going to share your post with them for National Maple Syrup Day. Thank you for sharing your recipes.. your work is very beautiful and easy to follow. Janet (the Cautious Foodie)
Thanks Janet. Happy Maple Syrup day to you!
This sounds delicious! You had me at maple and coffee cake
So moist with the applesauce. The hardest part was waiting an hour to let it cool. I loved the scent it gave out while baking. Will make again and again. Thank you for the idea of using parsnips in baked goods. I just found your site last night and excited to experience more of your culinary creativity.
That’s so great to hear Aimee. I am thrilled to have you here. Please reach out if you’re looking for something in particular.
Thank you very much. i think a lot of people are looking for such a content from you. hope you will have more share such.
So glad to hear sugaring season is off to a great start. We finally had the maple trees on our hunting property analyzed by an arborist. They’re too tiny. 5 more years. Then we can sugar them. Wah, wah waah. But I can make this cake now! Love morning glory muffins – but this is less fuss in a cake. Can’t wait to try the parsnips in it too!
At the maple conference we went to Jason learned just how important it is to wait until the trees are large enough. It will be worth the wait. I hope you like the cake! Have a great day Serena.
This looks sooo good! I would have never thought to put parsnips in a cake but it’s actually genius 😀
I worked even better than I hoped! Thanks so much for visiting Alex. Have a great day.