SECRET INGREDIENTS OF LIFE

Adding vegetables to teatime treats makes this baker’s goodies stand out

Bread and butter, chocolate and cherries, crumble and custard – there are some ingredients that, when combined, create a fusion so delicious, it’s as if they were made to be eaten together. Spinach and brownies are not such natural bedfellows, although Kate Saunders, founder of Berkshire cake business Blackberry Cottage, is working to change that view, one spinach brownie at a time. Each of her bakes contains secret ingredients. Today she’s whipping up a walnut and espresso Swiss roll – with cauliflower. “It’s not so strange,” she explains, as she beats the batter. “Vegetables have been used in cakes for centuries. When you blitz cauliflower, it melts in, giving a lovely moistness.”

Inspiration to add earthy vegetables to decadent desserts struck Kate almost a decade ago, when she was working as a sports massage practitioner for athletes, including Olympians. Their training regimes often prohibited sweet treats, and so, to satisfy their cravings, she devised recipes using vegetables, which lend sweetness and moisture in place of excessive sugars and fats. And when a client complained to Kate about her vegetable-averse offspring, she created a brownie recipe to transform nutrient-rich spinach into child-friendly fodder. The child devoured it and asked for more, so Kate began to wonder what other vegetables might work well in sweet fare. A squash sponge? A beetroot brownie? She tried it all and came up with some deliciously inventive recipes. “There was a lot of trial and error, because I wanted to make spinach the largest ingredient,” she says of that first bake. “But every cake had to taste like a cake.”

If you’re sceptical about cauliflower Swiss roll, you’re not alone: “My father was cynical. Early on, I’d offer him a slice of something new and his nose would turn up, but now he loves my creations.” And so, it seems, does everyone else. Kate’s bakes are sold in farm shops, cafés and delis throughout Berkshire, and she regularly hosts workshops to teach others the art of incorporating tomatoes into traybakes. “I love creating,” she says. “I look at any recipe and consider what vegetable and spices I could add.”

At this time of year, however, she has one exception to her rule. “Simnel cake is a classic, and because it’s full of currants, I don’t add to it,” she says. As she tops a fruit cake with a neat layer of marzipan and 11 perfectly round balls, it’s evident Kate is a confident cook, despite being self-taught. But this wasn’t always the case. When she started to require a sports massage just to recover from having given one, her husband Tim suggested she try turning her baking hobby into a business. Kate

was unsure: “I didn’t think I’d be able to bake cakes for the rest of my life!” But with encouragement from her family (the couple have two daughters – Gemma, 15, and Hannah, 13), she took some bakes to a local farmers’ market and, to her surprise, they sold out. “People were so enthused,” she remembers. “They were asking if we did courses, where we were stocked and whether they could find recipes on the website, but I didn’t even have one.” That was when the excitement hit: “I realised there really was a business here, so I sat down and started working on it that day.”

Kate sought advice from web designer and PR friends, who helped her set up an online space and get word out: “It happened slowly and naturally. I haven’t used any funding or finance. It was a case of working alongside my other business until this one could stand on its own two feet.”

Naturally, the family all play a part – no new recipe gets the go-ahead without everyone having had a taste. Gemma often helps with workshops, ensuring the space is kept clean and tidy. The family kitchen once hosted these sessions, but it’s tricky to prepare a quick week-night supper when every surface is covered with carrot cake. Installing a purpose-built shepherd’s hut in the garden solved that problem. Now, Kate’s commute is a quick hop across the driveway (which is helpful, given she often starts at 4am) and a typical day is spent baking, decorating, packaging and posting, before repeating the whole experience in the evening. The “office” overlooks vast Berkshire farmland, and Kate has a host of horses and rare-breed sheep to care for when she wants to escape the heat of the kitchen, along with hens, which provide the eggs that go into her cakes.

With an endless supply of inventive recipes under her belt, Kate has compiled a cook book including all her favourites. She is yet to find a recipe that works for runner beans though. “They’re the hardest vegetable to work with, but there’s always a glut! I’ll crack it eventually,” she says. But if runner beans are her nemesis, tomatoes are her muse. “They give cakes a lovely hue. You can use heritage varieties – purples, oranges or yellows – and they change the colour of the batter. We do a strawberry and tomato tarte tatin and I had to bake it about six times when photographing for the book because people kept taking slices!”

As she serves up a generous wedge of rich simnel cake, it’s clear Kate favours a moderate approach to life – and while an increasing number of people are opting to eschew sweet stuff, she believes sugar has its place. “I don’t believe in cutting out anything completely, but if you’re going to have something indulgent, why not have some nutritional value in it, too?” Now that’s a recipe for success.

Kate’s brownie recipe transforms nutrientrich spinach into child-friendly fodder