Salad Cake

Makes 1 Cake

salad cake | Claire Joy Cooks | Food Stylist

What You Need

For the bread:

  • 350-400ml beetroot juice
  • 600g bread flour
  • 1x 10g instant dry yeast
  • pinch salt

For the topping:

  • 2 purple carrots, sliced using a peeler
  • 1 pack edible flowers and herbs
  • 1 pack sugar snap peas, split
  • 3 baby cucumbers, sliced using a peeler

For the cake:

  • 500g labneh (homemade or storebought)
  • 2 lemons
  • 500g butternut spaghetti, pickled
  • 1 avocado
  • 500g beetroot spaghetti, pickled
  • ¼ purple cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 2 carrots, grated
  • 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • ½ cup full cream yoghurt
salad cake | Claire Joy Cooks | Food Stylist

To make the beetroot bread:

Warm the beetroot juice slightly until tepid.

Pour a little of the beetroot juice into a bowl (50ml) and sprinkle the yeast over a little. Set aside for 5minutes until it begins to bubble.

Place the flour, salt and yeast mixture into a standing mixer fitted with a dough attachment and pour in 300ml beetroot juice. If the dough is looking dry, add the remaining 50ml. If the dough is soft and coming together nicely, then don’t add the remaining juice – drink it – waste not, want not!

Knead the dough for 10 minutes until completely smooth.

Place in an oiled bowl and cover for 60mins until double in size.

Remove the dough from the bowl, knock back the air and shape into a ball. Place in a greased cake tin, cover with plastic and rest for a further 45-60 minutes until double in size. At this stage preheat the oven to 180’c.

Place in the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes until crusty and sounds hollow when you knock the base of the bread.

To make the labneh:

Place 1L of full cream yoghurt in a sieve lined with muslin cloth and place over a bowl. Refrigerate overnight to drain the excess liquid. Add the zest of 1 lemon to the mixture and it’s ready.

To make the pickles:

Blanch the butternut and beetroot spaghetti separately. Make sure you do the butternut first otherwise the water from the beetroot will turn the butternut pink. Immediately place in iced water to chill and prevent the vegetables from overcooking.

Pour 1/2 cup white wine vinegar, ¼ cup water, salt and pepper and 2 tablespoons brown sugar into a pot. Bring to the boil and pour over the vegetables. Set aside for 5 minutes.

salad cake | Claire Joy Cooks | Food Stylist

To assemble:

Start with a slice of beetroot bread, cover with labneh and fill with pickled butternut spaghetti.

Place your next slice of beetroot bread on top and cover with smashed lemony avocado. Fill with coleslaw made with carrot, purple cabbage, mayonnaise and full cream yoghurt.

Place your next slice of beetroot bread on top and cover with labneh. Fill with pickled beetroot spaghetti and freshly ground black pepper.

Top with the final slice of beetroot bread and cover with the remaining labneh.

Decorate the cake with vegetables, herbs and edible flowers.