Parsnips are not normally associated with cake. Having said that, I’d imagine that carrots weren’t always either. For me the carrot cake has now reached a level of banality where I would rather saw off an appendage than submit to a piece. It was from this dark emotional place that the parsnip cake had its inception. This cake, if carefully made, is a revelation in terms of the sweet, moist nuttiness and perhaps, counter-intuitively, the delicacy the parsnip brings to the game.