VEGGING OUT: She's gardened for Patrick Dempsey, William Shatner and Barbra Streisand: when it comes to growing your own, Ysanne Spevack knows her onions. And every other kind of veg known to man. As well as being a gardener to the stars, Ysanne is a natural cook and the brains behind new book Vegetable Cakes: tapping into the plant-based dining boom, it's a guide to everything from beetroot cheesecake to radish-topped pavlova. As focused on fabulous flavours and textures as nutrition, the recipes are little gems. Slice of chard tart?

– Velvet magazine

Tiers of golden sponge, sandwiched together with whipped buttercream... topped with chunks of crispy coated kale. That's right, kale. Leafy, green, found-in-the-vegetable-aisle kale. It's not what I normally look for in a cake. But this unusual-sounding creation is a 'kale gateau', part of a new trend for vegetable-based cakes which is taking the baking world - and soon, your kitchen - by storm.... Online searches for vegetable cakes have soared by 50 per cent in the past six months... What was once seen as the preserve of hippies and health-food fanatics has become firmly entrenched in the mainstream...the [kale and coconut] sponge is light and fluffy, and the crispy kale topping is mouth-wateringly moreish. I'm already tucking into my second slice *****; [the cashew rocket-powered cheesecake] is zingy but sweet at the same time, and the nutty base gives a nice contrasting crunch. Surprisingly delicious ****.

– Sarah Rainey, Daily Mail 'Inspire'

I have just returned from a trip to delicious Thailand. There were curries, refreshing and spiced salads, and noodles aplenty. There were also desserts, and these were, for the most part, made of vegetables. Seems like we in Europe are a bit behind the wave of that particular culinary classification. Vegetable Cakes: The most fun way to five a day! Scrumptious sweets where the veggie is the star, to give the book its full title, introduces us to the concept. We have long embraced a small selection of vegetables and transformed them into desserts. Both courgette cake and carrot cake have become bakery standards around the world, and that indicates that other vegetables might also be introduced without too much of a fight. Vegetable Cakes is a beautifully presented volume and at only £10.00 it’s a great extra gift for any lover of good food. No, you don’t have to be a vegetarian to appreciate these unique dishes. They will likely have broad appeal, as meat eaters seldom have a problem with dessert. Kids will love these colourful cakes, but don’t tell them they are healthy. Delightful as part of an afternoon tea spread. Beetroot is a naturally sweet vegetable and its colour has been prized in Indian desserts for a long time. Here in this book we find beetroot, rose and chocolate brownies, which would be delightful as part of an afternoon tea spread. Beetroot Cheesecake looks stunning, and how pretty it would be simply decorated with pink rose petals. Sweet Potato Fudge Brownies are bound to be a hit with all the family. They make a healthy and child-friendly snack and would be a welcome addition to a lunch box. It’s that time of year when every supermarket is getting ready for Halloween, and that means pumpkins. Don’t just carve them but eat them. Vegetable Cakes offers a recipe for Pumpkin Coffee Blondie Brownies. These are more of an adult treat, with crunch from the scatter of pumpkin seeds. There is a dish in Vegetable Cakes which is a show-stopper. Courgette Rosette Tart is a stunner of vegetable flowers which are each carefully curled from ribbons of courgette. A pastry base is filled with a courgette and coconut cream and the top is dressed with those rosettes. Perhaps a few carrots could be substituted, and one could use both yellow and green courgettes. Vegetable Cakes: The most fun way to five a day! Scrumptious sweets where the veggie is the star is one of the most fascinating cookbooks I have seen in a very long time. Its unusual approach to the humble veg certainly fills a gap in the market. Some of the ingredients are less than common, but these can be sourced online.

– Chrissie Walker, Mostly Food and Travel Journal

Radish pavlova, anyone? A new cookbook of sweet recipes goes way beyond carrot cake to make vegetables the star. Ask Ysanne Spevack why she makes cakes using vegetables, and her response is refreshingly straightforward. 'Why ever not? People think fruits are sweeter than vegetables, but that's actually false compare a caramelised onion to a raw strawberry. Nature gave us all this lovely sweetness, so why not harness it?' she says. The gardener and cook is the brains behind new recipe book Vegetable Cakes. Making veggies the star of the show, it's a guide to baking everything from parsnip upside-down cake to radish-topped pavlova. Although it taps into today's plant-based dining trend, the recipes are rooted in the wholefood movement of 1980's California, says Spevack. 'When we think of a vegetable cake, we think of carrot cake. That was first baked on the Californian hippy communes.' Spevack spent a decade in the sunshine state; gardening for the rich and famous, she specialised in growing edibles. But she returned to the UK in the wake of a cancer diagnosis that 'made me really question everything', and worked on Vegetable Cakes throughout her treatment. 'I'd come back from radiotherapy, make up a fun cake, and my friends would come round and try it. It was like having a tea party every day,' she says. 'Every recipe has been rigorously trialled. I wanted every one to look and taste delicious and to be fun, too.' With recipes including kale and coconut gateau and cheesecakes made with fennel, pumpkin and beets, it is, adds Spevack, encouraging cooks to bake outside the box and 'say yes to veggies in unusual places!'.

– Waitrose Weekend