Depending on your view of sprouts,
this recipe will either have you rushing to your kitchen, or trying
to keep hold of your stomach.

Mike Burton Phillipson has created
a Brussels sprout cake – and claims it has been well received by
everyone who has eaten it.

It was presented during a
competition in his office to find a festive cake recipe and Mr
Burton Phillipson says many colleagues tucked in, despite a
fairly strong aroma of sprouts around the cake.

He is not the only one experimenting with the
vegetable – normally seen as part of “all the trimmings” on a
Christmas dinner.

Mr Burton Phillipson, of Mill Hall,
Aylesford, said: “It is basically a carrot cake recipe with half
the carrots replaced by sprouts.

“It did smell really sprouty which
initially put me off. But it came out looking quite dramatic, with
the green flecks through it. It was finished off with icing.”

He took it to his workplace –
Jacobs, within Miller House, Lower Stone Street, Maidstone – for
the festive cake competition, where colleagues tucked in.

“I had warned them in advance what
I was going to make,” Mr Burton Phillipson added.

“But it was really well
supported.”

Asked if he is a sprout lover, he
replied: “I’m not madly keen on them and always try to do something
different with them at Christmas, by putting bacon and chestnuts
with them.”

How to make a
sproutcake:

Ingredients: two eggs, 125g
caster sugar, 100ml vegetable oil, one teaspoon vanilla extract,
125g self raising flour, one teaspoon ground cinnamon, one teaspoon
ground ginger, 125g grated carrots, 125g grated brussel sprouts,
35g chopped walnuts, 35g raisins or sultanas, 25g dessicated
coconut.

For the frosting: 125g cream
cheese, 250g icing sugar, one-two teaspoons vanilla
extract.

• Grease and line a 20cm round tin or a 900g loaf tin.
• Beat the eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla until well combined.
• Add the flour, cinnamon and ginger and beat for a few moreminutes.
• Fold in the grated carrot, sprouts, walnuts, raisins andcoconut.
• Spoon into the prepared tin and cook for approximately 50minutes or until a skewer comes out cleanly.
• Leave to cool, in the tin, on a wire rack.
• Now make the frosting: Beat the cream cheese until soft andthen beat in the icing sugar.
• Add vanilla extract to taste.
• Spread the frosting over the top of the cake and finish offwith a decorative sprout man (optional).