8 Ways to Eat Your Vegetables -- in Cake Form

Gone are the days your mom had to zest zucchini down to a molecular level for your brownies to make sure you got fiber in your diet: The vegetables in these cake recipes aren't here to hide. They're here to put some spice into a layer cake, add depth to a chocolate bundt, and just shine all by their leafy selves in a very green cake.

And they're here at just the right time. If, in the past few days, you have 1) wondered what to do with all those potatoes and carrots that turned up while clearing out your root cellar, 2) cleaned your pantry and realized that you definitely overestimated how many cans of pumpkin you were going to need for the holidays, or 3) reveled in the sudden influx of fresh parsley at the farmers' market, there's only one thing to do -- pop everything into a batter, and bake away.

Here are 8 cakes and quick breads that use vegetables in unexpected ways:

Chocolate-Mashed Potato Cake with Ganache by janeofmanytrade

Roberta's Parsley Cake by Genius Recipes

My New Favorite Zucchini Bread by Dabblings

Gluten-Free Coconut Squash Cake by glutenfreegirl

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Icing and Caramelized Pumpkin Seeds by Sarah Jampel

Carrot Cake with Cardamom by hollyshaner

Nigel Slater's Extremely Moist Chocolate-Beet Cake by Genius Recipes

Spiced Parsnip Cake by hardlikearmour