Cakes & Bakes: Sweet potato cake

I think we’ve mentioned before that we often receive ‘food parcels’ from Justin’s mum when we visit on a Sunday. They usually contain some chocolate, cheese, crackers, vegetables and a treat for the dog. Generally, things she thought looked interesting on her shopping trips during the week.

It often includes vegetables that she bought too many of, which was sweet potatoes this time around.

I decided to incorporate them into a cake in just the same way you’d add carrot to carrot cake.

Adding root vegetables to cakes isn’t immediately logical, but it really does work for any sceptics out there.

We’ve made cakes with sweet potatoes, cassava and carrots in the past, you can even use beetroot and parsnips.

The raw, grated sweet potato adds a moist sweetness and depth of flavour.

This sweet potato cake recipe also includes chopped walnuts and mixed ground spices, finished with a delicious cream cheese frosting.

It’s a substantial yet light cake – the perfect afternoon pick-me-up.

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Sweet potato cake

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Course Dessert

Ingredients

For the cake

350 g plain flour
¼ tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1¼ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
350 g sweet potatoes peeled & grated (about 3 small potatoes)
235 ml vegetable oil
300 g soft brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 g chopped walnuts

For the frosting

225 g cream cheese
115 g butter softened
175 g icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

For the cake

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4 and grease a pair of 23cm/9-inch circular loose-bottomed cake tins
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flour with the ground spices, baking powder, bicarbonate soda and salt
In a large mixing bowl, add the grated sweet potato, vegetable oil and sugar and combine
In a measuring jug lightly whisk the eggs before adding the vanilla extract. Stir to mix in
Stir in the egg mixture to the sweet potato in 3 batches, stirring well after each addition
Carefully fold the flour mixture into the sweet potato mixture
Add the chopped walnuts and stir in so they're well dispersed through the batter
Pour the batter equally between the two cake tins before baking for 20 minutes in the centre of the oven
After the 20 minutes, turn the oven down to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas mark 2 and cook for a further 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of a cake come out clean
Allow to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before taking the cakes out of their tins
Allow to cool completely (at least another hour). Make the frosting.

For the frosting

Mix the cream cheese and softened butter until there are no lumps
Add the vanilla essence and icing sugar (sieve the sugar first if there are any lumps) and mix thoroughly. Cover with clingfilm and store in the fridge until the cakes have cooled and are ready to frost
Once cooled, turn one of the cakes over so that the top is face down on a serving plate. Cover the top generously with frosting.
Place the second cake on the first, with the top facing up. Cover the top generously with frosting. Serve. The cake will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge.

Keyword cake, layer cake, sweet potato

Cakes & Bakes: Sweet potato muffins

Often when we visit Justin’s parents, we’re waved off with a food parcel. It usually consists of chocolate, biscuits and fruit & veg. Sometimes they’re items that were part of multi-buy offers which would be too much for them to consume before going off.

Last week, said goody bag included half a dozen sweet potatoes. Strange, we know. We didn’t have them down as sweet potato fans; we don’t buy them too often ourselves either.

I’ve used some of them this week to make a batch of sweet potato muffins. I’d never tried making them before and I didn’t know what to expect.

I thought they’d be quite heavy and filling, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The addition of both baking powder and bicarbonate of soda meant they were light and airy.

A little sprinkling of demerara sugar just before they went into the oven gave them a nice, crunchy top.

These sweet potato muffins are just the right size for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up with a brew!

Now, what to do with the rest of the bag of sweet potatoes… any suggestions?

If you’d like to save this recipe for later, you can pin it from here.

Sweet potato muffins

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Cook Time 20

Course Tea

Cuisine American

Ingredients

2 medium-sized sweet potatoes
200 g/7oz flaked almonds
200 g/7oz caster sugar
2 eggs
120 ml/4 fl oz vegetable oil
80 ml/3 fl oz water
200 g/7oz plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/355ºF/Gas mark 4
Grease a 12-hole muffin tray or two 6-hole muffin tins or line with paper muffin cases
Bake the sweet potatoes, skin on, for about 20 minutes until soft and cooked. Allow to cool before scraping the flesh out of the skins and mashing until all the lumps are removed
Toast the flaked almonds, shaking a couple of times to get a uniform colour. This takes 5-8 minutes
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the sugar, eggs, oil and water until the sugar has dissolved
Add the cooled, puréed sweet potato
In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, bicarb, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the centre
Pour the wet ingredients into the well of the dry and combine well
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, sprinkle a little demerara sugar on top of each and put in the oven
Bake for 20 minutes before allowing to cool on a wire rack
They can be eaten warm or cold and can be stored in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 5 days

Keyword muffins, sweet potato

Cakes & Bakes: Broas Castelar

This is a special edition of Cakes & Bakes, in association with Villa Plus, the self-catering villa specialists. We’re competing against 9 other food bloggers, recreating local specialities from Corfu, Lanzarote, Majorca, Cyprus and the Algarve.

I decided to try my hand at broas castelar. They’re Algarvian sweet potato cakes, traditionally made & eaten at Christmastime. Legend has it they were invented by the Castelar brothers who, in 1860, opened the Confeitaria Francesa in downtown Lisbon.

We were given the opportunity to tweak the classic recipe a little. It calls for the rind of an orange, but I’m not a great fan, so I substituted it with some crystallised ginger. It’s also often made with breadcrumbs, but instead I used ground almonds – a popular ingredient in Portuguese cuisine.

Broas Castelar

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Course Dessert

Cuisine Portuguese

Ingredients

1 kg sweet potatoes about 3 medium-sided potatoes
100 g ground almonds
150 g fine cornmeal polenta
300 g plain flour
100 g desiccated coconut
3 eggs
10 g crystalised ginger (or stem ginger in syrup) chopped finely
350 g soft brown sugar
2 egg yolks beaten

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6
On a baking sheet, bake the sweet potatoes whole in their skins until soft (about half an hour, turning the potatoes over halfway through)
Slice the potatoes in half, scoop out the flesh and discard the skins
Pass the flesh through a ricer or sieve to purée
Put the purée into a large saucepan, add the sugar and heat to boiling for about 5 minutes, stirring all the time to prevent it sticking to the bottom and burning. This is to get rid of some of the liquid
Take it off the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes
Add the 3 eggs to the potato & sugar mix and combine well
In a large-sized bowl, add all the remaining dry ingredients - ground almonds, cornmeal, plain flour, desiccated coconut and chopped crystallised ginger - and combine well
Add the dry ingredients to the wet potato mixture in 3 stages, mixing with a wooden spoon after each addition
Tip the mixture back into the large bowl, cover in cling film and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight
Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/Gas mark 7 (200ºC if fan-assisted)
Grease 2 large baking trays well
With floured hands, make small lozenge shapes, each using about a tablespoonful of mixture and lay on the baking tray
Brush each with the beaten egg yolk
Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned
As this batch is cooking in the oven, prepare the next batch for the other baking tray
Remove from the tray and allow to cool on a wire rack

Keyword broas castelar, sweet potato

We found that the contrast between the crisp outer coating and the soft inner develops further if you let the broas castelar cool before eating – they’re worth the short wait!

They’re lovely eaten just as they are – the ginger is subtle and delicious. It combines very well with the underlying coconut flavour. We experimented with some other serving options; a thin scrape of butter works really well – and is probably our favourite. Honey & preserves are other possibilities. One thing’s for certain – whether you eat them plain or with a topping – they’re great with a cup of tea!

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: sweet potato

Cakes & Bakes: Sweet potato cake

Sweet potato cake

Ingredients

For the cake

For the frosting

Instructions

For the cake

For the frosting

Cakes & Bakes: Sweet potato muffins

Sweet potato muffins

Ingredients

Instructions

Cakes & Bakes: Broas Castelar

Broas Castelar

Ingredients

Instructions