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.
Click here to pin this recipe for later!
Sweet potato cake
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.
