Sweet potato cake

The title of this cake should really be spiced sweet potato cake with chantilly cream filling, maple buttercream and maple-candied nuts, but I thought that was a bit much plus it didn’t fit into the title tab. However, that really is what this cake is. A mouth full. And once you have a mouth full of this cake, you won’t want to stop eating.

I decided to make this cake because I’ve been so intrigued with using vegetables in cakes lately. Actually, since I made my Potato, Pecorino & Rosemary bread, I’ve been interested to see how a similar vegetable would work in a cake. The potato in the bread created a light, fluffy and delicious bread and I wanted to see if sweet potato would do the same for a cake. I was very happy to see that that was indeed exactly what it did. Adding mashed sweet potato to the batter resulted in a moist, light crumb and added lovely depth to the cake.

I wanted to fill the cake with something simple and relatively neutral in flavour as the cake and the buttercream are both very flavourful and I didn’t want the finished cake to be overwhelming. I decided to use a very lightly sweetened chantilly cream (vanilla cream) which worked perfectly. To top the cake, I made a maple syrup flavoured buttercream which was light, fluffy and sweet. For a final flourish, I added the maple-candied nuts which was, perhaps a bit over-the top but man, was it a good decision. I used salted, roasted mixed nuts and the intense saltiness paired with the sweetness of the maple syrup was just heaven and reminded me a lot of the flavour bomb that is bacon with maple syrup.

This cake is pure perfection for the Festive season and should definitely be the centerpiece of your dessert table.

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Sweet potato cake

Course Baked goods, Cake, cakes

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes

Servings 10 -12

Author Alida Ryder

Ingredients

• 250 g butter room temperature
• 300 g caster sugar
• 4 extra-large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups cooked mashed sweet potato
• 400 g flour
• 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• pinch of ground cloves
• 100 ml milk

for the maple buttercream

• 150 g butter room temperature
• 500 g icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• splash of milk

for the maple-candied nuts

• 100 g roasted salted nuts, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup maple syrup

for the chantilly cream

• 250 ml cream
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 1 vanilla pod scraped

Instructions

• To make the cake, pre-heat the oven to 180­°c and line 3x 20cm cake tins with baking paper.
• Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy.
• Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.
• Beat in the vanilla and the sweet potato puree.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices and mix well.
• Add the flour mixture and milk, alternatively, to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix well after each addition and scrape down the bowl.
• Transfer the batter to the prepared cake tins.
• Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cakes are golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean. (Remember, all ovens differ so your cake might bake longer or in less time than mine.)
• When the cakes are cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on wire racks.
• To make the buttercream, beat the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy then add the maple syrup and beat for another 2 minutes. Set aside.
• To make the maple-candied nuts, simply combine the ingredients in a non-stick frying pan and place over medium heat. Allow the maple syrup to caramelise for 5 minutes then tip out onto a baking-paper lined plate. Allow to cool completely.
• For the Chantilly cream, whip the cream until soft peaks form then add the sugar and the vanilla seeds and whip until cream has formed stiff peaks.
• To assemble the cake, layer the cakes with Chantilly cream and cover in the maple buttercream.
• Top with the maple-candied nuts and serve.