Chocolate and Sweet Potato Cake

I thought I would publish a quick recipe for my chocolate and sweet potato torte – the single most complimented cake recipe I have ever made. The method is a little peculiar (it is adapted from the Hamlyn 200 Cakes and Bakes book), but the resultant culinary goodness is all sorts of sweet, deep, rich and spectacularly moist.

Ingredients:

• 7oz Self-raising flour
• 3 150g plain chocolate bars
• 1 tsp bicarb
• 6oz butter (I used salted, rebel that I am…)
• 6oz light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 13oz sweet potato (peeled and diced)
• Milk

Method

1. Boil the potatoes until ready to mash
2. Drain, and mash with a good hefty dash of milk (NOT skimmed)
3. Chop up the butter and melt it into the hot mashed potato
4. In a similar vein, break up the chocolate into little chunks and melt through, stirring until you get a mushy yet smooth red-brown mix that smells kind of horrible, yet yummy… add some vanilla essence (the posh kind) if you have any around, and I always like to add a dash of chocolate extract too)
5. Beat the eggs, and then stir into the mix
6. Mix sugar, bicarb and four together, along with any cocoa powder if you think the cake needs it (personal taste is a bitch)
7. Stir the potato/chocolate mix into the flour. Really bash it all up so it is all beautifully mixed.
8. If you want, add extras – like hazelnuts, or crystallised ginger. Go crazy!
9. Pour into a very well greased cake tin (well worth greaseproof papering the based, this is a dense cake) and bake in a pre-heated over on around gas mark 5 for approximately 30 minutes to an hour. You are looking for it to be risen and brown, and for a skewer inserted in the middle comes out with only little bits clinging to it.
10. Frosting time – the book recommends chocolate/crème fraiche, I prefer a sinfully rich ganache…

I don’t have any photos, because this cake always gets eaten too fast. But honestly, it is amazing!

About these ads