Sweet potato cake with orange mascarpone frosting recipe
Like pumpkin, sweet potato gives a lovely softness, as well as a warm glow. Its natural sweetness means you can scale back the sugar, too.
Prep time: 20 minutes | Cooking time: 1 hour, 25 minutes
MAKES
16 pieces of cake
INGREDIENTS
500g orange-fleshed sweet potatoes
120g butter
110g caster sugar
2 eggs, at room temperture
½ tsp cinnamon
110g self raising flour
110g spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
90ml milk
For the frosting
50g raspberries
250g mascarpone
Zest of ½ orange
2-3 tbsp milk (optional)
METHOD
Turn on the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6 (no need to preheat it).
Put the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until tender all the way through, then leave to cool.
When cool enough to handle, remove the skin and puree the flesh in a food processor. Weigh out 225g: the rest can be added to soups or stews.
Turn the oven down to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4 and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking parchment.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the cinnamon and potato puree.
Mix together the flours, baking powder and bicarbinate of soda, and sift this over the egg mixture, folding it in. Gently stir in the milk.
Scrape the mixture into the tin and bake for 40 minutes, until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin, then remove to a wire rack.
Rub the raspberries through a sieve to make a puree. Beat the mascarpone with the orange zest. If it needs it, add a little milk for a spreadable consistency. Spread this over the cake and marble in the raspberry puree.