Sweet Potato

As much as I’m a little bit glad the festive season is over, I’m not quite ready to let go of all the festive flavours just yet. I love anything laden with spice: cinnamon, ginger, cardamom… and it’s the perfect time of year to eat them. With that in mind I decided to have a little play with a slightly lighter, more interesting spiced sponge – and because, lets be honest, the world and their dog are on diets at the moment so if you can shove a vegetable in a cake it’s healthy, right?

It was my dear friend Laura’s birthday this week, so unfortunately she ended up being my guinea pig. I say unfortunately, but actually I think this cutie went down rather well! My new favourite vegetable cake, it’s really rather nice.

Sweet potato layer cake with ginger and chocolate frosting

SWEET POTATO LAYER CAKE WITH GINGER FROSTING

Serves 12

280g plain flour
2 heaped teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
150g butter, at room temperature
150g soft light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs, free range or organic
260g pureed sweet potato*
100g natural yoghurt
A little spiced rum, for brushing

Frosting

150g butter, at room temperature
400g icing sugar, sifted
150g cream cheese
1 tablespoon finely chopped stem ginger
75 melted dark chocolate (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180. Grease and line the base of 2 x 6″ spring form cake tins.

Sift together the flour, ground cinnamon and ginger, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the sweet potato puree and yoghurt.

Using a freestanding mixer, or electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Stop occasionally to scrape the mixture off of the side of the bowl with a spatula. Add the vanilla to the butter and cream the eggs in one by one. Add the dry ingredients and slowly mix in, until just combined, don’t over work it. Fold in the sweet potato and yoghurt mixture then divide evenly between the two tins. Bake on the middle shelf of your oven for around 35 minutes until cooked through. Leave the sponges to cool in the tins for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Whilst the cakes are cooling make your frosting. Clean your freestanding/ electric mixer and cream the butter until pale and light. Drain any excess liquid from the cream cheese and beat into the butter, only just enough to mix the two together – too much and it becomes runny. Beat half the sifted icing sugar into the mix, and when fully combine beat in the remaining half. When its smooth beat in the chopped stem ginger, with a little of the syrup from the jar and leave to one side. If your frosting has become a little runny, pop in a bowl in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up. If you want to use the chocolate (and it is delicious) swirl the cool but melted chocolate into the frosting and mix together. I keep mine a little rippled so that it has an interesting pattern when I frost the cake.

How you decorate your cake it up to you! Just remember to brush the sponges with a little spiced rum as you go. You can keep it as two cakes, frost them together and coat. Cut the sponges with a round biscuit cutter and make mini layer cakes (I cut rounds from the large cakes, and then slice those in half horizontally to make 4 layer mini cakes – see below). Or slice to two large cakes in half horizontally and create an open sided layer cake. The choice is yours.

* To make the sweet potato puree I peeled a couple of sweet potatoes, cut them into chunks and boiled them until cooked through. Drain and leave to cool and then blitz in a blender with just enough water to puree.

This bowl of goodness was created for Ma and Pa Socratous. On a recent trip up north they ate something similar and have been trying to find a recipe for it ever since. With no such luck I decided to write one for them based on what I know: that it had sweet potato, chickpeas, spinach and a generous amount of cumin. And that they both loved it. (I can only hope that this soup does the original one justice, as it is pretty rare for my folks to like the same thing!)

With its natural sweetness and creamy texture sweet potato makes a fantastic base for soups. And it works incredibly well with the rest of these ingredients creating a hearty yet wholesome soup, with a North African/ Middle Eastern feel. It’s wheat/ gluten and dairy free, and a great fertility boosting dish. Heck its a great everything boosting dish!

If you like your soup a little chunky, try mashing it with a potato masher, or only blitzing it a little.

SWEET POTATO, CHICKPEA AND SPINACH SOUP

Serves 6

2 onions, peeled and chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
Olive oil
1.5 teaspoons of ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 – 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
A tin of chickpeas, drained
A tin of reduced fat coconut milk
800ml vegetable stock
Around 800g sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
150g spinach, washed well
A handful of coriander, washed
A juicy lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place a large non-stick saucepan on a medium-low heat and add a lug of olive oil. Add the onion and garlic and saute for around 10 – 12 minutes until soft and sticky, but not coloured. Add the cumin, coriander and chilli and fry for a further 3-4 minutes. Pour in the stock and coconut milk, and add the chickpeas and chopped sweet potatoes. Gently bring everything to the boil, season well, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for around 15 minutes, or until your potatoes are soft and completely cooked through. Add the spinach and coriander and cook for a couple more minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and using a stick blender, blitz the soup until smooth. If the soup is a little on the thick side add a little more stock or water until you get to the texture and thickness that you like. Squeeze in the lemon juice and stir through. Taste and adjust the seasoning, then serve.

Sweet potato layer cake with ginger frosting

Sweet potato, chickpea and spinach soup