A wholegrain, oil free, vegan chocolate cake made from sweet potatoes. Sounds weird but it's so delicious.
Ingredients
1 cup (250g) cooked and mashed orange sweet potato, cooled
½ cup (125ml) water
¼ cup (90g) pure maple syrup
3 teaspoons good quality balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla
1 cup whole-grain spelt flour
⅓ cup coconut sugar
⅓ cup non-dairy chocolate chips (or chopped dark chocolate)
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tsp bi-carb soda
¼ tsp fine sea salt
Chocolate Frosting
3/4 (125g) cup unrefined coconut sugar
1 cup (250g) peeled, cooked and mashed sweet potato, cooled
½ cup (60g) cocoa powder
½ cup (125g) raw cashew or almond butter (not toasted)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp sea salt (don’t omit)
Cake
Preheat the oven to 175℃ (350℉).
Grease an 8 inch (20cm) round cake tin.
Mix together flour, sugar, choc-chips, salt, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.
Place sweet potato, water, maple syrup, balsamic and vanilla into a food processor. Blend until smooth (Thermomix 10 seconds/speed 8).
Add wet ingredients to the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
Pour cake mixture into the tin and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until done.
To make icing place the coconut sugar in a food processor and blend until fine (Thermomix 10 seconds/speed 10). Add remaining icing ingredients and blend until smooth. Add maple syrup to taste if you want the icing a bit sweeter. Add a little non-dairy milk if needed to make it blend and so it’s spreadable.
Ice the top and sides of the cake when it’s cool.
Frosting
To make frosting, place the coconut sugar into blender or food processor and blend until fine. Add sweet potato, cocoa powder, cashew butter, maple syrup, 1–2 tablespoons of the plant milk, vanilla extract and salt and puree until very smooth.Taste, and add more maple syrup if desired, and also a little more milk if needed to thin. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Puree until as smooth as possible. Transfer to a container and refrigerate until ready to use.
Notes This recipe serves 12 small slices of cake, or 8 generous serves. If you want to feed a crowd then double the recipe, use a larger cake tin and adjust cooking time to suit. The frosting recipe makes a generous amount, enough to fill and ice the cake on the top and sides. Recipe adapted from Dreena Burton’s sweet potato chocolate cake https://dreenaburton.com/sweet-potato-chocolate-cake/