Flourless Sweet Potato & Chocolate Cake

This isn't exactly a cake. It's a bit too solid and pudding-y, but it's round and it cuts and it's full of chocolate. It's a bit like sweet potato pone meets that famous flourless chocolate cake from the '80s. Definitely delicious, and I'll take it.

As is now usual, I've kept the sugar down as much as I think reasonably possible. You could add more, I'm sure, although it seemed sweet enough for me, what with the sweet potatoes as well as the sugar. Mind you, I have definitely adjusted to having things much less sweet than I used to.

I used half sugar and half erythritol-monkfruit blend for the sugar. I've been experimenting a bit with similar artificial sweeteners, but when they run out I think I will just go back to using sugar. From my reading, it seems that although they have no calories, they still affect your blood sugar as if you had eaten sugar, and that's what leads to weight gain and diabetes, more than the actual calories. This would certainly explain why the widespread availability of artificial sweeteners has done nothing to prevent these things.

But enough about that! Have some marvelous, delicious, healthy cake! 

12 servings
1 hour to 1 1/2 hours to roast the potatoes
1 hour 20 minutes - 20 minutes prep time to make the cake

Roast & Mash the Sweet Potatoes:
1 kilogram (2 1/4 pounds; 3 or 4 large) sweet potatoes

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Wash the sweet potatoes and poke them in several places with a fork. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes, until soft. Let cool.

Peel and mash the sweet potatoes very thoroughly, discarding the skins. For best results press them through a coarse sieve, potato ricer, or food mill.

This can be done up to a day in advance, and the sweet potato purée covered and kept refrigerated until needed.

Make the Cake:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
125 grams (1/4 pound) unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons rum OR orange juice
a little finely grated orange zest, OPTIONAL
4 large eggs

Put the butter in a heavy-bottomed, largish pot - a soup pot is excellent. The batter will be mixed right in the pot. Add the remaining ingredients, except for the sweet potatoes and the eggs. Heat gently until the butter and chocolate are melted. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of an 8" springform pan with parchment paper, and butter the sides.

When everything is melted and smoothly amalgamated, remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the sweet potato purée until well blended. Break in the eggs, one at a time, and beat them in well.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it out evenly. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F. Let cool and set completely before serving, preferably overnight.




Last year at this time I made Winter Hodge-Podge.

Posted in: Ontario Food