Who says you can’t influence your family? My cousin has been making this grain-free sweet potato chocolate cake for years for our Passover Seder feast. This year I received a little surprise…she converted the recipe to take out all of the fake/processed food ingredients and replaced them with real food ingredients including my homemade chocolate! I was thrilled! Unfortunately, I couldn’t be with her this year to share her sweet potato chocolate cake. I was able to make it for my own family Seder. This sweet potato chocolate cake delivered. It tasted even better than it usually does! Add a little whipped cream and some fresh strawberries and you will be in heaven!
She was more than willing for me to repost her recipe here to share with all of you!
Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake
- 1/2 cup coconut oil (I used unsalted butter), melted (where to buy coconut products)
- 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut sugar, divided (where to buy quality sweeteners)
- 6 large eggs, separated
- 1 1/2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes, about 12 oz
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 10 ounces homemade chocolate or a good quality semi-sweet, melted and cooled
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (where to buy salt)
Chocolate Ganache Glaze
- 1/2 cup cream (or water)
- 1/3 cup homemade chocolate, coarsely chopped
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9-inch springform pan (this springform pan is silicon with a glass base!) with baking parchment.
Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake
In a mixing bowl, cream the coconut oil with 1/3 cup coconut sugar. Blend in the egg yolks, then the mashed sweet potatoes, almond extract, and homemade chocolate.
In another bowl, with clean beaters, whip the egg whites gently until they are a bit foamy. Then add in the salt and whip on a higher speed, slowly dusting in the remaining two tablespoons of coconut sugar to form stiff, glossy (but not dry) peaks.
Fold one third of the egg whites into the sweet potato/chocolate mixture and work them in well to loosen the batter. Then, gently fold in the remaining egg whites.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes. The cake rises and looks dry, and slightly cracked on top when done. The middle should be soft but firm. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes, and then remove to a wire rack. At this point, the cake can be frozen for up to a month. Even if serving it the same day, chill the cake for an hour or two before finishing it with the ganache glaze.
Chocolate Ganache Glaze
In a double boiler, bring the cream or water just to a boil and add the chopped chocolate all at once. Remove from the heat and stir briskly with a wire whisk until all the chocolate melts and you have a thick glaze or sauce-like topping. Refrigerate for an hour or so. (You can also make this ahead and refrigerate it for up to a week or two. Simply warm it to the right temperature for glazing the cake.)
Invert the sweet potato chocolate cake onto a plate so that the smooth, flat bottom faces up. Pour the glaze over the sweet potato chocolate cake and, using a metal spatula, even out the glaze and spread it along the sides. I served with whipped cream and fresh strawberries!
Thanks go to Courtney of The Polivka Family for taking these beautiful photos! We were lucky to include her at our Seder this year during her VGN blog tour!
My question is, are we talking sweet potatoes or are we talking yams?
Truly? Either would work just fine.
I just had to check out your homemade chocolate recipe, and my mind is blown. This looks amazing, and I’ll have to try the chocolate for sure — so much more wholesome than what you find in the store-bought stuff, and somehow I had never even considered that you could make it so easily!
Lindsey: awesome recipe, great writing, gorgeous photos – love it! I’m featuring the recipe on http://www.facebook.com/SimpleDailyChange on 4/4 at 4pm PST.
Is this cake a little dry? It looks it in the picture. My daughter’s first birthday is coming up and I want to make her cake.
Has anyone made this with pumpkin? Looks really yummy! I am currently trying to live gluten free and this will help my sweet tooth! 🙂
What can I use instead of eggs?
I have to say, I’ve made this THREE times now in the last 10 days and I can’t live without this cake! We froze a bunch of roasted pumpkin last summer and it works great for this cake. Its not dry at all, in fact, it seems more like chocolate mousse than chocolate cake. I’m GF and DF and this recipe is great!
Glad to hear it! It is amazingly yummy!
oh, and I forgot to say I haven’t made the ganache yet…I always run out of time…and I just don’t think it needs it. Twice I’ve made it for company and a little whipped cream is all it needs. Really.
I am going to make it with butternut squash..do you think that would be ok? I got some at the farmers market this week.
I made this sweet potato chocolate cake,it’s delicious, made the second one today to freeze since I had extra sweet potato and a sweet potato pie as well. Thanks for posting, I never thought I would be able to eat cake again! LOL! Mabel
The cake looks really good and I’m probably going to try it since I’m trying to get away from processed foods as much as possible and desserts are one area that are harder for me to move away. But I’m a little confused. The pictures don’t match the description. The pan pictured is clearly not a spring form pan. The cake is obviously served from the pan not inverted onto a plate. And it doesn’t appear to have the glaze on it. Is it simply not served as described?
I have made this cake many many times over the years. The night I shot these photos, I realized last minute that I did not have the chocolate made so we skipped it. I have made it in both a springform and a tart pan and I like the way it comes out of the springform better but, yes, the tart pan is the one in the photograph. It is really a simple and foolproof recipe. Don’t mind my photos! 🙂
Will you clarify that the cream is actually supposed to boil? Or just the water in the double boiler? Thanks.
Just the water in the double boiler.
Dang! So my cream is now a little lumpy. Start over?