For you, my friend......

At work they call me the Food Network Prodigy.  When someone doesn’t know what an ingredient is they come to me.  When questions are asked on how to prepare or bake something, I am the first one people go to.  When people are hungry, I get asked when the next thing I am going to be baking is, and if they are scheduled to come in that day.  I enjoy answering questions and sharing my knowledge.  It is what I do.  I also love it when my dear friends ask me to bake something for them and I never turn them down. 

My dear friend, Kelly, recently found a recipe that was right up my alley.  She is a lover of sweet potatoes and I love to cook with them.  They are healthy, delicious and can be used in both sweet and savory recipes.  I like my sweet potatoes with a pat of butter and salt, but I won’t turn them down if they show up in a cake.  Kelly found this recipe in a newspaper she was reading and I was honored to be the one she thought of to bake it.

  

Sweet Potato and Chocolate Cake, just the name of the recipe alone, perks up the curiosity in people.  What an interesting combination.  So, I had to try it.  I told her that I would bake the cake for her, if it would be alright with one piece missing out of it.  I told her I had to take pictures of it for educational purposes.  (Let’s be honest, I devoured it).  The recipe calls for a can of pureed sweet potatoes.  I unfortunately could not find them in my local grocery store.  I could find sweet potato pie filling, but that has sugar and cinnamon already in it.  No problem, it was easy enough to bake sweet potatoes in the oven.  Plus it made the house smell fantastic!  I delivered the cake to Kelly as promised, by-passing work entirely, (if it had gone to work, she wouldn’t have gotten any of it) and it was met with rave revues.  Smiles are my greatest reward.   

Sweet Potato and Chocolate Cake

• I baked 4 large sweet potatoes in a 350 degree oven for 2 hours.  I just put them in and sort of forgot about them.  Just break the skin open and scraped out the potato meat inside.  It made more than two cups, but I can eat the leftovers for lunch.

 

• The only liquid in this recipe is a ¼ cup of vegetable oil.  The batter will be extremely thick.  Spread the batter in the cake pan with a spatula and make sure it is even.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 cups canned sweet potatoes (if you can find them) or bake your own.

¼ cup vegetable oil

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon orange zest (I used lemon)

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.  Grease and flour a Bundt baking pan.

3. Put sweet potatoes in a bowl and blend until mostly mashed and soft.

4.  Add all the ingredients except the chocolate chips.

5.  Mix on medium power for two minutes

.

6.  Add the chocolate chips and fold into the batter.

7.  Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared pan.

8.  Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

* For extra chocolate flavor, melt the rest of the bag of chocolate chips and spread over cake.  Put the cake in the refrigerator and allow to set.  The cake forms a delicious chocolate shell.  It looks like a giant chocolate donut.