Spiced Sweet Potato Bourbon and Caramel Cake

In recent experimenting I made chocolate truffle by purely blitzing sweet potato, spices, a few gingernut biscuits and white chocolate. While the truffles were nice they were a little bland. However, from this recipe I thought the puree and white chocolate actually had legs to make a healthier alternative to buttercream icing (thanks to the smooth texture, consistency and taste).

As mentioned the truffles alone were a little bland so after a bit of flavor combo experimenting I decided that caramel, bourbon, honey and pecans would be the perfect mix of flavors to add.

As the sweet potato is not the strongest of flavors I opted to include this flavor in both the icing and the cake batter.

Caramel would be featured in the filling of the cake layers as well as only brown sugar being utilised in the cake.

Bourbon would feature most strongly in the cake as well as a syrup layer to really pack the punch and ensure the cake is extra moist.

The pecans would be diced up for so extra textural crunch and lastly the honey would be used in the syrup and the caramel.

This cake is soo super moreish, with a gingerbread undertone all the flavors work soundly.

Sweet potato puree:

• 640g sweet potato

Sweet Potato Icing:

• 85g white chocolate, chopped
• 200g sweet potato puree

Cake:

• 80g pecans
• 180g butter, softened
• 275g brown sugar
• 1 + ½ tsn vanilla essence
• 4 eggs
• 245g sweet potato puree
• 90ml bourbon
• 310g self-rising flour
• ½ tsn salt
• 1 + 1/3 tsn ground cinnamon
• 1/3 tsn ground ginger
• 1/3 ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsn ground cloves

Caramel:

• 60g white sugar
• 10ml water
• 10g butter
• 135ml cream
• 15g brown sugar
• 1/8 tsn salt
• 20ml honey

Syrup:

• 15g butter
• 35g white sugar
• 10ml water
• ½ tsn vanilla essence
• 15g honey
• 25ml bourbon

Method:

1. To make the puree peel the sweet potato and chop up into pieces.
2. Place the potato pieces into a bowl of water and heat in the microwave on high for 10 minutes or until a knife glides into a piece of potato effortlessly.
3. Drain the potato pieces and place into a food processor blitzing until silky smooth in texture, once done move mix into a bowl for later use.
4. To make the potato icing place 200g of the puree back into the food processor with the white chocolate. Blitz until well combine and silky smooth (the white chocolate will melt with the heat of the puree and combine with the potato).
5. Place the potato icing mix into a bowl and once cooled into the fridge to set.
6. Preheat the oven to 170c degrees and line 2x 25cm cake tins with baking paper.
7. Chop the pecans into small pieces and scatter into the bottom of both tins.
8. Place the butter into a mix-master (kitchen aid) and beat on high for 5 minutes, scraping down the butter from the sides each minute.
9. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat for another 3 minutes, scraping down the sides each minute.
10. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each addition until the mix is light and fluffy.
11. Add the 245g of puree and bourbon to the butter mix and beat on medium until well combined.
12. Sieve the flour, salt and spices into the butter mix and on a low speed beat until the dry mix is just combine to a smooth consistency.
13. Spoon the mix over the top of the pecans evenly with 1/3 of the mix into one tin and the remaining 2/3 in the second tin. Use the back of a spoon to flatten the mix to an even top, place the cakes in the oven for 40 minutes to cook.
14. Meanwhile make the caramel by placing the white sugar and water into a saucepan on the stove on high heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
15. Leave the mix to bubble without stirring until it reaches golden brown in colour.
16. Take the saucepan off the heat and add 35ml of the cream, brown sugar, salt and honey stirring until well combine and silky smooth (be careful of the splatter). Pour the caramel into a ceramic bowl and leave aside to cool completely.
17. After the 40 minutes of the cakes cooking check the smaller cake by placing a skewer in the center. If  if it comes out clean its done, if not leave until it does.
18. Check the second cake after 60 minutes by placing a skewer in the centre if it comes out clean its done, if not leave until it does.
19. Leave both cooked cakes in their tins for 5 minutes then invert onto a cooling rack.
20. Meanwhile make the syrup by placing the butter, sugar, water, vanilla and honey into a saucepan and heat on high for 5 minutes until thick bubbles occur and the syrup reduces.
21. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the bourbon stirring until well combined.
22. Add the cooled caramel mix to the remaining 100ml of cream and beat with electric beaters until well combine and peaks form.
23. To assemble the cake, cut the tops of both cakes to make them level and cut the larger cake in half horizontally.
24. Using a pastrybrush brush the cut sides of the 3 cake layers with the bourbon syrup mix until well covered.
25. Place 1 cake layer onto a plate syrup side up. Top with half the caramel cream mix.
26. Add the 2^nd cake layer syrup side up, top with remaining caramel cream mix.
27. Add the last cake later syrup side down and top with the sweet potato icing mix.
28. Place the cake in the fridge for 1 hour to set then cut and enjoy!

NOTE: To stop the caramel cream overflowing the cakes edges I piped some buttercream around the 2 cakes edges that the caramel cream would be spread on. I purely did this as I did not want the overflowing look.

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