It’s here. The chocolate cake of your dreams. A healthy chocolate cake stuffed with superfoods including sweet potato, cocoa and avocado. Made with only 8 main ingredients, it's dairy free, refined sugar free and saturated fat free. What are you waiting for?
Line the bottom of a 9 inch round cake pan with a circle of baking paper and spray the pan all over with a light coating of oil.
Preheat the oven to 355F/180C.
Pierce the sweet potato all over with a fork, then place on a plate or kitchen towel. Microwave on high for 6 to 8 minutes until the flesh is soft. Cut open lengthwise and scoop out the flesh. Mash it well in a medium bowl or jug (or pulse in a food processor for a few seconds). Let it cool a little.
Combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt & baking soda in a medium bowl.
Add the eggs, vanilla, oil and maple syrup to the sweet potato and mix well with a wooden spoon. Add to the dry ingredients and mix again until well combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 18 minutes or until the top is just cooked and the centre is still a bit gooey.
Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then carefully turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
For the frosting
Pulse the avocado, cocoa and maple syrup in a food processor until silky and smooth. Once the cake is completely cool, spread the frosting thickly all over the top and sides.
Video
Notes
Cooking time: Once you’ve practised making this cake a couple of times, it will only take 30 minutes from start to finish. You have to add a bit of time for cooling/frosting, of course!When I first made this cake I cooked it for about 20 minutes and it was delicious but not at all gooey in the middle. I found that by reducing the cooking time a little (to 18 minutes in my oven) the centre stayed just a tiny bit gooey! Yum!You want the top to look totally cooked, but when you insert a skewer into the middle of the cake it’s still a bit sticky.If your cake isn’t gooey, don’t worry. When you top the cake with the ganache, it’ll kind of sink into the cake a bit and make it super moist. Am I making you hungry?Sweet potato: I use a medium sized sweet potato and find that it nearly always makes about a cup of mashed sweet potato. If there’s any left over, simply freeze it for next time!Make sure your sweet potato is nice and soft before scraping out the flesh. If it isn’t after 8 minutes in the microwave, just cook for another minute or two. Cooking time will vary according to the size of the sweet potato you use, of course!How long it keeps: At least 3 to 4 days in the fridge if you cover it well or keep it in an airtight container.Freezing instructions: This cake freezes really well. Just wrap well until you’re ready to defrost and eat.It’s probably better to make and add the frosting just before you’re ready to eat the cake. Surprisingly though the frosting does freeze well too, so you can freeze the cake with the frosting already on if you like (I once froze half a frosted cake in the centre of a big container and it fared really well!)