This was my birthday cake I made a couple weeks ago, but it would be perfect for your Thanksgiving desserts or Christmas, or any holiday or any occasion or just because you want cake—it’s practically healthy! Get this—the cake is not only gluten free, but it’s grain free and it’s made with much healthier coconut sugar and raw honey for the sweetener. Hello, it also has a vegetable in it. The sweet potato acts like pumpkin. I love the flavor. With sweet spices added, sweet potato and and chocolate go together perfectly! If you’re trying to find healthier desserts or have diet restrictions, this pretty bundt cake would be just right for you.
It was certainly just right for my birthday, which just happens to fall on National Bundt Day, November 15. I’ve enjoyed making a bundt cake for my birthday for a number of years now, ever since Mary at The Food Librarian started in with her love of bundts. She has hundreds of bundt cakes posted on her blog. She would even do 30 days of bundts leading up to
I can’t wait to make this cake again. I recently bought two sweet potatoes that were huge—one was over three pounds! I baked it and used it to make a puree. It was well enough for this cake and a lot more. Some of it even went in the freezer since I went out of town and couldn’t eat it all up before it would have spoiled. I still have the second big one and some smaller ones to use up. I thought the big one wouldn’t be good (over grown) or as sweet or something, but it was great and perfect for this cake!
Sweet Potato Chocolate Marble Bundt Cake, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!
4 ounces good chocolate, melted and cooled (I used Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips)
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 cup almond meal/flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup (168 grams) raw honey
1/2 cup (224 grams) coconut oil
1 cup (250 grams) sweet potato puree (Make sure it’s cool if you’re baking it right before using it. I baked mine the night before I made the cake, then cooled it and stored it in the refrigerator, then pureed it right before using.)
4 large eggs (I actually used 5 sm-med. farm fresh eggs, for a total of 202 grams out of shell)
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips
Ganache Drizzle:
2 1/2 ounces chocolate (I used mini chocolate chips)
4 tablespoons heavy cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread coconut oil evenly over the surface of the bundt pan. (You’ll want at least a 6 cup bundt pan, but bigger will work, too, it’s not a super high cake that totally fills the pan.) You can also dust it with cocoa powder or almond flour or coconut flour, but I didn’t, just oil. (The cake stuck in one little place and usually doesn’t at all when I add some kind of flour after oiling the pan.) Set aside. Melt the 4 ounces of chocolate in a medium sized microwave-safe bowl. Stir after 20-30 second intervals until all melted and smooth and let cool while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the arrowroot, coconut flour, almond flour, baking soda, salt and all the spices. Whisk together, set aside. In a large bowl, combine the coconut sugar, honey and coconut oil. Whisk (or use mixer) until well combined. Add the sweet potato puree and beat until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix together until well combined. Remove about 1/3 of the cake batter from the bowl into another pan and add the 4 ounces of melted chocolate to it, then combine well.
Working in spoonsful or scoops at a time, put the batter in the pan, first the sweet potato cake batter, then in opposite places around the bundt the chocolate batter in spoonsful. Continue in layers of both cake batters until you’ve used it all. Take a butter knife and swirl the batter to make the marble effect (not too much swirling or it will not look marbled). Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Turn the cake over and let it sit for a couple minutes, then tap the sides and bottom of the pan to release the cake. It should come out nicely! Heat the cream in a microwave safe bowl until slightly bubbly (careful it doesn’t boil over, it can come to that stage pretty quickly, especially since it’s such a small amount.) Pour the heated cream over the 2 1/2 ounces of chocolate, let sit for a minute. Then slowly stir it together until the chocolate is all melted and you have a nice smooth ganache. You can do this while the cake is cooling as it sets up a bit after it’s all melted. Drizzle the ganache over the cake (I put it in a plastic zip top bag and snipped the corner off to drizzle it over the cake, you can also do it by the spoonsful.)
As I wrote down the recipe, it seemed a little involved, but I have found if you get everything out and in place (Mise en place, I’m all for it!), it’s not bad at all. Prep everything ahead of time, bake your potato, melt the chocolate, etc.—it’s really not too bad. And fun. And worth it for this cake! Not only does it taste great—it looks great, too. I think it’s a real show stopper. If you had this on your dessert table and didn’t tell anyone it was grain free, I don’t think anyone would even know. Only Kevin and my son, Scott, even tasted the cake. But after that I hid the rest for the next couple days so they didn’t eat more, because it was all for me on
I’m home for Thanksgiving in Idaho with my parents while my awesome husband is home with the four boys. He’s amazing and I am so blessed and grateful for all the wonderful blessings I have been given. He even spent the last two days repainting our bedroom—5 1/2 years in our home and we’ve never really liked the paint in our room. Love it now! Happy Holidays to all!