This chocolate orange bundt cake with sweet potato is truly delicious and light. Made with a relatively small quantity of refined sugar, the sweet potato adds a little extra sweetness as well as bringing additional nutritional benefits to the bake.
Chocolate and orange is a classic flavour combination we all know and love. But sweet potato in a cake? Surely not? Well, believe me, it really does work! Rather than being heavy and stodgy as you may imagine, this cake is light and packed full of delicious chocolate orange flavour.
And the result is a not overly sweet base which is then drizzled with a delicious chocolate orange frosting.
Vegetables in Baking
The inclusion of mashed potato in bakes is nothing new, it was widely used during the second world war when traditional baking ingredients were heavily rationed.
The addition of potato still results in a beautiful bake, that stays moist for several days when stored in an airtight container. So, while some substitutions bought in times of shortage are best forgotten, this is not one of them.
Potato is not the only vegetable that can be added to bakes. The most obvious is, of course, carrot. You will find carrots in my Chocolate passion cake tray bake as well as my Swiss carrot cake, which is a really light carrot cake very different from the carrot cakes most people are familiar with and just if not more delicious! But I have used other vegetables such as courgette, pumpkin and beetroot, as in my Chocolate and beetroot cupcakes which also have the most amazing vivid pink icing made cloured with the beetroot.
Sweet potato vs regular potatoes
Given that root vegetables seem to be the most popular vegetable to add to bakes, I decided to try the sweet potato in this recipe. It worked really well and gave it a little extra bit of sweetness to the bake.
Though both regular and sweet potatoes can be part of a healthy diet, sweet potatoes are generally considered to have more health benefits. They are rich in vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, fibre, and zinc.
Although sweet potato has more sugars than its counterpart, the sweet potato is actually lower in calories and is also lower on the glycemic index, meaning that they are less likely than regular potatoes to make your blood sugar spike.
Furthermore, the sweetness of the potato in this bake also means that I was able to use less added sugar than I would have needed without the sweet potato.
So you can see there are some great benefits to be had from adding them to your bakes.
Ingredients
Scroll down for quantities and full printable recipe at the bottom of this post.
For the cake
- Sweet Potato – Cooked and mashed. So long as it is not heavily seasoned you could use left over sweet potato. If cooking from scratch you will need about 2 medium sweet potatoes to produce 225g (8oz) of mash. I cooked mine in the air fryer 180C (350F) for 35 minutes.
- Cocoa powder
- Plain flour – (US =all purpose) is best because it helps give the cake it’s light crumb.
- Baking powder
- Caster sugar – I use golden caster sugar for most of my baking. It’s the same as normal caster sugar, but it’s unrefined, It is a little more flavoursome with light caramel tones.
- Eggs – Large lightly beaten
- Oranges zest The segments can be used to decorate the cake if desired.
- Orange Extract (optional) – you can add ½ teaspoon for a little extra orange kick if desired
- Greek yogurt
- Cooking oil – I used cold pressed rapeseed oil but you can use any neutral tasting cooking oil such as vegetable or sunflower. Olive oil can also be used but avoid those with strong flavour.
For the chocolate frosting
- Milk Chocolate
- Milk– skimmed, semi or whole is fine whatever you have to hand
- Butter – lightly salted or unsalted is fine
- Orange extract
Bundt Tins
Bundt cakes do not refer to any single style of cake but rather to their distinctive shape. Like its cousin the tube pan, a Bundt pan has a ring shape that encourages faster and more even in cakes and generally has fluted or grooved sides.
I've used a tin with quite a detailed pattern, most have less intricate patterns, both are ideal and a simple plain ring tin will also surfice.
When using a bundt tin especially when it has detailed patterns, it is essential that you grease the tin well, making sure that you get into all the grooves. It is also a good idea to coat the tin with a little flour or, in this case, cocoa powder, as it is a chocolate cake.
I generally grease my cake tins by brushing with oil, but in this case a little melted butter might have been easier as I found the oil tended to run off the non-stick surface. Luckily it still turned out ok.
After greasing, add a tablespoon or so of flour or cocoa to the tin and shake it around. Do this over the sink. When all the sides are coated turn out upside down and tip out tapping the pan to remove the excess.
Chocolate orange and sweet potato bundt cake step by step
Step 1
Sift the flour, cocoa powders and baking powder into a large bowl and stir in the sugar.
Step 2
Using a fork, combine the eggs, orange zest, orange extract, yoghurt, oil and cold mashed sweet potato. Mix well.
Step 3
Combine the wet and dry ingredients together and mix well.
Step 4
Spoon the cake batter evenly into the tin and level with the back of a spoon or a palette knife.
Step 5
Bake until risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Step 6
Make the frosting. Place the butter, milk and chocolate in a heat-proof bowl.
Step 7
Melt, stirring over a bowl of hot water or in short bursts in the microwave until you have a smooth frosting.
Step 8
Spoon the frosting over the cooled cake so it covers the tops and runs down the sides of the bundt cake.
Chocolate Orange & Sweet Potato Bundt Cake
Equipment
- Bundt Tin/ Ring tin (about 21cm diameter and 10cm high)
- sieve
- spatula or large metal spoon
Ingredients
Cake
- oil or butter for preparing the bundt tin
- 50 g (2oz) cocoa powder plus extra for preparing the bundt tin
- 300 g (10½oz) plain flour
- 2½ teaspoons baking powder
- 150 g (5oz) golden caster sugar
- 3 large eggs lightly beaten
- 2 oranges zest only
- 150 g Greek yogurt
- ½ teaspoon orange extract
- 150 ml cooking oil see notes below
- 225 g (8oz)cooked sweet potato cold, from around 2 medium sweet potatoes
Chocolate frosting
- 150 g (5oz) milk or dark chocolate
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 25g (1oz) butter
- ½ teaspoon orange extract
Instructions
To make the cake
- Preheat the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan)/350°F/gas mark 4.Prepare the bundt tin. Thoroughly grease the bundt mould . Add two or three teaspoons of cocoa powder to the tin. Hold the tin over the sink and rotate the tin to ensure that all of the surfaces have been covered with the cocoa. Knock out any excess.
- Sieve 300g (10½oz) flour, 50g (2oz) cocoa powder and 2½ teaspoons baking powder into a large bowl and stir in 150g (5oz) caster sugar.
- Using a fork combine three eggs, the grated zest of 2 oranges, 150g (5oz) yogurt, ½ teaspoon orange extract, 150ml (5floz) oil and 225g (8oz) cold mashed sweet potato and mix well.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients then pour in the sweet potato mixture, Gently combine, together until just mixed.
- Spoon into the prepared tin ensuring that the batter is relatively level. Bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for about 45 minutes. The cake will be ready when an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for about 10 minutes in the tin. Tap the sides of the tin with your hand a couple of times to help loosen the cake and carefully turn out onto a wire tack and leave to cool completely.
To make the frosting
- Meanwhile, make the chocolate frosting. Break 150g (5oz) milk chocolate into pieces and place in a heatproof bowl with 2 tablespoon milk, 25g (1oz) butter and ½ teaspoon orange extract. Place over a pan of hot water and stir until the chocolate melts and combines with the other ingredients to produce a smooth frosting.
- Once the cake has cooled completely, pour the frosting over the top of the cake allowing it to drizzle down the sides.
- Enjoy.
Notes
- It is essential to make sure the bundt tin is greased well to ensure it turns out successfully.
- Sweet Potato – Cooked and mashed. So long as it is not heavily seasoned you could use left over sweet potato. If cooking from scratch you will need about 2 medium sweet potatoes to produce 225g (8oz) of mash. I cooked mine in the air fryer 180C (350F) for 35 minutes.
- Cooking oil – I used cold pressed rapeseed oil but you can use any neutral tasting cooking oil such as vegetable or sunflower. Olive oil can also be used but avoid those with strong flavour.
- Consider peeling the zested oranges and using the orange segments to decorate the top of the cake.
- The cake will keep in an airtight tin for up to a week if stored in a cool place.
- The undecorated cake can be frozen for up to 6 months.
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