The story behind this cake is quite funny in its own way. My mother was craving something sweet and asked me to bake a cake for the evening. So I raided the kitchen cupboards, checked what ingredients were available, and this is what emerged.
At first, while making it, I didn’t think it was anything particularly groundbreaking, so I didn’t even bother writing the recipe down. I figured it was just an ordinary countryside cake — cozy and sweet, but nothing extraordinary. But the end result was unexpectedly delicious! While happily devouring the cake afterward, I tried to remember everything I had thrown into it, grabbed a pen, and — lacking a better option — scribbled the recipe onto the back of a grocery receipt
The ingredients came together entirely from what happened to be on hand. Since the village shop didn’t carry lactose-free butter or any other fancy ingredients suitable for me, coconut oil from the pantry took over the role of fat in the cake. For moisture and texture, I used sweet potato, which also adds vitamins and a lovely softness. A little baking soda helped lift the cake, and the flour of choice became raw buckwheat flour — of which I had apparently managed to haul about five kilos into my mother’s pantry over the course of several months.
Among the people enjoying the cake at the table was a ballroom dancer, who was particularly delighted — finally, a tasty cake with reasonably balanced nutrients that could still fit into a fairly strict diet in moderation. That’s exactly what I aim for: besides being healthier, a proper cake first and foremost has to taste insanely good. Nobody needs those cardboard-like “free-from-everything” cakes
Soft Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Preparation
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Preheat the oven to 180°C.
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Peel and chop the sweet potatoes, then boil them until soft.
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Place the cooked sweet potatoes into a food processor together with the coconut oil, palm sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and eggs.
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Mix the flour with the baking soda and cocoa powder, then gradually add the dry ingredients to the batter while mixing continuously, until you get a soft and slightly stretchy batter.
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Grease the baking tin with coconut oil, spread the batter evenly into the tin, and bake at 180°C for 30–40 minutes.
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Test the cake with a toothpick — if it comes out clean, the cake is ready.
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Before serving, allow the cake to cool for 10–15 minutes, then cut into squares.
Note
P.S. I suspect this cake would taste even better with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream!
