Sweet Potato Cake with Chocolate Orange Frosting

Weekend Baking

This week i decided on a sweet potato cake maybe because i was thinking about the sweet potato pies i made whilst studying in Australia. Sweet potato desserts are usually spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon and some other spices usually to evoke feelings of fall and thanksgiving.

So the recipe came from Sky High Irresistible Cakes and the frosting had chocolate in it. But the picture of the slice was more orangy. I'm still perplexed as to whether the frosting really did turn out in that colour or was it just some good photoshoping... hmmm

Layered and cooling in the fridge

The recipe was the type when the whites are separated and beaten to soft peaks and then folded into the cake batter for a light cake. Baked it for twenty minutes and they were done. They peaked and cracked a bit but the smell .. oh my.. the whole apartment smelled festive.

Now the frosting really didn't work this time. I'm not sure if it was because of the hot air but it was just so difficult to work with. The cream cheese was beaten with the butter and the confectioners sugar. But the texture was like cake batter.. really runny.. so i put the bowl in the refrigerator to harden up. After about twenty minutes the frosting was slightly better to work with. So i filled the cake and let it harden up. Maybe the cake was heavy and the frosting to runny because as the cake settled the frosting kept oozing out despite the ring of chocolate cream cheese frosting.. arghh... slightly peeved by this point

Attempt 1 at basket weave

I admit i didn't really look at how to do a basket weave. I kinda improvised. Ha ha ha.. yea i forgot the verticals. But it was really had to work with this frosting. The more i worked with it the more it 'melted'. So i did one row then refrigerated. Second row then the fridge again. By the third row, i just sat in front of the refrigerator and finished piping it with the door slightly ajar.

I really liked the cake and was not so thrilled by the frosting. I think i had enough of the cream cheese frosting. You can see that even after half an hour in the fridge the frosting pulled as i sliced through the cake. For the first time, i thought the cake would have been perfect with just a dusting of icing sugar because it in itself was quite sweet and did i mention delicious. Yay for the cake and nay for the frosting.