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Chocolate Potato Cake

April 1, 2011 by Katie Bryson

So I’ve finally used up the chocolate mountain in my kitchen this week after making a rather special cake as a warm-up for Easter.

I love trying out new recipes for chocolate cakes, especially ones that are a bit different like the chocolate and beetroot cake I made last summer.

This week’s effort was another vegetable inspired number – this time using mashed potato. I have to admit it’s not the first thing to leap into my mind when wondering how to use up the leftover mash sitting in the fridge.

But it tickled my curiosity so I got stuck in. My mum sent me the recipe which came from a book called Potatoes by Alex Barker and Sally Mansfield

It’s not a particularly easy-to-follow recipe. I’m often not disciplined enough about reading all the way through the instructions before I start, so I get a bit thrown when you’re told you need 250g of butter, but then you use portions of it in different elements of the recipe. I’m a simple creature, I like things to be laid out from the start!

I’ve rewritten it in the hope you’ll find it a bit more straightforward. Be warned though it’s not a ‘chuck it all in a bowl and stir it’ type affair, more a labour of love.

The resulting sponge is attractively flecked with dark chocolate and has a dense texture and intense taste that makes a small portion more than enough. It’d go well with a liberal blob of creme fraiche on the side.

I found the seasonal shelves of Poundland perfect for a few bargain cake decorations. Is anyone else oddly addicted to this shop?

Cute little Easter chicks and some turkish delight-filled eggs were straight in my basket – I also bought a football, some netting for the allotment, a mini wind-up train on a track and Sam’s cat costume for fairy tale dress-up day at school. All this for a tenner!!!

Chocolate Potato Cake

200g caster sugar
250g butter (portion it up into 225g and 25g)
4 eggs, separated
275g 70% dark chocolate, (175g grated, 100g broken into pieces for melting)
75g ground almonds
165g mashed potato
225g self raising flour sifted with
1 tsp cinnamon
45ml milk

Preheat oven to 180C 350F Gas 4

Grease and base line 35cm (9in ) round cake tin.

Cream the sugar and 225g of the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time until mixture smooth and creamy. Mix in 175g grated chocolate and the ground almonds.

Pass the mashed potatoes through a sieve or ricer and stir into the mixture.

Fold the sifted flour and cinnamon in with the milk.

Whisk the egg whites until they hold stiff but not dry peaks, fold into the mixture.

Spoon into the prepared tin, smooth over the top, then make slight hollow in middle to help keep surface of cake level during baking.

Bake for 75 mins or until a skewer inserted in middle of cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool slightly in tin then turn out onto cooling rack.

Make icing by breaking up remaining chocolate into heatproof bowl and stand over pan of hot water or blast in the microwave. Add the remaining butter in small pieces, stir well until chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth and glossy. Smooth the icing over the top and allow to set.

Decorate with Easter delights and serve with creme fraiche.

This recipe is NOT an April Fool’s joke in case you were wondering!

Filed Under: Bakes, Desserts Tagged With: cake, Chocolate, home baking, potato

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Comments

  1. Kathryn says

    April 1, 2011 at 7:45 am

    This looks AMAZING and presumably one of your five a day???

    • Elaine Livingstone says

      April 1, 2011 at 7:14 pm

      Kathryn….potatoes never count as part of your 5 a day…lol

      must admit looks nice but not the sort of thing we eat, and certainly too futtery for me to be bothered with even if it was.

      • Katie Bryson says

        April 1, 2011 at 7:23 pm

        Yes it isn’t a quick recipe this – interesting to make and eat though 🙂

  2. Rosemary Hamilton says

    April 1, 2011 at 12:43 pm

    My! that looks good, who’d have thought it had good old mash in it?Lovely decorations, these pound shops are a help when on a budget.

    • Katie Bryson says

      April 1, 2011 at 12:53 pm

      Thanks for passing on the recipe mum!

  3. El Moorish says

    April 2, 2011 at 1:44 am

    I must say that potato and chocolate don’t seem the most likely match but, then again, that’s coming from someone who regularly makes a zucchini chocolate cake….anything goes! I particularly like the look of the grated chocolate through the cake.

    The Easter decorations look fab – simple but effective, and so cheery. The turkish delight eggs would be gone long before the cake was in my household (or might not even make it to the cake…).

About Katie

I’m Katie Bryson – Freelance Food Writer, wife of a strapping vegetarian and mum of two boisterous boys – keeping them all fuelled and trying to stay sane is a daily challenge so I thought I’d share my experiences. Read More...

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