Recipes
Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake
This recipe was brought to you by Dr. Renae Thomas.
Dr Thomas could sit just as comfortably alongside the athletes in this book. As a
former Australian champion in gymnastics, marathon runner and fitness competitor,
she’s more qualified than most to talk about the intersection between diet and athletic
performance, as well as overall health.
Ingredients
- 450 g (1 lb/11/2 cups) boiled sweet potato chunks
- 180 g (61/2 oz/1 cup) medjool dates, pitted (approximately 20 large)
- 1 tablespoon reduced balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla-bean powder
- 250 ml (81/2 fl oz/1 cup) non-dairy milk of your choice
- 60–90 g (2–3 oz/½–3/4 cup) cacao powder
- 240 g (81/2 oz/11/2 cups) sweet potato flour (see Note)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 70 g (21/2 oz/1/2 cup) shredded zucchini (courgette)
- 30 g (1 oz/1/4 cup) walnuts (optional; see Note)
- fresh berries, to serve (optional)
Icing
- 165 g (6 oz/3/4 cup) peeled, boiled and
- mashed sweet potato
- 60 g (2 oz/1/2 cup) cacao powder
- 80–180 g (23/4–61/2 oz/½–1 cup) medjool dates, pitted (depending on the desired sweetness)
- 125 g (41/2 oz/1/2 cup) almond, hazelnut or cashew-nut butter (or 1 avocado for a nutfree version)
- 125 ml (4 fl oz/1/2 cup) non-dairy milk of your choice
Instructions
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Step 1
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a 20 cm (8 in) round cake tin with baking paper.
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Step 2
Combine the sweet potato chunks, dates, balsamic, vanilla powder and milk in a highspeed blender and blitz until smooth.
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Step 3
Sift the cacao powder, sweet potato flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the zucchini and walnuts, if using. Add the sweet potato mixture and stir until just combined.
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Step 4
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 40 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Step 5
To make the icing, blend all the ingredients together until smooth in a food processor or highspeed blender. Spread over the cake and garnish with fresh berries, if desired.
-
Step 6
Note:
-
Step 7
If you cannot find sweet potato flour, you can substitute it with other grain-free options, such as banana flour or chestnut flour. Alternatively, you can use 185 g (61/2 oz/11/2 cups) steel-cut oats blitzed into oat flour, though the cake will no longer be grain-free.
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Step 8
Adding walnuts to this cake will increase the fat content.
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Step 9
This cake is particularly good with a scoop of banana ‘nicecream’; blended frozen banana and vanilla-bean powder.
