Foodie Fights 2010: Battle 11 - Sweet Potato & Coffee: Sweet Potato Coffee Cake

Foodie Fights! I've been waiting to do battle for months and finally got a chance to sign up and was chosen for Battle 11 - Sweet Potato and Coffee. My recipe is up against 5 other food bloggers to see who will be declared the winner! This is like an online version of 'Chopped'. Make sure to visit the Foodie Fights website and vote for my creation!

I love using sweet potatoes since they are one of Guy's favorite ingredients. He's had all kinds of sweet potato creations so I'm constantly looking for new ways to use them. Since coffee was the second required ingredient, I immediately thought of coffee cake. We have not paired those two together before, and it sounded delicious!

I had so much fun making this coffee cake from scratch. I had to start with two large sweet potatoes and prepare them for mashing. I cut them up into little pieces to make boiling go faster, plus it was going to get mashed up anyway! Boil the sweet potatoes on high for 30 min, drain off the water, then mash with a slotted spoon or fork.

The next important step is to drain the excess water from the sweet potatoes so the coffee cake isn't soupy.

Place a towel on the counter, then several paper towels and scoop the mashed sweet potatoes on top. Next add another layer of paper towels and a second hand towel on top. Press down gently to spread the sweet potatoes thinly and drain the water.

The next step was the grind the coffee to use in the center layer of the cake. I chose an organic coffee named "Danish Pastry" since it was a mild roast with a sweet aroma.

The house was starting to smell really good! Now it was time to start assembling the layers for the coffee cake...

Sweet Potato Coffee Cake

Printable Recipe

Filling

3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp ground coffee (Danish Pastry)
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Streusel

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup turbinado

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup butter, melted

Mix all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Melt the butter in a small pan, then pour over the dry ingredients and mix well. Set aside.

Cake

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter

1 cup turbinado

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup mashed sweet potatoes

Preheat the oven to 375*F, making sure a rack is in the center of the oven, and butter a 9" baking pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients of flour through salt and set aside. In a mixer, blend together the butter and turbinado. Next add the eggs one at a time, and then mix in the milk, oil, vanilla, and sour cream. Then add the sweet potatoes.

Next, slowly add the dry ingredients until just incorporated.

Pour half the batter into the greased pan, then spread all the filling evenly over the batter.

Then pour the remaining batter into the pan and spread evenly. Add all the streusel on top and spread to cover the entire cake.

Place in the oven and bake for 90 min.

Allow coffee cake to cool before cutting.

Mmmm, sweet potato coffee cake. The house filled with such a divine smell, our mouths were watering and the cake couldn't cool off fast enough for us to dig in.

The title may not be flashy, but the taste sure is. You can smell the cardamom and nutmeg melding with the coffee and milder sweet potato before you even take a bite. The coffee and sweet potato are not lost in the cake and are able to create a marriage of flavor with each other and the spices. The streusel and filling satisfy your craving for something crunchy, hitting those bits of coffee, while your teeth sink slowly through the smooth sweet potato cake. Oh, it's heavenly!

The center filling left a beautiful, fragrant swirl through the middle of the sweet, dense cake.

Wanna bite?

Thank you for viewing my entry for Battle 11 - Sweet Potato & Coffee. Please visit the Foodie Fights website and vote for me!