Spiced Sweet Potato Mini Loaves with Cream Cheese Frosting #TheCakeSliceBakers

It's a new year. And the Cake Slice Bakers have a new book from which they are cooking. For 2020, we'll be baking from The New Way to Cake: Simple Recipes with Exceptional Flavor by Benjamina Ebuehi.*

In this group, we are given a selection of three cake recipes. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

Before getting my copy of the book, I had no idea who Ebuehi was. So, in case you are in that same camp, she's a London-based food stylist who was a quarter-finalist on the seventh season of The Great British Bake Off ; she writes the blog Carrot & Crumb and is active on Instagram and on Twitter. What had me really excited was the subtitle - 'simple recipes with exceptional flavor'!

While I enjoyed several cakes from last year's selection, those recipes were anything but simple. Sadly, several of those recipes were flawed to the point of me throwing them in the garbage and starting all over again. I have tried all three recipes that were picked for this month from The New Way to Cake: Simple Recipes with Exceptional Flavor. Every single one was easy to make and incredibly tasty.

You'll see the others - my Upside-Down Cara Cara Olive Oil Cake (photo above) has already posted - but the one I picked for the January post was her Spiced Sweet Potato Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting. And, yes, it was simple and delicious.

Before I get to my recipe, here's the line-up of #TheCakeSliceBakers' January offerings...

Blood Orange & Olive Upside Down Cake

• My Recipe Reviews
• A Little Bit of All Right
• Sweet Sensations
• A Day in the Life on the Farm

Spiced Sweet Potato Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting

• Camille Cooks
• Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Making Miracles 
• Oven Delights

Sticky Ginger Cake with Caramelized White Chocolate Buttercream

• All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Amandie Bakes

Spiced Sweet Potato Mini Loaves 

with Cream Cheese Frosting

very slightly adapted from Benjamina Ebuehi

My recipe differs from hers in two main ways. First, I don't have a full-size loaf pan, so I made four mini loaves instead. Second, and I didn't realize this until after I made it, I used black caraway seeds instead of regular caraway. Then, I did also use a gluten-free flour only because I didn't have regular flour and didn't want to head back to the store. Also, I reduced the sugar slightly.

Turns out that black caraway is actually not related to caraway; it is also called Nigella seeds - scientific name Nigella sativa - and is primarily used in Indian and Turkish dishes. Black caraway is peppery with a touch of nutty sweetness. I will definitely need to try this recipe again with regular caraway seeds. Until I get my hands on some, however, I made this cake with black caraway seeds twice already. It's delicious.

Ingredients makes four mini loaves

Loaves

• 2-1/2 C flour (I used a gluten-free all purpose baking flour because that's all I had in the house)
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 2 t ground cinnamon
• 1-1/2 t ground ginger
• 1/2 t freshly ground nutmeg
• 1/2 t ground cloves
• 1/2 t coarsely ground black caraway seeds
• 1/4 t salt (I used a birch smoked salt)
• 2 C cooked sweet potato, cubed (I used a roasted sweet potato)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C oil (I used canola oil)
• 2/3 C organic granulated sugar
• 1/2 C organic dark brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/4 C milk
• 1 t pure vanilla extract
• Also needed: mini loaf pans, parchment paper

Frosting

• 2/3 C butter, softened
• 3/4 C cream cheese
• 1-1/4 C organic powdered sugar
• juice from one organic lemon (I used a Meyer lemon)
• zest from one organic lemon, as garnish

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line mini loaf pans with parchment paper and set aside.

Place sweet potatoes, eggs, oil, sugar, milk, vanilla, and spices in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Use a hand blender to beat into a smooth batter. Add in the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until ingredients are just moistened.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes - until the loaves are well-risen and a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove loaves to a wire rack and let cool completely. In the meantime, create the frosting.

Frosting
Place all of the ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Beat until well combined and smooth.

Finishing
Once the loaves are completely cool, add a generous pile to the top of each loaf and smooth it evening with a butter knife. Before serving, add some lemon zest to the top.

*This blog currently has a partnership with Amazon.com in their affiliate program, which gives me a small percentage of sales if you buy a product through a link on my blog. It doesn't cost you anything more. If you are uncomfortable with this, feel free to go directly to Amazon.com and search for the item of your choice.