I love cake...

 

What more do you really need to know about someone? Coffee, lemon, chocolate, Victoria, cream, boozy, beetroot... If they make a cake out of it I'm likely to love it. Since I had the Mini Grumpy Egyptian I have been really awful when it comes to cooking and actually having the time to bake never seems to crop up. A recent look on a couple of my favourite blogs made me aware about Credit Crunch Munch where the point is to post a recipe for something that saves money by using up things you already have.

I got a thinking and one vegetable I have always liked but REALLY got into while pregnant was the sweet potato so there are always some lying around the kitchen. I also like cream cheese icing on a red velvet, but it can be quite expensive to make so I tried the Sainsbury's Basic Cream Cheese and couldn't taste the difference. The end result is a moist and orange-tinged cupcake with tangy icing that gives you a deliciously not over sweet treat that has to be good for you... Well it has vegetables in it!

Sweet potato cupcakes with spiced cream cheese icing

Ingredients
200g butter
200g light brown sugar
3 eggs
200g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2 medium sized sweet potatoes (peeled and grated)
Pinch of salt
Handful of chopped nuts (optional)

Icing
200g soft cream cheese
50g butter
Half tsp mixed spice (use cinnamon if you only have that)
Half tsp ginger powder
100g-150g icing sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
Half tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Method
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and place cupcake cases in a tin. Allow the butter for the cake to come up to room temperature and beat it in a large mixing bowl with the brown sugar until well combined. Add the eggs and beat well. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into the mix and fold gently. Now add the grated sweet potato and nuts into the bowl and fold everything together. Spoon heaped tablespoons of the batter into the cake cases and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cakes are golden on top and cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack while you make the icing. In a clean bowl beat the cream cheese, vanilla extract, mixed spice, ginger and icing sugar together. Now add the softened butter and using an electric whisk, beat the mixture until it is smooth (no buttery lumps!) and thick. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes before spooning or piping onto the cooled cakes. Keep in the fridge once iced and eat within two days (as if cake ever lasts that long).

Notes
Some chopped stem ginger would be gorgeous in the cake batter but we didn't have any in the house. You could also put a little mixed spice in the batter, but I prefer keeping the cake flavour quite simple.

If you want to get involved with Credit Crunch Munch, pop over to Fab Food 4 All and Fuss Free Flavours for all the details.