Arkansas sweet potato tea cake

by Leah Halmagyi

Ingredients

  • 750g sweet potato
  • 2½ cups self-raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1½ tsp ground nutmeg
  • ½ tsp ground cloves
  • 1½ cups vegetable oil
  • 5 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 300g caster sugar
  • 150g golden syrup
  • 2 cups icing sugar
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • edible flowers, to garnish

Instructions

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Serves: 10

1 Preheat oven to 180°C. Arrange the sweet potatoes in a roasting pan and bake for 1 hour, until tender. Scoop out the flesh and mash finely. Sift the flour, baking powder and spices together.
2 Combine the oil, eggs, vanilla, sugar and golden syrup in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Mix in the sweet potato and flour mix, then spoon into a floured and buttered 10-cup Bundt tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a skewer can be inserted and removed cleanly. Cool on a wire rack.
3 Whisk the icing sugar and lemon juice until smooth, drizzle over the cake then decorate with edible flowers.