Michelle Darmody: How to turn leftover sweet potato into a cake that everyone will rave about
It is really handy to have quick and easy recipes to use up leftover or excess food in the fridge and cupboards.
French toast and bread and butter pudding are fail-safe leftover bread recipes but at times you may have small ends of cheese or some mashed vegetables that are idling about after a dinner.
Frozen berries can be used in the loaf, or a handful of overripe, almost past their best, berries would also do. They blend into the cake batter and add nice pops of flavour and colour.
The apple and dried fruit log can be made with whatever variety of apples you have available. The sugar may need adjusting for slightly sweeter apples, such as Pink Lady. Reducing it by about a third should do.
This recipe is designed to use up a selection of dried fruit. I often have small amounts of raisins, golden sultanas or dried figs leftover from other, more precise, baking recipes Servings Preparation Time Cooking Time Total Time Course Cuisine Ingredients 3 medium sized apples, peeled, cored and diced 40g golden caster sugar — this may vary the juice of half an orange, about 1 tbsp 1 tbsp soft butter 80g dried fruit 1 tsp ground cake spice 300g puff pastry sheets ½ tbsp milk 1 egg yolk 2 tsp demerara sugar Method Place the diced apples, sugar, orange juice, butter, dried fruit and spice into a saucepan and simmer over a low heat for about 10 minutes — the time will vary depending on how soft your apples are. You are looking for them to soften, but still have a bit of a bite. Set the apples aside to cool to room temperature, this also allows the flavours to blend. Line a large flat baking tray with parchment and preheat your oven to 210°C. Mix the egg yolk and milk and set aside. You will need one large rectangle of pastry. Different brands of puff pastry come in different sized sheets. You will probably have to connect two sheets together by gently crimping them until sealed. Place this large sheet on a floured surface. Place the apple mixture onto one side of the rectangle, lengthwise. Leave a centimetre wide border around the edges of where you placed the apple. Brush the border with the milk mixture and fold over the empty side of pastry, covering the filling. Crimp the sides together to make a long rectangle pocket. Brush with more milk and sprinkle over the sugar. Make a small steam hole in the middle of the log. Bake for about 35 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden. Allow to cool on the baking tray.Apple and dried fruit log
The mashed sweet potato in this cake can be substituted with squash, pumpkin, parsnips, carrots or a mixture of all five Servings Preparation Time Cooking Time Total Time Course Cuisine Ingredients 250g cooled, mashed sweet potato 180ml rapeseed oil 1 tsp vanilla 3 eggs 200g light muscovado sugar 185g plain flour 1 tsp ground cardamon 1 tsp ground cake spice 1 ½ tsp baking powder, sieved ½ tsp bread soda, sieved 80g blueberries Method Line a 2lb loaf tin with parchment and preheat your oven to 170°C. Beat the mashed sweet potato with the oil, vanilla, eggs and sugar. Mix the flour, cardamon, cake spice, baking powder and bread soda together in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and mix in the wet ingredients until completely combined and you have a smooth batter. Stir in the blueberries. Scoop the batter into your prepared tin and bake for an hour and a half or until a skewer comes out clean. Once cool enough to handle, gently remove from the tin and place onto a wire rack to cool completely.Sweet potato and blueberry loaf
