Purple Sweet Potato & Sesame Marble Cake

for as long as i can remember, i detested chiffon cakes and pound cakes alot. i used to associate them with local old-school kinda bakeries where the only flavors available were pandan and chocolate. but ever since coming across them in french and japanese cookbooks where the flavor combinations and decor wise were anything but boring, i started looking at them in a different light.

purple sweet potatoes are kinda like pantry staple these days. there are so many things i can do with them (think wagashi, mont blanc, chiffon) but currently on top of my to-bake list is this, the purple sweet potato & sesame marble pound cake from one of my favorite japanese cookbooks by junko fukuda, the same author of the chiffon cake book. so far i've only tried one other recipe from the book, the jasmine tea roll cake, it was good and i'm glad this one is too!

even tho' this is a pound cake, the whites are beaten separately hence the texture is not as dense. the cake also tastes and smells really awesome of sesame which in my opinion could be mistaken as peanut butter coz the two are pretty identical. the sprinkle of sesame seeds also provided a nice crisp crunch to the cake. definitely a keeper! only thing is, i must not be very skilled in making marbled cakes coz i couldn't really swirl the batter nicely. i just gave it a few brief stirs coz i was afraid to overdo it but i ended up underdoing it instead :( making cakes like this also means there would be double the utensils to wash up since you hv to separate the batter into two equal portions but its well worth the effort, thats for sure.



recipe source : 我♥和風洋菓子 by 福田淳子 (wa sweet recipe by junko fukuda)

ingredients (makes two 8 x 17cm x 6cm loaf tins) :

120g butter, softened

80g white sesame seed paste

100g sugar (i substituted half with vanilla sugar)

4 egg yolks

2 tbsps rum

2 tbsps milk, omit if using purple sweet potato puree

4 egg whites

100g sugar

20g cake flour

100g purple sweet potato powder (or puree)

100g cake flour, sifted

white sesame seeds, for topping

directions :

1. whisk butter briefly then add in white sesame paste & 100g sugar and whisk until pale & fluffy. add in yolks one at at time, beating well between each addition followed by rum.

2. separate batter into two equal portions and add in milk (if using) into one of the portions.

3. whisk egg whites and the other 100g sugar until stiff peaks.

4. in one of the portions with milk, fold in 1/4 of the meringue, followed by purple sweet potato powder/puree, 20g cake flour & another 1/4 meringue. mix well to combine.

5. in another portion of the cake batter, fold in 100g cake flour followed by the rest of the meringue.

6. line loaf tins with parchment paper. pour the batter (without purple sweet potato) equally into the bottom of the tins, then pour the other half of the batter (with purple sweet potato) on top. swirl batter then sprinkle with white sesame seeds.

7. bake in a preheated oven of 170C for 35-40 mins until skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.