Boozy Apricot and Sweet Potato cake

Calling anything "boozy" just endears itself to me.  Take this cake for instance.  

I first encountered this recipe, unappetizing titled "Apricot Yam Loaf" from the otherwise wonderful and out of print cookbook from Alice Medrich called "Chocolate and Other Low-Fat Deserts".  Forget the faddy diet gimmick, this book has some real winners of less-than cloyingly sticky sweet sweets.  That cookbook, along with the other couple hundred of cookbooks in my collection, are all in storage.  Many a sleepless nights have been spent digging around the reaches of the internet, looking to see if some food blogger somewhere had republished an old favorite of mine.  Lucky day, a few months ago David Lebowitz republished this oldie but goodie, and I went to work on making it my own again.  

While putting vegetables in sweets is nothing I usually seek out (remember the whole Sneaky Chef feud?), I find that sweet potatoes work well in a cake base.  It lends it a sweetness and earthiness that I find incredibly appealing.  While there is no way no how that I would declare this cake as healthy because of its vegetable content, I would suggest that it was perhaps a better alternative than a plain white flour and sugar cake.  It's worlds more interesting anyway.  

Back in New York, I had a tricked-out gadget-strew kitchen.  Those days are gone now, and my Cuisinart stand mixer and hand-held electric mixers are all tucked away in storage indefinitely.  That doesn't stop me from baking.  I'm low-tech now, refusing help from the machines, and justifying the creations of buttery sugary goodness by the insane beating that I give them beforehand and getting overdeveloped arms because of it.  Don't despair- with a little elbow grease, you will have lump-free fluffy batter as well.  Although you might be a bit crazy to attempt something like meringue without a mixer remember that it was invented long before electric mixers were, and some poor chef at some point would have had to give those egg whites a beating by hand.  I comfort myself with this though halfway through the cake-making process.  

It's also quite a forgiving cake.  The first time I made it, idiot that I am, I forgot to set the time on the oven and left it in 10 minutes longer than I should have.  It was just fine though- the extra moisture from the sweet potatoes and the booze-soaked apricots did a good job to make sure I didn't have to suffer through a hockey puck of cake, and it wasn't even terribly dry.  The second time, I wised up and set the timer and it came out even better!  

You can use leftover roasted sweet potatoes in this dish.  Next time you are roasting them for dinner, throw a couple extras in and behold, you have your base for cake the next day.  Otherwise, you can just microwave them as I did, since I'm lazy.  

The other thing I love about this cake is while it's in the oven, I can sit down and have a nice lunch of the leftover sweet potatoes and drink the apricot-flavored vermouth as a kind of a pre-game.

I've made a few changes, but it is still recognizable as the yam loaf from days of yore.  Oh, and the icing isn't in the original either (hello, low fat cookbook).  Thank M. Lebowitz for that stroke of genius.  Cream cheese frosting tends to make everything spectacularly good.  

The other thing about this cake is that it freezes really well.  We are but two people and an entire cake sitting on the counter leads to unhappy stale cake after a week of sitting out.  No one wants that.  I cut it in half once cooled, wrap half of it tightly in plastic wrap and freezer bags, and then cut the icing in half to compensate.  Sure, you could make the entire batch of icing and frost half the cake with it, but that is so not in the spirit of a low-fat frosted cake.  

Go right ahead.  

I'll be waiting by the phone to hear you say how good it is.  

Recipe: Boozy Apricot and Sweet Potato cake

115g (2/3 cup) diced dried apricots

125ml (1/2 cup) dry vermouth (but I suppose sweet would work as well)

225g(2 cups) flour (I used a combination of white and a light whole wheat)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

75g(6 tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature

200g (1 cup) Demerara or Muscovado Sugar

zest of 1 lemon

2 large eggs, at room temperature

240g (1 cup) cooked sweet potato flesh, well mashed or pureed if you have a food processor  

125g(1 cup) toasted almonds, chopped

Frosting:

• 225g (8oz) cream cheese, room temperature
• 60g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100 g (3/4 cup) powdered sugar

Do-ahead:  Soak the Apricots in the Vermouth for at least a halfhour.  Overnight wouldn't be overdoing it if you have the foresight.  Drain, reserving the liquid.  DO NOT WASTE BOOZE.  

Preheat the oven to 180c/350f.  Grease 2 8" loaf pans, or whatever cake pan you happen to have.  Mine is kind of a terrine pan, but it somehow manages to do.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

In another bowl (or in a mixer) cream the butter with the sugar and lemon zest until smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs and combine thoroughly. If using a stand mixer, stop the mixer and scrape down the side to make sure everything is incorporated.  If you are doing this by hand, I salute you and your giant guns.  

Mix in half of the flour mixture, then the drained vermouth and sweet potato puree, then the rest of the dry ingredients. Stir in the nuts and apricots.

Divide the batter into the prepared pans, smooth the tops, and bake about 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool completely.

Once cool, make the cream cheese frosting by beating the cream cheese with the butter and vanilla. Add the powdered sugar, mixing until smooth and lump free. Divide the cream cheese frosting on top of the cakes, spreading it with a knife or spatula.  

Enjoy, it's just lovely with tea.  

Since the recipe makes two loaves, you can freeze a cake.  Wrap it well in plastic once it's cooled.