Japanese Sweet Potato Cake

(Some of the rather random) Things I love about Mother:

 

1. She taught me that money doesn't fall from trees

By paying me 20 cents for every hour of my massage services back in the days.

 

2. She also taught me patience and understanding

By telling me why I shouldn't sulk when I was the last to get picked up from school.

 

3. She is willing to sacrifice her time on me

By sitting through hours and hours of my squeaky violin and horrific piano playing. I don't know how she did it. No wonder she had headaches often.

 

4. She defies some Asian mother stereotype

By always saying...

"Viv, if you keep on studying, I'm going to be very angry. Go to sleep" (*switches off light*)

"Oh, you're home already from the party? So early?"

(Maybe there was some reverse psychology in play there).

 

5. She pushes me to do things I don't want to do

By giving me a Chinese Bible and telling me write out everything in it during my summer holiday. (No, I never made it through to the end though).

 

6. She ignited my passion for numbers

I don't know where she got stacks of mathematical worksheets from but I used to spend hours a day doing endless equations and ended up falling in love with maths.

 

7. She is an extremely generous person and unpretentious.

You'd agree if you know her.

8. She doesn't get mad easily

Not once did she tell me off when I let my mouse Flynn poop everywhere and my rabbit Gloria eat through our set of encyclopedia. Or when I decided to keep flies and spiders as pets. I'd totally freak if my own kids do that. 

9. She taught me the basic skills in the kitchen

For as long as I can remember, I had always stood next to her washing and chopping at her every commands.

 

10. She is the #1 fan of this blog yet she will deny it if you ask her.

I hesitated about sharing this post because the photos are awkward and rushed. But I must, because today is Mother's birthday and her ultimate favourite food is sweet potatoes. Japanese sweet potatoes to be precise. And since she's not here with me, all I can do is bake her favourite cake and tell her how deliciously simple this cake is while I eat it in front of her on Skype. And that every bite of this cake is like a mouthful of super silky smooth sweet potato which can only make every sweet potato fan deliriously happy.

Happy birthday Mother. I heart you so much.

Japanese Sweet Potato Cake
Adapted from Masa

• 300g sweet potato (with purple skin)
• 160ml milk or cream (I used milk)
• 40g sugar (I used brown)
• 2 eggs
• 30g all purpose flour
• cake tin (15-18cm)

Preheat the oven to 170C.

1. Butter the baking tin and dust with flour. Remove excess.

2. Steam the sweet potato until cooked, and remove the skin.

3. Put the sweet potato in a blender and mix until smooth (I don't have a blender so used a potato masher!)

4. Place the sweet potato puree in a bowl and add the milk or cream, mix together.

5. Add sugar into the mixture then the eggs. Combine well with a whisk.

6. Add the sieved flour and mix until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into the cake tin.

7. Bake the cake for around 40-50 minutes at 170C. At around the 40 minutes mark, check if it is cooked by inserting a chopstick/stick into the cake and if the stick comes out clean, it is cooked. Otherwise, leave it in the oven longer.

8. Once out of the oven, leave on the tray and wait until cool. Better yet, put it in the fridge after it has cooled down to further set.

Note: Remember not to eat straight away (as hard as it is!) as it is easier to cut into the cake once it has cooled down and set, as there are very little flour in the cake.