I love purple sweet potatoes and have been wanting to create desserts with them. I’ve had a hard time doing so though. The purple sweet potato, when cooked, turns a vibrant, dark purple. But when mixed with egg yolks and batter, the color becomes very muted. It becomes a bluish grey. Sometimes, it turns a dark green!
I saw quite a few recipes for purple sweet potato chiffon cake that came out a beautiful pink. I ended up using a recipe from Next Food Stop. I followed the recipe, but as you can see, my cake didn’t come out pink. Instead, it was a bluish grey.
I’m not sure where I where went wrong. Perhaps there are different varieties of purple sweet potatoes and the ones available here are not the same as the ones being used in the recipes I found.
This recipe required as many eggs as my previous chiffon cake recipes, though it is only about half the size. I didn’t have the smaller chiffon cake pan, which is what is required for this recipe, so I ended up using a full sized pan so my cake isn’t as puffy.
All the eggs made this cake very, very moist and soft, like a cloud. It was actually a little too moist for me. I prefer the other chiffon cakes that (while still soft and pillowy) do have a slightly firmer texture compared to this one. The shell of this cake is also soft and sticky, whereas the other chiffon cakes I’ve made have a clear crust that doesn’t stick to your hands.
I think it’s your own personal preference because Baby Bro loved this recipe.
The cake tasted good, but I wish it had come out pretty pink. I guess I’ll try it again with another recipe. If anyone can tell me why my purple sweet potato recipes come out this color or sometimes a dark green, please let me know!
Purple Sweet Potato Chiffon Cake
Ingredients
Ingredient A
- 220 g egg white about 6 large eggs
- 100 g caster sugar
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Ingredient B
- 80 g egg yolk about 5 large eggs
- 100 g water
- 80 g corn oil
- 100 g sweet potato steamed and mashed
- 100 g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 20 g caster sugar
- 140 g sweet potato cut into cubes and steamed
Instructions
- Whisk egg yolk with the mashed potato. Add in water, 20 g sugar. Then add in oil. Sift flour with baking soda. Mix into the egg yolk mixture.
- In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy, then gradually add in the 100 grams of sugar and the cream of tartar until a shiny meringue forms. Your meringue is ready when you can hold the bowl upside down and the meringue does not slide out. Fold into the yolk mixture carefully, Add in the potato cubes using a spatula.
- Pour batter into a 17 cm chiffon cake tin. (Do not grease the pan because you want to be able to keep the cake upside down when it is done cooking without it sliding out of the pan)
- Bake the cake at 165°C for 45 minutes or until cooked.
- Remove cake from oven and invert the pan to finish cooling. The cake should stick in pan even though it is upside down.
- After cake has cooled, use a plastic knife to loosen the edges of the cake so that it will slide out.
Notes
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
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Hi Kirbie,
Thanks for trying out the recipe on the Next Food Stop. From the receipe you have adapted, I realised you had missed out on the 15 ml of lemon juice. Each time I added that into the sweet potato and egg yolk mixture, the colour would change pink immediately. Quoted from my daughter (from Next Food Stop), sweet potato is one of our earth’s natural indicators. Hence, when lemon juice is added, the colour turns pink indicating an acidic mixture.
Try adding in the lemon juice and do let me know the outcome! You can check my blog out HERE!
Thank you thank you so much for telling me! I’ve been so upset that all my purple sweet potato foods turn such a dull color after I add egg yolks and have been trying to figure out the problem. I didn’t even notice that I left out the lemon juice. I am so excited to try this recipe again now!
With six eggs, this recipe should turn out as tall as a normal party chiffon. Major reason it did not is it departed from the well accepted chiffon procedure of separating the egg whites and whipping it separate from the yolks which is mixed with the rest of the ingredients and then carefully folded into the whipped whites. I would test this for you if only I were fond of sweet potato. I am not. It makes me flatulent.
Thanks for the idea. I’ll play around with this some more.
I love the taste. Now I just need to figure out how to maintain the purple color.
Hi there!
I haven’t made this recipe, but I have made a pie once or twice with purple sweet potatoes – the pie included buttermilk and although it was DELICIOUS, I also noticed that it was more pink than the initial puree was. After adding the acidic ingredient, the color changed. Perhaps changing the acidity of the cake batter just slightly would alter both texture and color?
Take care!
Never thought of using sweet potato for chiffon cake. Thanks for sharing. What a great idea!