Happy Birthday, My Beloved Toby!

Yesterday was Toby's birthday. I won't say which one, but it was a beautiful day for it. After Divine Liturgy, we came home and I started on his cake. This year, he requested a Sweet Potato Cake. A YouTube cooking channel we happened upon some time ago had a recipe, but I thought it might be too dense for what I wanted for a birthday cake. I took to Googling and found a recipe that seemed like it would both have the texture I wanted and convert readily to a gluten free form. Fortunately, it did end up being both! It's always a bit daunting to make a cake for the first time and also convert it and also have it be for a special occasion. But I accepted Toby's challenging request and got right on it. 

I used this recipe and must also admit I know nothing about this food blog. I do far less reading of food blogs these days. I'm grounded in what I need to do for my own health and gluten free is no longer a mystery to me (thank goodness). Although, not at all gluten free and no tips were given, this recipe worked like a charm for us in gluten free form.

Here are the substitutions and changes I made. I reduced the sugars by at least 1/4 cup each. I also used dark brown sugar, not the light that the recipe called for. I added a bit more milk (I actually used 1/2 and 1/2); probably about 1/4 cup more as gluten free flours tend to require more moisture when they are substituted for their wheat counterparts. And, very much against all baking advice, I added the extra milk after it had all been mixed. But that's the first time you notice that you need it. I stirred it in mostly by hand and not with my KitchenAid to avoid over-mixing the batter which the recipe warned of. Thankfully, there is a very good gluten free Cake Flour from Authentic Foods that I had on-hand. That, in my opinion, is what made the cake what I wanted in terms of flavor and consistency. Since this flour uses psyllium husk, there was no need to add xanthan gum as I'd normally have done otherwise to help it be less crumbly. I also used a full tablespoon of cinnamon. Now, I am a cinnamon foodie. I have at least five different kinds in my pantry. My go-to for most things is Vietnamese Cinnamon. It's a very warm, but quite spicy cinnamon. It is great in Hot Chocolate. But it was not what I wanted here. I literally sniffed them all to decide what I thought would taste most appropriate here - for a cake I'd never tasted or even heard of before. I went with Chinese Tung Hing Cinnamon from Penzey's. (Most of my main spices come from either Penzey's or The Spice House (but I trust the latter a bit less as some of their products have MSG in them, which, although labeled, is still suspect in my book; that stuff is toxic). For the vanilla, I used Mexican Vanilla also from Penzey's which is all I ever use. It is the best hands down. I used freshly ground nutmeg and probably more than the recipe called for. And, I should also mention that I used this brand of canned sweet potato. I have made my own baked sweet potato before, but didn't have the time to and also didn't want to risk having to sieve it if the potatoes were stringy. I think that brand of both canned sweet potato and pumpkin are very nice in baked goods. I can find them readily at most local stores here, even when it's not fall. 

I used three eight inch round pans with straight sides. I both sprayed them with non-stick cooking spray and lined the bottoms with parchment paper rounds I cut to fit.

I will say that it seemed to take closer to 32-35 minutes to bake, not the 25-30 the recipe anticipated. I did start checking for doneness at 25 minutes, then increased the time by two-minute increments and poked it each time with a skewer to check for doneness. I did not want to overbake it, but also didn't want to have the middles be undercooked as the frosting was going to be pretty heavy on it. 

The frosting recipe was modified a bit also, but I can't give you much specificity on that. To get it firmer than it came out when I followed the recipe proportions, I added more sifted powdered sugar. I don't know how much. I went by consistency and kept adding until it was what I wanted. I used a full tablespoon of Mexican Vanilla and probably 2 full teaspoons of the same Tung Hing Cinnamon I used in the cake. 

Here are some pictures of it. I didn't take any before I put the candles in. That was stupid. I thought of it, but was just rushing to get it done. It was getting late and we'd had a busy weekend with too many late nights. I do not use a pastry bag often enough so my piping is not as I wish it were, but I think it still gave it some finish. I chose golden sugar accents because I thought it would work best with what I anticipated being a cream-colored frosting and not a white one given the yellow butter mixed with the white cream cheese. I think the effect was quite grand. Exactly what I wanted. 

Anthony is always so eager and excited about things like this. It's cute. 

Not the cleanest cut for you to see the layers, but trust me, they were there and each layer was supported by a sufficient amount of frosting. 

So there you have it! Toby has regarded it as "one of the best cakes" I've ever made. That's high praise from him! He had a certain thing he wanted in mind and that's always what I'm striving for when it comes to birthday cakes - reading his mind and implementing it. 

Dinner was leftovers from an excellent grilling experience we had Saturday night. I'll post about that some other time perhaps. Or maybe Toby will. (I think we've both missed blogging which seems so hard to get around to. I'm not sure why. We enjoy it. We are always gathering fodder for it. But I guess sometimes we're so busy living life that we run out of time for writing about it. I guess that's probably how it should be if we have to choose a situation to be in.)

And with that, another year has started for my beloved. I am so grateful and blessed. Many years, Toby! I love you!  

Thanks for reading!