I’m really excited to share this cake because it took a few experiments to get it right. It uses an unusual ingredient which makes it light and spongy. Mashed bloody potato.
Yes, there is mashed potato in this cake but I promise you would never know it. It tastes just like a traditional vanilla sponge and has the same lightness too.
Yet it’s made with surprsingly wholesome ingredients and no refined sugars. This idea is based off my Butternut Squash Cake recipe. I figured that I could use potatoes instead of butternut squash for a similar result and it turns out you can. You can do anything. There are no rules.
Except potatoes are even better because they yield a lighter colour and texture and are so much cheaper too.
And if I wasn’t excited enough about the fact that the sponge cake turned out so perfectly, my experiments with a vegan white chocolate buttercream were also successful.
After making it, it was hard not to eat the whole bowl, it’s that good.
I also used my trusty vegan lemon curd recipe with some added elderflower cordial for the centre filling.
The combination of these three is just heavenly… If I could do one thing different next time though it would be to add the lemon curd as a whole layer and not just in the centre of the cake. MORE lemon curd. Always.
Vegan Elderflower Cake with Lemon Curd & White Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
- 300 ml 1 1/4 cups almond milk or preferred dairy-free milk
- Zest and juice of half a lemon
- 600 g 3 1/3 cups plain white flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 150 g 3/4 cup mashed potato
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 270 ml 1 cup + 2 tbsp agave nectar
- 80 ml 1/3 cup sunflower oil or other mild-flavoured vegetable oil
- Vegan lemon curd with elderflower
- Vegan White Chocolate Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180c. and grease three 8 inch sandwich tins. lemon juice and zest to the almond milk and set aside.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and discard any large granules left in the sieve. Mix in the baking powder and bicarb.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the almond milk from earlier, mashed potato, vanilla, agave and oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until well combined and a thick, smooth batter is formed.
- Evenly divide the mixture into the three sandwich tins. The mixture will be quite thick and hard to smooth so I like to wet my hands and smooth the tops with my palms.
- Bake on the middle shelf for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake layers to cool at room temperature and then place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes (this makes them easier to handle and decorate.)
To assemble the cake
- Place the first cake layer on your cake stand and spread a generous layer of frosting on top.
- Dollop about four tablespoons of the lemon curd into the centre and gently smooth out.
- Place the next layer on top and repeat.
- For the last layer, simply smooth some icing on top using the back of a spoon.
- Decorate with fresh elderflower or other flowers.
- Serve and enjoy! This cake can be kept refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Hello
You say “lemon juice and zest to the almond milk and set aside” after preparing the tins. Do you mean add? Also the list of ingredients states 600g of plain flour but the instructions item 2 says sift the spelt flour. Is the quantity of plain flour of 600g correct?
Kind regards
Pauline
Hi Pauline. Sorry for the confusion, I didn’t mean to write spelt flour – it’s just plain and the amounts are correct.
I am sorry Aimee but I did not like this at all. The lemon curd was clumpy and the frosting has so much fat! Ugghhh. 400 grams of it. Not nice.
This cake looks wonderful, I’m going to make it for my NCT 2nd birthday party :) Lots of the children have egg/nut allergies so this fits the bill :)
Aimee – should I be making extra cake batter if I want to make 3 layers as the picture as the recipe looks to be for 2? Thanks x
Hi Claire, sorry I made a typo in the step four of the instructions – will amend now. It is three 8-inch tins (as stated in the first instruction). Hope you enjoy!
Hello – the recipe looks great and I’m keen to try it out but I’m also wondering about the tins – is it three tins that you use or two?
Hi Fa, sorry I made a typo in the step four of the instructions – will amend now. It is three 8-inch tins (as stated in the first instruction).
Mashed potatoes? Does anyone else get a flashback of Rachel from Friends making her trifle? Is it possible for blog pages to stick together? I’ll give it a try though! :)
Haha! What can I say? I’m English, we put weird things in our food…
Did anyone get an answer on how many layers this actually makes, is it two or three?!
Hi, I’ve never used Spelt flour before, Am I supposed to use white Spelt flour, as I think I have wholemeal and the cakes I’ve made are like doorstops and taste as bad! What have I done wrong. As light and fluffy as concrete. :(
Hi there. Thanks for the recipe, in the process of making so fingers crossed. However you haven’t replied to Alison’s earlier question, i.e. you say split between 2 tins but the cake has three layers, which is it? Thanks.
Hey Samantha – did you ever make the cake and if so, how many tins did you use?
I’m having a hard time making the frosting for this, like, how long am I supposed to be doing this for? It’s just turning out like slush not at all like frosting. Help!
I know this sounds silly but what do you mean by mash potatoes? Is there a vegan mash potatoe recipe I should follow and make prior!
Hi Stephanie, sorry for the late reply! Mashed potatoes meaning literally just plain cooked potatoes (boiling is easiest) and then mashed into a puree. Nothing fancy. Let me know how you get on!
Hi Aimee
I’m making this cake for a friends wedding on sat….
It says I need 3 snadwich tins but then says spoon mixyure into 2 sandwich tins….and the picture has 3 layers!!
Which is it?
cheers
Alison
sorry about typos!
Hi Aimee,
there’s agave/maple syrup listed among the ingredients for the white chocolate buttercream but it doesn’t come up again in instructions. At what point do you add it?
http://wallflowerkitchen.com/vegan-white-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
Oh I’m sorry about that, Anouk! I’ve updated it now – just stir it into the cornstarch mixture before adding it to the vegan butter. Hope that helps and let me know how you get on!
Hi Aimee, first of all thank you for all the beautiful photos and recipes! I was eager to try one of the vegan cakes and got a bit confused about the flour weight! In this recipe you said to put 600g or 2 1/4 cup spelt flour, while in your butternut squash recipe you are putting 400 g of spelt flour, again corresponding to 2 1/4 cups. Could you explain is it an error in cups or grams (and in which recipe?) or I’m not seeing something right? :) Thank you so much!
Love, Lori
Thank you Lori! I’m so sorry about that, I forgot to convert that cup measurement. It should be 3 1/3 cups (I’ve just updated it now). Sorry for the confusion and hope you get to try it!
I use all kinds of mash in my cakes. Sweet potato, betroot bannana dates to name a few
Me too! I especially love using sweet potato and squash. Such a great ingredient for vegan baking :-)
Mashed potatoes, wow! Aimee, you are a genius!
This cake looks extremely gorgeous, I so much love elderflower :)
So pretty! We once made our Mum a Birthday Cake with mashed potato in it and made her guess what the secret ingredient was- you really can’t tell, can you?
What are the rules with putting flowers on cakes? I know some are poisonous, but what about fertilisers and pesticides on them?
Love it all!!! the flowers, the cake, the capture! what a genius idea, mash potatoes!!! :) :) :) I’m so making this cake! xxx
This is amazing Aimee!!! I love all those flavors, I bet even more lemon curd would be heavenly ;) and the added potato is just genius
Aimee, this is such a beautiful cake. I love lemon and the fact that you used mashed potato is brilliant! The flowers are so pretty, and thank you for the cutting tip.
Swoon! Love lemon curd, elderflower flavour, and mashed potatoes in cake! You have achieved the trifecta! I was wondering recently how to make vegan curd – now I know – thanks!
It looks so pretty! I don’t think it’s weird at all to used mashed potato! I used mashed sweet potato all the time in baked goods and it works amazing. I did try using regular white mashed potatoes in a gluten-free cake a couple of years ago and it turned out horrible because it was too mushy and I think I used too much, lol! Those flowers look so beautiful next to the cake!
Never heard of Bloom and Wild until now – their flowers do look rather fabulous. And so does your cake. Once of the best chocolate cakes I’ve ever had was made with mashed potato – seems so unlikely!
Oh really? I will have to try a chocolate version soon! Thanks :-)
What a creation! That’s just fabulous! It’s made me grin from ear to ear!
Well that’s the best kind of reaction I could hope for! Thank you Chris :-)!
Wow, mashed potatoes? I never would have guessed that in a million years! It’s amazing that it works. That is one stunning cake. Well done!
Thank you, Cadry! I know, I was as shocked as you! I was expecting it to be another disastrous experiment but thankfully it turned out amazingly :-)
This cake looks so cold! And mashed potato in layer cake? Who would have thought! :)
It’s the magic ingredient!
What? How? Omg? Mind BLOWN!! Aimee I never ever in a million years saw this coming, but it is beautiful and crazy and genius all at the same time! Mashed potatos are my all time favorite savory food and then you put them into a sweet beautiful delicate cake!?! This is amazing! And those flowers are lovely, I adore flowers as a garnish. I just love everything about this <3
Haha! Oh your comment has made my day! Thank you lovely lady <3
Mashed potato in a cake? Weird but I like weird :-)
The good kind of weird!
This looks incredible! Do you think it could be made gluten free? :) x
I’m not sure Laura but I am going to try it next time I make it! I’ll update on here if it works out well :-)
What a beautiful bouquet! And I love the way you tied in a delicious-looking cake on so many levels – the flavor, the earthy but light ingredients, yum!
Thank you Alisa!
Wow, the cake is beautiful and I can’t believe there are mashed potatoes in there! Super creative! Those flowers are gorgeous too!
Thank you Jenn! I gave a few friends a slice to taste and when I told them it had mashed potato in it they were shocked! But it really gives an amazingly light, spongy texture :-)
Oh cool! That cake looks amazing, and I love the idea of using fluffy mashed potatoes to make a fluffy cake!
Thank you Becky! It was an experiment that I didn’t expect to work out as well as it did!
This is so stunning, my friend!!
Never underestimate the power of the potato!! This came out so perfect <3 ooo I want a slice!
Potatoes make everything better, now including cake! Thank you my dear :-) I’d send you a slice if I could!
Oh wow, this cake looks absolutely amazing! So beautiful and delicious!
My favorite kind of flowers are pink tulips, I looove them! :)
Thank you, Mara! Pink tulips are stunning! I love having a bouquet of them on my kitchen table :-)