The potato and cocoa cake is a delicious variation of the much more famous “potato cake” by Pellegrino Artusi contained in his book “Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well”. My cocoa variant, like the original, is completely gluten-free, lactose-free, and does not contain any leavening agents. It is a cake with a very soft, moist texture that literally melts in your mouth. It is an easy and customizable dessert, perfect both as a dessert to accompany coffee or tea, as well as for an important lunch or a special occasion.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 12
- Cooking methods: Boiling, Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter, and Spring
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs potatoes (yellow or white flesh)
- 4 medium whole eggs
- 3.5 tbsp melted butter, cooled
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup chopped toasted almonds
- 1 orange
- 1 lemon
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp Strega liqueur (or Amaretto)
- 1/2 tsp fine salt
- 1/4 cup unsweetened gluten-free cocoa powder
- as needed melted butter for the mold
- as needed gluten-free breadcrumbs for the mold
Tools
- 1 Mold
Steps
To prepare the potato and cocoa cake, start by boiling the potatoes with their skin on. You can use either white or yellow-fleshed potatoes.
While the potatoes are cooking, turn the almonds into granules using a blender.
Wash and thoroughly brush the skin of an orange and a lemon.
When the potatoes are cooked, turn off the heat and let them cool in the water for about twenty minutes. Then proceed to peel them and mash them into a puree with a potato masher (pass them through the potato masher twice for a fine, lump-free puree).
Butter a 9.5-inch round mold (using a little of the melted butter that will be used in the cake batter) and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
Preheat the oven to 350°F
Transfer the still warm potato puree into a bowl, where you will add the sifted cocoa powder, almond granules, sugar, grated zest of a lemon and an orange, cinnamon, the liqueur (optional), melted butter, fine salt, and finally the whole eggs, one at a time. Mix everything with electric whisks or by hand until you get a creamy, smooth, and lump-free consistency, except for the almond granules, of course.
Pour the batter into the mold and gently tap it on the work surface to ensure the cake batter is evenly distributed.
Bake at 350°F for about 35 minutes, halfway up in the oven (static or convection is indifferent). To check the cake’s doneness, pierce it with a long skewer. The skewer should come out perfectly dry, and don’t worry if the cake still has a very soft texture. When the cake is perfectly cooked, you will also notice that the batter detaches from the mold by at least a couple of millimeters (as shown in the photo below).
Immediately take the potato cake out and let it cool completely before gently removing it from the mold and transferring it to the serving plate.
For decoration, you can simply dust it with powdered sugar or sprinkle it with almond granules as I did.
The extra idea. To make the potato cake even more delicious and decorative, we could prepare a dark chocolate glaze to cover or decorate it.
