Healthy Victoria Sponge Loaf with Cashew Icing

 

I made a delicious Potato and Plum cake a while ago and have decided to revisit the recipe to make it even healthier!

I have tweaked the recipe by substituting the sugar with xylitol. In addition to having no fat and being gluten free, it’s pretty darn good!

Here’s the recipe…

Ingredients

Potato Sponge

100 g potato (peeled and finely grated)

75 g xylitol

75 g white rice flour

25 g ground almonds

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

2 tbsp strawberry jam

Cashew Icing

85 g cashew nuts (soaked in water for at least 2 – 3 hours before making the icing)

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp lemon juice

pinch salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and line the loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

Weigh the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and mix together to make sure the baking powder and cinnamon are fully incorporated.

Whisk together the eggs, gradually adding the xylitol to make a pale, fluffy mixture. When all the xylitol is added whisk in the vanilla essence.

 

The next step is to peel and grate the potato. When grated immediately add the potato to the egg mixture and combine.

Finally add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and gradually fold them in.

Pop the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for around 25 minutes.

To finish this off I made a cashew nut icing. It is essential that the cashews are soaked for 2 – 3 hours before making this.

The recipe is simple, just throw all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. You want the icing to be quite thick to spread onto the cake, but if it is too thick then add a little water or more lemon juice.

Now it wouldn’t be a Victoria Sponge without strawberry jam, so cut the cake into two and spread one side with the jam and the other with the icing.

Pop the cake back together and spread the cashew icing around it so it looks like a naked cake and enjoy!

Happy Baking! x