I ran across this recipe for purple sweet potato chiffon cupcakes, and I felt compelled to try it. I had never made anything with purple sweet potatoes before. I’m pretty sure I’ve only seen it in taro bubble tea drinks, or in those purple potato chips. And I don’t even know if those are purple sweet potatoes.
I dropped by 99 Ranch and found something labelled “grated purple yam” in the freezer section. I figured that was close enough.
It’s just a big block of purpleness. The hard part was getting a 100-gram block off of this, since it was so hard. I ended up letting it thaw a bit, and then slicing off about a fourth of it. I heated it in the microwave on low power to defrost it a bit.
Purple Sweet Potato Chiffon Cupcakes


4 egg yolks
15 g sugar

50 ml canola oil
50 ml milk
100 g frozen grated purple sweet potato (I used grated purple yam)
65 g flour
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
I mixed all of these together until they became a sticky batter.
There’s also a meringue component to this recipe.
Meringue
60 g sugar
8 g cornstarch
4 egg whites
I just mixed these together, and then whipped them to stiff peaks.
Then you just fold the meringue into the purple-ish batter.
The batter goes into some baking cups. Since there’s no leavening agent, it probably would have been better if I had filled them up more, since it’s not like they rise.
After 17 minutes at 325F, they’re done.
I used to make cupcakes without frosting. People teased me saying that they were just muffins. But it’s not the frosting that makes them cupcakes! They do look naked without frosting, though.
Crème Fraiche Frosting
2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup crème fraiche
 (I used sour cream)
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
The four ingredients are just mixed together and then whipped until they get soft peaks.
I just spread a bit of frosting on each one.
The inside is purple. The original recipe’s pictures made them look airier. Maybe I mixed the meringue too much, and the egg whites deflated. They still tasted decent, though. I thought the frosting was a bit bland. It could have used more sugar. In general, the small amount of sugar in both the cupcake and the frosting made the taste very light. Very different from the typical American cupcake.
Now what do I do with half a pound of frozen grated purple yam? I should look for more recipes…