Bring Back The Afternoon Tea Movement

After a year-long hiatus from baking and cooking, ever since I relocated back from Sydney to Singapore in January 2010, I have recently dusted off my weighing scales, fired up the new-ish oven and started baking a little. I have also started inviting friends over for afternoon tea (seems that I am on a personal "Bring Back The Afternoon Tea Movement"), hence forcing me to be more Martha Stewart-like, even if it just means Home Economics 101 - Rock Buns.

As we ventured into the market yesterday and G discovered sweet potatoes, one of his favourite food items, which did not cost its weight in gold there, we bought about half a kilo worth. And while mentally working through my afternoon tea items to make, I decided to try out this Japanese sweet potato cake recipe I saw in my favourite Food & Travel magazine. But I tweaked it by substituting chopped almonds for raisins as the rock buns already had raisins in them. And because the sweet potatoes I used were the purple ones, they had this lovely deep purple colour to the cakes and when I added the lemon juice to the mashed up sweet potatoes, there was a chemical reaction and red spots appeared. It was so pretty.

These were very popular at the afternoon tea, the lemon juice gave a sour tang to the sweetness of the sweet potatoes and I love how just twisting a spoonful in cling wrap gives it such a cute little shape. A very simple recipe, but definitely added to my Bring Back The Afternoon Tea Movement staples.