As you know from my last post, I visited Japan for the first time a few months ago over the holidays. While I experienced many food adventures on that trip, from wagyu beef to freshly made tofu to sperm sacs, one of my most memorable bites of food was roasted Japanese yam in Shinsaibashi-suji at midnight. The starchy sweetness of the yam flesh with the steam from roasting instills comfort throughout the entire body in the middle of winter. It is one of my favorite simple pleasures.

Every time I go home to my parents’ in the Philly suburbs, there are Japanese yams in the fridge. We typically roast it in the oven, boil it in sweet porridge or just steam it. I had never thought to put it in cake, but then again, who would’ve imagined carrots would taste good in a cake? Thinking it’s a similar texture to carrots when raw, I grated it into a simple carrot cake recipe (without the carrots of course), and added in a mashed banana. You can omit the banana if you wish–I added in the banana because we had one that was getting very ripe and I didn’t want it to go to waste. Even one banana added a strong banana taste, so if you omit it, your cake will taste more strongly of Japanese yams. This cake turned out quite dense and extremely moist–I will definitely be incorporating it into my regular baking rotation.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Bake time: 40 minutes
Servings: 24

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups white sugar (I substituted 1/2 cup with agave nectar)
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups oil
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 cups Japanese yam, grated
• 1 ripe banana, mashed (optional)
• 1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup medjool dates (pitted and chopped into eighths)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and grease or line a 9×13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, and oil.
3. In another large bowl, shift together the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon.
4. Carefully stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
5. Mix in the grated yam, banana, walnuts, and dates.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
7. Bake for 40 hour in the preheated oven, or until cake springs back when lightly touched. It should be golden on top and around the edges. Cool on the counter for at least 15 minutes before cutting into squares.