Sweet potato cupcakes with bronze crunch

I love vegetables in sweet baking, and have tried many of them: carrots, courgettes, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and squash. I have seen some beautiful chocolate and beet cakes too, but haven't tried the beets in bakes yet. This is the right season for the scrumptious orange-coloured roots, and sweet potatoes are a versatile ingredient in many dishes.

Sweet potato cupcakes
Ingredients:
125 g sweet potato, cooked
150g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
30g ground almonds
1tsp baking powder
1tbsp vanilla essence
100g self-raising flour
1tsp cinnamon, ground
100ml Advocaat liqueur
90ml olive oil
for frosting: melted dark chocolate (1 bar) and 1tsp butter
Waitrose Cooks' Homebaking Gloriously Gilded Bronze Crunch

First cook the sweet potatoes, either boil them until soft or roast. Mash with a fork before mixing with the caster sugar, eggs, almonds, baking powder, vanilla, flour, cinnamon, Advocaat and olive oil. Ladle the cake batter into muffin cases inserted in a muffin baking tray. Put the tray in the oven preheated to 180C and bake for 18-20 minutes until well-risen and golden brown (check with a wooden skewer if they are ready).
Melt the dark chocolate with a spoonful of butter in a dish over the boiling water, and frost the bakes.

Sprinkle Bronze crunch to add a touch of glamour. Bronze crunch is basically edible bronze coloured sugar pieces. It looks very Byzantine and a tad decadent, excellent for any forthcoming seasonal parties. I have discovered it in the baking section of the local Waitrose, and it instantly appealed to my sense of glamour.
Expect more sprinkled baked goodies from me in the following weeks.