Purple Yam Swiss Roll Cake

Shh....I have a secret....there are people in my family who don't eat chocolate at all!  Total shocker!  I seriously thought everyone liked chocolate.  I mean I'd rather have caramel over chocolate, but I still like it.  But to not eat it at all?!?!  That's just unheard of.

Let me tell you its hard to find a dessert recipe that's somewhat healthy and doesn't include chocolate.  I know because I'm always on the lookout for one.  Well last Saturday, we had dinner with said family members and I scoured the internet to find something suitable.  See, I tend to use my family gatherings as testing grounds.  I rarely make them a tried and true recipe.  What's the fun in that?  This way I get an unbiased, or at least I hope, opinion on something I wouldn't normally make.  Hence this awesome recipe I found from Within the Kitchen.

The minute I saw this gorgeous sliced roll cake I knew it was the perfect thing to make.  I only had to find purple yams.  Purple yams are hard to find.  Whole Foods doesn't carry them.  The local grocery stores don't carry them.  Asian markets carry them.  Lucky for me that Mitsuwa, a huge Asian market, is right down the road here in Arlington Heights.

If you haven't made a Swiss roll cake before, don't be intimidated.  It's incredibly easy!  So easy that I think you'll be seeing more of them on here in the future.

I'm not going to re-post the recipe for the cake here.  I followed it to the letter and it came out gorgeous!  Only thing I changed was the filling recipe.  I had about a pound of purple yams and decided to use all of them.  I had to add more sugar due to that.

Purple Yam Mixture

1 pound purple yams, peeled cut and steamed
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons cream cheese
1/2 cup heavy cream

Place yams in vegetable steamer basket over boiling water in a large pot.  Boil yams until you are able to easily pierce them with a fork, 7-13 minutes.  Remove from steamer basket and place in food processor with rest of ingredients.  Pulse all ingredients until smooth.  Check for lumps.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes at least.