Grandma Rose's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

I'm a redhead now, which means I feel obligated to claim fictional Irish heritage. One part of this completely untruthful (as far as I know, at least) background that I will claim in a heartbeat will be a love for all thing potato. Take a potato, dress it up anyway you can, and I guarantee I'll like it.

However, I never for a second imagined putting mashed potatoes in a cake.

Yes boys and girls, we're making a chocolate cake with mashed potatoes in it. So, let's get to it then.

For the cake you will need:
4 eggs, separated
2 cups sugar
1 cup sweet butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 cup mashed potatoes
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour one 9 inch tube pan or two 9 inch layer cake pans. I chose to do a tube. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, and beat until set. Set aside.

Cream butter with remaining sugar until fluffy, and add egg yolks, cooled chocolate, and mashed potato.

Sift flour with salt and baking powder. Add to batter.

Mix sour cream with baking soda and vanilla. Add to batter with the pecans and then, lastly fold in the whites.

Spread into the pan. For a tube pan, bake for about 50 minutes. For layer pans, bake about 35 minutes. My cake was not quite done at 50 minutes, and I never could seem to get it done. When I finally was satisfied, I ended up drying it out. Be careful and really keep an eye on it so this doesn't happen to you.

Set on a wire rack and leave in pan until cooled completely. When cooled, remove from pan and frost.

What you'll need for the frosting:
3 oz unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla

 Combine chocolate, cream, water, and corny syrup. Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted and sugar is dissolved. Raise heat a little and cook without stirring for about 10 minutes or until mixture is thick enough so that a bit dropped into a cup of cold water forms a soft ball.

 Stir 2 or 3 tablespoons hot chocolate into beaten egg. Pour egg mixture back into remaining chocolate mixture, stirring briskly. Add vanilla. Cook, stirring constantly, over low heat a few more minutes until a little thicker. Let cool and frost the cake.

I was really excited about this cake with it's strange ingredient of mashed potatoes and, well, it wasn't that special. The cake itself was a bit bland and the frosting was gritty (my fault for obviously not letting the sugar dissolve well enough) and a little too bitter for the plain taste of the cake.

Give it a try if you'd like. Good luck!
Rosie