SALTY MAPLE OLIVE OIL PECANS

Makes about 2 cups

Preheat oven to 325°F. On a half sheet tray, combine all ingredients and toss thoroughly to combine. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until the nuts are deeply brown and caramelized. Let cool.

SWEET POTATO CRANBERRY CAKE

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch cake pan. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine eggs and both sugars. Using the whisk attachment, whip until tripled in volume and running off the whisk in thick ribbons. Slowly add olive oil, incorporating well. In a smaller bowl, combine your dry ingredients: both flours, leaveners, salt and cinnamon. Mix briefly to combine. Add sweet potato purée, lemon zest, and vanilla to the whipped egg, sugar and oil mixture and combine. Add dry ingredients and mix on low until no dry bits remain. Slowly stream in buttermilk. In a small bowl, toss frozen cranberries in 1 tablespoon flour to coat. Add to sweet potato batter, folding in gently. Pour into prepared cake pan and bake for 30–35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

KEFIR CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Combine cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Whip until homogenous, scraping down sides multiple times and making sure to turn the bottom of it over on itself to avoid any large cream cheese bits. Add powdered sugar, kefir, vanilla and salt and mix on low, covering the mixer with a large dish towel to avoid any powdered sugar blowback. Turn the speed up and mix until voluminous.

CHOCOLATE OLIVE OIL FROSTING

In a bowl, sift to combine powdered sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Add all olive oil and 1 tablespoon of coffee at time, whisking aggressively to ensure no lumps or bumps. Keep adding coffee until you have a thick frosting that falls off the whisk in a thick ribbon. Add more salt to taste.

To frost cake, pipe circles of the kefir cream cheese frosting using a small, plain no. 2 tip and fill those circles with the chocolate frosting, using the same tip but cleaning the bag in between. Alternatively, spread the cream cheese frosting on top and drizzle that with chocolate. Top with salty maple pecans, slice and enjoy.