Sweet potato cake is a sweet dish emanating from the "heights", or the uplands of the island. It is enjoyed in the afternoon and is a favourite of young and old alike.

The recipe we used during the festival serves 10-12. Don't be intimidated by the large quantities - the cake stores very well. The natives eat it all week long as a snack.

• 2 kilos of sweet potato (use the white variety from the Tropics rather than the orange variety from Israel)
• 250 grams of butter
• 130 grams of flour
• 200 grams of brown sugar
• 3 pods of vanilla
• 1 to 2 tablespoons of aged or regular rum 
• 4 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Start by peeling the sweet potatoes, then chop them into 3cm cubes and cook them for 20-25 minutes in a pot of simmering water. When the potatoes can be easily pierced with a knife, drain them and mash them with a potato masher in a large bowl. Add the flour, the brown sugar, the rum and the softened butter and mix it all with a spatula. The heat of the potato will melt the butter. Crack the eggs one by one over the mixture. Split the vanilla in two and tease out the beans without a knife before adding them to the dough. Grease a very large cake mould with butter (we used a rectangular mould of 25 × 35 cm) and pour in the preparation. Place in the oven for 45 minutes and allow to cool.

Bon appétit!