Purple Sweet Potato Cheesecake Tart

Stunning stencilled Purple Sweet Potato Cheesecake Tart is a light, creamy, easy addition to your holiday dessert line-up.

I wanted to share this Purple Sweet Potato Cheesecake Tart with you back in the fall, as an alternative to the ubiquitous pumpkin-laden everything. I made them at night and the photos were pretty crappy, so I canned the post and waited for another opportunity to make and share them.

It still hasn't sunk in that we are in December and only a few weeks away from Christmas. HOW? If the calendar hasn't convinced me, the string of upcoming get-togethers, office parties and gift-shopping sure will. SIGH...

A Japanese cheese tart place called Pablo (because of the owners' admiration for Pablo Picasso) opened near my office about a year ago. I've tried a couple of their shakes and a few mini cheese tarts - Matcha and Okinawa being my faves. They were the inspiration for my Purple Sweet Potato Cheesecake Tart made with a silky batch of my Sous Vide Purple Sweet Potato Puree.

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No-Bake... Not Really

I talk a bit about the various types of purple tubers, which variety I use and how I prepare them to yield maximum colour and flavour in this post.

The tart shell requires turning on an oven, but the filling is no-bake. For a full no-bake version, you can pair it with a pre-made or quick gingersnap or graham cracker crust. Or, like I have done below, you can go the deconstructed route and serve in dessert cups with a crumble and matcha whipped coconut. The Dude really liked that version.

If  you want to practice and show off your pastry making skills, the tart shells can be made in advance and frozen. I normally make much more than I need and freeze the extras, when it comes to some types of pastries. It makes life a little easier when you can simply grab a few croissants or a tart shell from the freeze in a pinch.

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How To Stencil on Desserts

I've done a great deal of stencilling on desserts on my blog and in my kitchen, as far back as 2012. Clicking the preceding link will take you to tall cakes stencilled with buttercream or cocoa butter, cookies stencilled with royal icing, small cakes stencilled with cocoa or freeze-dried fruit powder, brownies stencilled with icing sugar, cake boards with food colour and my favourite cheesecake stencilled with matcha green tea powder.

Here's a tip that I shared in this tutorial from 2014 - for perfectly stencilled image transfer, I treat the sugar, cocoa and matcha like I would ganache, buttercream or royal icing - I smooth it on. For the latter three mediums, I use a scraper to smooth and scrape away excess. For the former (sugar, cocoa, matcha), I use an offset spatula to spread and press - this results in a sharper, well-defined pattern.

If I am going for a more organic look, then I skip the spatula and simply sprinkle and lift. You can see the result of each technique in the second photo above and in the video below.

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Also, you want to fill and level the tart shell as close to the top as possible. This provides a great working surface for stencilling. I sometimes make my own stencils using my Cricut, but get much better results with pre-made stencils. I have a bunch from Designer Stencils that they sent me back in the day. This is not an affiliate plug, they just have some really cool designs. You can also check your local craft store, or Amazon.

As mentioned earlier, if fuss-free is your main goal, then dessert cups are your friend. Pour or pipe halfway, top with a crunchy topping (I used some chocolate crumble leftover from chocolate bar inserts I made) and finish with a dollop of matcha or vanilla whipped coconut.

We thoroughly enjoyed these Purple Sweet Potato Cheesecake Tarts and plan to make the quick cup version to entertain over the holidays. If you get a chance to whip up a batch of your own, I would love to see and share them. Tag #isugarcoatit and I will share on my Instagram story!

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