Sweet Potato Cake – a sweet potato cake with marshmallow frosting, drippy maple glaze, chopped pecans and cinnamon.
The food world has a serious love affair going on with sweet potatoes. And why not, they’re delicious and healthy and everything you want a super food to be. Stepping in as a healthy alternative in just about every recipe you can image. From sweet potato fries to sweet potato chili, sweet potato burgers – they’re baked, boiled, mashed and smashed! One quick Pinterest search and you’ll have a plethora of ways to eat more sweet potatoes!
But then the holidays approach and sweet potato casserole comes to town, with its gooey toasted marshmallow topping, taking sweet potatoes a step towards decadence and a step away from super food. So today we’re going all in! We’re giving sweet potatoes a not-so-gentle nudge into the full-blown sweets column with this cake. Yes, today’s cake takes all of the flavors from the classic sweet potato side dish but we’re subbing cake pans for casserole pans and adding a hefty dose of THIS….
It all starts with the browned butter. From there we’re adding creamy sweet potatoes, cinnamon and brown sugar to create a tender cake filled with all the flavors you love. Marshmallow fluff gets whipped up into a dreamy, creamy frosting that’s swirling around – only to find itself drowning in a glistening, drippy maple glaze. Small dollops of frosting add some texture while a sprinkle of chopped pecans and a dusting of cinnamon complete the yum.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter birthdays – whatever the occasion – this sweet potato cake will happily join in the celebration.
Sweet Potato Cake
A sweet potato cake with marshmallow frosting, drippy maple glaze, chopped pecans and cinnamon.
- Yield: One 8" Round Cake (3 layers)
- Category: ✽ ✽ ✽ ✽
Ingredients
For the Sweet Potato Cake:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, melted and browned, bits included
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
- 6 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 22 ounces canned sweet potatoes puree
For the Marshmallow Buttercream:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup salted butter, softened
- 16 ounces marshmallow fluff
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
For the Maple Drip Glaze:
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 4 teaspoons milk
- ½ teaspoon maple extract
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons light corn syrup, optional
For the Assembly:
- Chopped pecans
- Cinnamon
Instructions
Make the Sweet Potato Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350. Butter and lightly flour three 8″ round pans. Line with parchment paper circles.
- Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling occasionally, until butter turns brown. Remove from heat and let cool.
- Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- In large bowl combine browned butter (including any brown bits on the bottom of pan), granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla bean paste. Whisk until combined.
- Whisk in dry ingredients, adding in two batches.
- Add sweet potato puree and mix well.
- Divide batter evenly between the three 8″ round pans.
- Bake for 32-36 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
- Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.
Make the Marshmallow Buttercream:
- In bowl of stand mixer, beat butter and marshmallow fluff on medium speed for 2 minutes until creamy.
- Add in confectioner’s sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing and scraping bowl as necessary.
- Add milk and continue to mix on medium speed 3-4 minutes until fluffy.
Make the Maple Glaze:
- Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk until smooth. Use immediately.
Assemble the Cake:
- Once the cakes have cooled, trim off the top so that they are level.
- Place one layer of cake onto serving plate or cake stand and top with one cup of marshmallow frosting. Repeat with second cake layer, more frosting and then last layer of cake.
- Crumb coat cake and refrigerate 10 minutes until set. Frost the cake and smooth the sides and top, reserving about ½ cup frosting, for garnish. Using the tip of a spatula, create swirls on sides, if desired.
- Make glaze and drizzle over the top with small drips overflowing the edge. (Find more tips for pretty drips here). Wait 5 minutes for the glaze to set up a tad.
- Using a large round tip, pipe dollops of frosting on top of the set glaze, sporadically but in a circular form.
- Sprinkle with chopped pecans and a light dusting of cinnamon to finish.
Notes
- Maple glaze should be thick yet pourable so that it flows down the side of your cake with a little resistance. Unsure if your glaze is the right consistency? Set a small bowl upside down on a larger plate and do a test drizzle onto the bowl. If it is too thick and doesn’t drip down the side, even with some assistance, add a few more drops of milk to loosen the glaze. If it is too thin and runs right off the side of the bowl and pools onto the plate beneath, add a little more confectioners’s sugar to thicken the glaze. Find more tips for pretty drips here.
- Maple glaze should be used right after whisking, as it will harden as it dries. If needed, cover bowl of prepared glaze with a damp paper towel to prevent it from setting. Whisk again before using.
- Milk can be substituted for the light corn syrup in the maple glaze, if desired. However the glaze will not have the same shine.
- Serve at room temperature. Store in refrigerator.
YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY:
Walnut Cake
Cinnamon Roll Cake
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Cake
Caramel Cappuccino Cake
Apple Toffee Crunch Cake
Hi Carrie,
Hope you may advice.
For the Marshmallow Buttercream:
1. Can I substitute marshmallow fluff to puffed marshmallows due to some ingredient in my country, Malaysia don’t import certain ingredients. I’m concern the taste will be different.
Please guide the alternative method – marshmallows.
2. Can the Chopped pecans be substitute to almond flakes/nibs as well due to same reason.
Sure Joanne. If you don’t have access to marshmallow fluff, you could check out the homemade marshmallow fluff in Olivia’s Hot Chocolate Cake recipe. Perhaps you could sub it out or just use it instead. As for the pecans, any nut would be fine to substitute. Walnuts, almonds, etc. Or you could skip the nuts as they are a smaller garnish and not a major player in this recipe. Enjoy!
How does the marshmallow buttercream stand up to heat? I am trying to bake for an outdoor wedding in
the south 🙁
Thanks!
Hi, we don’t have canned sweet potatoes in groceries in the Philippines, but we do have a lot of the fesh kind. Can I sub it with that? And how do I prepare it? Thanks so much!
Sure, you can absolutely sub the canned sweet potatoes for fresh. Here’s how to do it:
Start with 2 or 3 sweet potatoes, depending on their size. Preheat oven to 400°F. With a fork, pierce sweet potato skin 5-6 times.Place on baking sheet lined with foil. Bake until tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Cool slightly then cut in half. Scoop out the insides and mash. Then measure out the 22 ounces needed for the recipe.
You could also bake the potatoes in a microwave to save time. Then cut, scoop, mash and measure 22 ounces.
Enjoy!
I would love to make this cake for Thanksgiving tomorrow! Somehow I was put in charge of the sweet potatoes, even though I never make them and I don’t think I’ve ever willingly eaten them at Thanksgiving. But I have two questions: can I use regular brown sugar instead of light brown? And can I use pure maple syrup instead of maple extract for the drizzle?
Sure, you could swap dark brown sugar for light brown sugar. They are relatively the same, but dark brown sugar has a tad more molasses in it. As for the subbing maple syrup – you will not get the same level of maple flavor with the maple syrup. The extract will provide more maple flavor without making the glaze too thin or watery.
I knew it was a long shot asking for advice the day before Thanksgiving, so I just went ahead and made the cake with these untried substitutions. The light brown sugar worked fine and the pure maple syrup I used in the glaze was a tad on the thin side but on the whole it tasted delicious and maple-y. I also added pecan pralines to the marshmallow forest on top. There was not a slice left by the end of the day and not a slice was left by the end of the day. Everyone raved about it! I told them to “Thank the Cake Blog!” Thank you for this incredible recipe!
That’s so great to hear Sara! Thanks for the feedback! Happy it worked out for you. =)
I made this recipe and the the cake portion turned out great. However the frosting doesn’t seem stiff enough and the glaze didn’t turn out that dark brown. I have no clue what went wrong.
Glad to hear you liked the cake Destin. You can always make the frosting firmer by adding more confectioners’ sugar or refrigerating it for a bit. Sometimes if butter gets too warm in a hot kitchen or with all the mixing…. any icing can seem too soft. Perhaps this was the culprit. As for the glaze – I’m not sure why there’d be much a color difference other than a difference in the cinnamon. The cinnamon is where the color comes from.
Would the cake turn out the same if I halved everything? I’m hoping to make this for Christmas but 3 layers would be too much for us.
Hello, would this recipe work as a pound cake, if not do you have a sweet potato pound cake recipe?
I made this today for Christmas dessert. My mom declared it her favorite cake I’ve made to date, and my husband has thirds. Divine!
*Had thirds,* that is. And I forgot to mention I used fresh sweet potatoes that I baked and pureed rather than canned.
That’s so great to hear Amber, thanks for the feedback! Hope you had a merry Christmas!
I made this recipe for Thanksgiving dessert this past week, and I must say – This is a solid recipe. I would say the lead flavor is the brown butter, with the sweet potato only lending a hint of its presence – perfect for a dessert. The only real changes I made were that I used slightly overbaked sweet potatoes (for their more caramelized flavor) instead of canned to make the puree, and I roasted my baking pecans with butter and salt, and used them within the frosting layers as well as on top. The salty crunch they provided was key to break up the frosting’s sweetness for my taste buds. The cakes themselves baked perfectly, coming out of the oven at 36 minutes and perfectly moist. The glaze proportions created the perfect consistency, and the pecans set perfectly within the glaze. I opted for gold dusting powder instead of cinnamon for a less rustic look. I wish I could post a photo. Thank you for the great recipe, and I will definitely use this as a go to brown butter cake recipe.