The official first day of fall is tomorrow September 22nd and you know what that means for a foodie?! It’s SWEET POTATO TIME! That’s right, I said sweet potato NOT pumpkin. Nothing says fall for me more like a sweet potato. Yes, I skip right past the pumpkin spice aisle because that is not my life LOL. Since the rest of the country is not on the same bandwagon as me, that requires me to make my own sweet potato dishes. As I scrolled through Pinterest and saw pumpkin spice cakes, I was instantly inspired to make a sweet potato one! After some tweaking, here is my Brown Butter Sweet Potato Cake!
*Here for the Juneteenth Cookout? I moved the links and details to a new post, Juneteenth Collard Green Salad. Enjoy!*
Sweet Potato Cake
A spin on your traditional spice cake with sweet potato!
Ingredients
- 3 Cups Flour
- 2 Cups Brown Sugar
- 1 Cup Unsalted Butter i.e. 2 sticks
- 2 Tsp Baking Soda
- 2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 3 Eggs
- 1/2 Tsp Salt
- 1/2 Tsp Ginger
- 1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
- 1 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
- 2 Cups Mashed Sweet Potato
- 1 Cup Whole Milk
Instructions
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In separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients together (flour, salt, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder). Whisk together and set aside.
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Cream the sugar and butter together in a stand mixer.
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Then, add eggs, sweet potato and vanilla extract to butter and sugar mixture. Mix until fully combined.
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Slowly add in dry ingredients to the wet ingredients stopping to ensure it is fully incorporated before adding more.
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Next, add the milk and blend until all ingredients are fully incorporated.
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Pour cake batter into two greased nine inch baking pans or a bundt cake pan.
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Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.
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Let cool on cooling rack for an hour or so or until cool to the touch. Frost with the brown butter cream cheese frosting and serve!
Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
The perfect fall icing, a brown butter cream cheese frosting that pairs perfectly with a spice cakes, pumpkin or sweet potato cakes!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cups Unsalted Butter I.E. 3 sticks
- 5 Cups Powdered Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Cream Cheese
- 3 Tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
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Slice butter into thin slices and place in a sauce pan on medium heat, stirring constantly.
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As the butter begins to brown, the milk solids will separate and fall to the bottom of the pan as brown specks. Continue until butter has a light brown consistency and the specks have formed.
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Next, place the butter into a container and allow to cool in the fridge for about an hour. Remove once the butter has as resolidified.
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Place cooled butter into your mixer and begin to whip until it has creamy consistency. *The butter will not be become as white as it does when it's not browned*
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Add cream cheese and vanilla extract to the creamed butter.
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Next, add powdered sugar into the mixture in one cup intervals, stopping each time to ensure the powdered sugar is blended into the butter
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Finally, add in heavy whipping cream one tablespoon at a time until the frosting reaches your desired consistency. Add more whipping cream for a more whipped frosting. The frosting is ready to serve immediately!
The Takeaway
I came back to this recipe a few years later to redo the photos. Pretty typical for a food blogger. As I went through the ingredients I was annoyed with myself, three cups of flour?! TWO whole sticks of butter for this recipe! But once I finished the batter and tasted a bit of it, I remembered that this cake is perfection and needs every bit of it! It comes together to form one of the most moist cakes I have ever made and has flavors that put in the mind of my Sweet Potato Honey Cornbread.
There are a few variations that you can make to this recipe including making it a layer cake or a bundt cake. If brown butter is not your thing go with a simple Buttercream which has one less step. But if you do want to venture and add the brown butter, be sure to add the cream cheese as well. The cream cheese seems to balance out the brown butter making a great final product
A close up!
That is one beautiful cake! I look forward to trying this recipe.
I can’t eat sweet potato but I want to make this for my family! Sounds amazing!! And browned butter is life!!!
My family is full of sweet potato fanatics, but I don’t think I’ve ever made a cake with it. Thanks for this, I’m excited to bake this weekend now!
Love that you used browned butter. It adds such great flavor!
Wow, you’ve changed the game for sweet potato lovers like myself! Ah, I might not be able to stop myself from eating every bit of this. Yum!
This looks sooooo good. You got me searching my pantry for a sweet potato. Definitely will be adding this to my sweet treat arsenal.
This looks sooo good. I will definitely be adding this to my sweet treat arsenal!
Your food styling is on point. I need a cake stand!
I have long contended that sweet potato spice should be a thing instead of pumpkin spice. This cake looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it!
When I read pumpkin on any fall recipe, I just imagine myself making it sweet potato! 🙂
Never tried sweet potato cake! But this looks so good and I’m in for ANYTHING with brown butter!
Ooooh! Hello! I know what I’m getting into this weekend!
All I now need is my cup of tea. This bread is so moist and yumm
I love anything with sweet potatoes so this is a winner for me!!!
The crumb on this cake is perfect!
Another gorgeous recipe! Def trying this soon!!
Do you have the baking time if making a bundt cake?
My bundt is smaller than the typical bundt, but it usually takes me about 45 minutes. I check it with a toothpick to make sure the center is done.
THANK YOU so much for sharing your recipe!! Just the batter alone is to die for. I made this cake & paired it with my chai buttercream in honor of Vice President Kamala Harris’ Inauguration Day. Instead of a bundt cake, I made cupcakes instead; baked at the same temp for about 25 minutes.
The cake is SO flavorful & dare I say it…The word we all dread but there’s no way around it. Moist. The browned butter and spices elevate our beloved sweet potato to higher levels of YUM. I’m definitely keeping this recipe and sharing it with anyone who will listen. Anyone who tried this recipe doesn’t need to make any adjustments. It’s perfect!
Made this yesterday. The cake is excellent; I doubled the salt to 1 full teaspoon and added 1/4 tsp each of ground cloves and ground allspice.
Although the gentle butterscotch flavor is a perfect pairing to the spice of the cake, this frosting came out a bit too sweet for me, and I ended up adding more cream cheese late in the process in an effort to balance out the sugar. Here too, a big pinch of salt helped to accentuate the nuttiness of the brown butter. Next time I’ll dial back the sugar to 4 cups (640 g) and use a full 8oz (half-pound) block of cream cheese instead of the 1/2 cup (8 fluid ounces) specified. (Perhaps this was a misprint or unit-conversion error anyway?)
Also, I expect this would be good topped with pecans, toasted and chopped; that’d really take it into butter-pecan territory.
Or just forego the frosting altogether; the cake is probably fine by itself with just a dusting of powdered sugar, or served warm with a scoop of ice cream.
I was wondering if i could make this into cupcakes and how long and what temperature do I cook it?
I made this for Thanksgiving and it was a hit! I typically do not bake because of the precision it takes but this recipe wasn’t difficult. Thank you for sharing, everyone enjoyed it!