Today we are sharing a fantastic scratch Sweet Potato Layer Cake recipe that belongs on your must-bake list for fall!
Homemade Sweet Potato Layer Cake is every bit as delicious as it sounds.
If you love pumpkin spice cake, this sweet potato cake is similar, but the flavor of the sweet potato is unmistakable.
A slathering of cinnamon cream cheese frosting is the perfect complement to the spiced sweet potato cake layers. This recipe is so good, I don’t know how we went so many years without it!
How to Make Sweet Potato Cake from Scratch
*You can find the full, printable recipe below! Here is a basic rundown:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour three 8×2 inch round pans (you could also use two 9 inch pans)
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices for 30 seconds.
- In another bowl, add the sweet potatoes, milk and vanilla. Set Aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy. Mix in the oil. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
- Alternately add the flour mixture and milk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of the milk/sweet potato mixture).
- Do not mix above medium speed or over mix the cake batter
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes and turn out.
Decorating the Sweet Potato Cake
To assemble the cake, I placed the first layer on the cake pedestal, spread it with our cinnamon cream cheese frosting, added the next layer, and so on.
Settling the Cake: I always allow my cakes to settle whenever possible. This is an optional step, but it will make your cake much less likely to develop bulges around the sides of the cake over time.
To settle the cake, wrap the filled, unfrosted tier with plastic wrap and then place a “weight” on top– a medium sized book or a couple of 8 or 9 inch cake pans- something that will provide a slight, steady pressure.
Let the cake settle for a least a few hours or overnight. (Since cream cheese frosting is perishable, you’ll want to settle it in the refrigerator).
After settling, I removed the plastic wrap and frosted the cake with the spiced cream cheese frosting (yum)! This recipe gave me enough to frost the cake and add additional piping on top. I piped rosettes and starts using a Wilton 21 star tip.
More Favorite cakes for fall
We’ve made so many fall cake recipes over the years! Here are a few of our favorites below, but don’t miss our full roundup!: Sharing the BEST Fall Cake Recipes!
We hope that you enjoy this Sweet Potato Layer Cake! It would be perfect for Thanksgiving, fall birthdays, and more.
Sweet Potato Layer Cake
This moist, scratch Sweet Potato Layer Cake is perfect for fall and a wonderful alternative to the traditional spice cake! We love it with spiced cream cheese frosting!
Ingredients
For the Sweet Potato Cake Layers
- 1 1/2 sticks (12T) (170g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 1 cup (200g) white sugar
- 1 cup (217g) light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1/4 cup (54g) vegetable oil ( we use canola oil)
- 3 eggs
- 1 can (15oz) (425g) sweet potatoes — you could also use fresh cooked sweet potato puree (1 1/2 cups)
- 1/2 cup (121g) milk
- 1 Tablespoon (12g) vanilla
- 3 cups (342g) cake flour — if you do not have cake flour see Note below
- 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) baking soda
- 2 teaspoons (6g) cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ( 1g) nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ( 3g) salt
For the Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 sticks (or 1 cup/226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (total weight 452g) softened slightly --I use full fat cream cheese. Using reduced fat or the spreadable cream cheese will cause the frosting to be too soft.
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (2g) optional - it will cut the sweetness, popcorn salt is best to use because it is fine and dissolves faster
- 6 to 6 1/2 cups (690g to 747g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon (3g) cinnamon
Instructions
For the Sweet Potato Cake Layers
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour three 8x2 inch round pans (you could also use two 9 inch pans)
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set Aside
- In another bowl, add the sweet potatoes, milk and vanilla. Set Aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy. Mix in the oil. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
- Alternately add the flour mixture and milk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of the milk/sweet potato mixture).
- Do not mix above medium speed or over mix the cake batter. This recipe makes 7 cups of batter. Divide between your prepared cake pans.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes (increase baking time for 9 inch pans). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes and turn out.
For the Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
Cut the cold cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to soften the cream cheese a bit more.
Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar and cinnamon beating on low speed until blended. Cover the bowl with a towel to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
Increase mixing speed and beat until fluffy. Don't over beat or it will become too soft. If it becomes too soft, just refrigerate a short while to firm it up a bit.
**If you are making a dark brown swirl of frosting on top of the cake as we did, reserve 1/4 cup of frosting as set aside.
This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.
Will frost a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake.
Notes
Substitution for Cake Flour -
Using all purpose flour (plain in the UK) - For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch , whisk to blend.
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OMGosh! Looks and sounds delish! :-)
Do you mash the sweet potatoes before adding them the milk and vanilla?
Hi Debbie, My can of sweet potatoes was already pureed. Are you planning to use fresh sweet potatoes? If so, peel and slice 2 to 3 large sweet potatoes. Cover the sliced potatoes with water and boil until they are fork tender. Put the cooked potatoes (not the water they were cooked in) in a food processor to puree. If you have a food scale you will need 15oz. (425g) 1 1/2 cups.
I am using canned sweet potatoes so would I need to puree them before I add the milk and vanilla
Hi Tonia, Yes you should puree the sweet potatoes. The canned sweet potatoes I used were already pureed.
can i use the reverse creamng method?
Yes, you can use the reverse creaming method
Can I substitute milk for buttermilk? Any changes?
Can you make this cake ahead of time?
Hi Debra, yes you can!
If you’re just wanting to bake the cake layers in advance, you can wrap the baked layers and freeze them for up to 3 months in advance. If you go this route, you can thaw the frozen cake layers on the countertop on the day that you plan to assemble. Once condensation forms on the aluminum foil, you can go ahead and unwrap and continue to thaw.
If you are wanting to prepare the entire cake, we usually recommend eating the cake by day 3 after preparing. You’ll want to refrigerate the cake because of the cream cheese frosting. We hope that you enjoy it!
looks GREAT!
The number of eggs is not listed in the recipe, thanks!
Hi Stella, It is the fifth ingredient, 3 eggs. I hope you will enjoy the recipe.
How can I use buttermilk instead of milk?
Approximately how many servings should this cake yield? Thanks.
Hi Pamela, Depending on the size of your servings, 12 to 15. Hope you will enjoy the cake.
Even if using cake flour, do you still need add the baking soda and baking powder or is that just when using all purpose flour? I’m asking because it wasn’t specified.
Hi Khandi, Yes, you would still need the baking soda and baking powder if using cake flour or if using the substitution for cake flour. I hope you will enjoy the cake.
Thank you for answering that question for me. I can’t wait to make it and will definitely be doing a review on how it turned out! I’m going to make it for Thanksgiving.
Hi ladies-
It’s me again with the pound cake question. Can I use this recipe for a pound cake and if so, can I bake at 325 for about an hour? Also, is there much of a taste difference between the canned or fresh sweet potatoes?
I wanted to let you know that I made your Pumpkin Cake into a pound and I had such great success with it. People are asking for more. Thanks again.
Hi Jackie!
I’m happy to hear that the Pumpkin Cake turned out well for you! We haven’t tried the Sweet Potato Layer Cake in a bundt pan but yes, I do think it should do just fine- I would start checking on it at about the 45-50 minute mark but it may take a little longer.
You can use either canned or fresh sweet potatoes and the cake will be delicious! We’ve used canned for convenience. Enjoy the recipe!
I have not made the sweet potato cake yet but I was curious about #4 when it says (3 additions of dry ingredients) exactly what does that mean
Hi Samantha, Number 1 under the instructions says to add the dry ingredients to a bowl and set aside for later. You will also have a bowl with wet ingredients. After you have completed step #3, you will alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients. You should begin and end with dry ingredients. First, add approximately 1 cup of dry ingredients , then half of the wet ingredients, more dry, then the remainder of the wet, then end with dry. That is 3 additions of dry and 2 of wet. During each step mix until blended but do not over mix or mix above medium speed. Melissa has a video on making a cake from start to finish, below is a link to that video if you would like to watch.
https://www.mycakeschool.com/video-tutorials/how-to-make-a-cake-from-start-to-finish/
I’m making this tomorrow but will be making cupcakes. How should I adjust the time and temp?
Hi Lori, glad that you’re making the recipe! You would still bake at the same temp, but I would start checking after 18 minutes. If the center springs back when lightly touched or toothpick can be inserted with just a few crumbs attached, they’re ready.