Sweet Potato Cake

Today we are sharing a fantastic Sweet Potato Cake recipe that belongs on your fall baking list! It is moist, tender, and has all of the warm and cozy flavors of fall.

If you've never tried a sweet potato cake, it similar in many ways to pumpkin spice cake. The sweet potato gives a really nice flavor and texture to the cake, and is complemented perfectly by warm spices of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Why we Love It

There are many reasons to hop into the kitchen and whip up a Sweet Potato Cake as soon as possible. Here are just a few:

• Super moist, soft, and flavorful cake.
• Sweet Potato Cakes are the perfect fall dessert with delicious flavor from sweet potatoes and warm spices. (Check out our Sweet Potato Bundt Cake and Sweet Potato Cupcakes as well!)
• Simple Ingredients
• Perfect fall birthday cake recipe, Thanksgiving cake, and more!

How to Make Sweet Potato Cake 

*You can find the full, printable recipe below! Here is a basic review of our steps:

• First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flour three 8x2 inch round pans (you could also use two 9 inch pans)

• Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt for 30 seconds.

• In another bowl, add the canned sweet potatoes, milk and vanilla extract. Set Aside.

• In the bowl of your electric mixer (fitted with a paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth.  Gradually add the brown sugar and white sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy. 

• Mix in the vegetable oil. Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears. 

• With the mixer on low speed, 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).

• 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.

Assembling the Sweet Potato Cake

To assemble the cake, I placed the first cooled cake layer on the pedestal, spread the top with our cinnamon cream cheese frosting, and added the next layer. Repeat for the next to cake layers.

Then, frost the top and around the sides with a thin layer of frosting. At this point, we like to chill the "crumb coated" cake in the freezer for 15 minutes (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm everything up.

You can refrigerate the bowl of cream cheese or your piping bag as well if it is getting a bit too soft.

Decorating the Cake

Then, we applied the next layer of cinnamon cream cheese frosting to the sweet potato cake. You can decorate however you like. We went with a smooth finish by heated a bench scraper under hot water and then gliding around the sides of the cake.

I also smoothed over the top with a heated small offset spatula before adding our top border of simple rosettes and stars with a tip 21 piping tip.

I also added a simple star tip border around the base. (Check out our tutorial on the Star Piping Tip Basics if you'd like to learn more!)

More Delicious Fall Cakes

We've made so many fall cake recipes over the years, including a delicious Sweet Potato Bundt Cake and our popular Spice Cake recipe!

We're listing some of our favorites below, but don't miss our full roundup of fall cakes: 50+ of the BEST Fall Cake Recipes!

Recipe FAQs

Thanks so much for stopping by today. We hope that you enjoy this Sweet Potato Layer Cake! It would be perfect for Thanksgiving, fall birthdays, potlucks, and more.  

Sweet Potato Layer Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

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!

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 30 minutes mins

Course: Cakes and Cupcakes

Servings: 15 servings

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Ingredients

For the Sweet Potato Cake Layers

• ▢ 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened (170g)
• ▢ 1 cup white sugar (200g)
• ▢ 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed (217g)
• ▢ ¼ cup vegetable oil ( we use canola oil) (54g)
• ▢ 3 eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for five minutes.)
• ▢ 15 oz can (425g) sweet potatoes — you could also use fresh cooked sweet potato puree (1 ½ cups)
• ▢ ½ cup milk (121g)
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (12g)
• ▢ 3 cups cake flour — if you do not have cake flour see Note below (342g)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder (8g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking soda (3g)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons cinnamon (6g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon nutmeg (1g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (3g)

For the Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 2 sticks unsalted butter, slightly softened (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• ▢ 16 oz cream cheese, softened. (452g total) We used two 8 oz packages of full fat cream cheese.
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
• ▢ 6 cups powdered sugar (690g)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon cinnamon (3g)

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. 
• WIth the mixer on low speed, 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.

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.
• 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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