a cupcake with brown sugar icing that is incredibly light and airy. These tiny cakes have the same flavor as its Holiday Sweet Potato dish cousin, but with a cupcake-like twist, and can be topped with optional toasted marshmallows and a half of a pecan.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 55 mins |
| Servings: | 48 |
| Yield: | 4 dozen cupcakes |
Ingredients
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- ½ cup orange juice, or as needed
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large orange, zested
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- ¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place a steamer insert into a saucepan, and fill with water to just below the bottom of the steamer. Cover, and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Add the sweet potato cubes, cover, and steam until just tender, 15 to 20 minutes depending on thickness. Remove the sweet potato from the steamer and allow to cool. Transfer the cooled sweet potato to a blender. Pour in the orange juice. Cover blender, and puree until smooth. If mixture is too thick, add more orange juice, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the sweet potato is blended.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 48 muffin cups with paper muffin liners.
- Beat 1 cup butter, light brown sugar, and white sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract with the last egg, then stir in the sweet potato puree and orange zest.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Mix the flour mixture into the sweet potato mixture, 1 cup at a time, mixing until just blended. Batter will be thick. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
- To make frosting: Sift the confectioners’ sugar into a large bowl; set aside. Heat the brown sugar, heavy cream, and 1/4 cup butter in a saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Increase heat to medium high and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil until the brown sugar mixture thickens, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat, then stir in 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Whisk the brown sugar mixture into the confectioners’ sugar until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Allow the sugar mixture to cool and thicken before icing the cooled cupcakes.
- Every recipe I make which lists ingredients containing lactose, I generally substitute with lactose-free products. It almost always makes no difference to the outcome of the recipe. I made the icing recipe above using LF whole milk, and it turned out great.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 161 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 25 g |
| Cholesterol | 32 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 106 mg |
| Sugars | 16 g |
| Fat | 6 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
So tasty and moist. We bought 2 lb canned sweet potato to skip some steps. They were perfect. The frosting was a fail. It separated. We waited until it cooled and then beat it on high, finally had to add some milk and that’s how we got it to come together. Not nearly enough though, double the frosting for sure.
Rating just for frosting: Excellent! I used this frosting for banana bars and went perfectly with it. I used to work at a pie shop that made this frosting and they actually used a microwave to make the frosting because there is less chance of burning (just a tip for those who don’t want to use a stove). I did use the stove and it worked out great. If you put it in the fridge too long it may get pretty solid but all you have to do is warm it up for 10 seconds or less and it’s creamy again. This is exactly the frosting I was looking for. Thanks!
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/219673/candyd-sweet-potato-cupcakes-with-brown-sugar-icing/ … 1 29 17 … S’okay, I halved the recipe & subbed with a 15oz can pure pumpkin. That was the only major change, which wasn’t a biggie in my book. 😀 Again, halving the recipe, I added !/4t nutmeg & an addt’l 1/4t salt. Using pumpkin, these could’ve used more sugar; with sweet potato, they’re probably fine. These came out kinda dense, more like a muffin & only managed 18; six of those could be added to the twelve & not be too full. I think these could use more spices? Adding spices & an oat topping, I think I’d like them better – as a muffin. The icing should be brought to soft ball stage, which I didn’t realize till I was done. It didn’t thicken, but was good – pralinetasting without the pecans. Thanks for posting, Candice! ‘Love trying your recipes! 🙂 Update a few days later: E likes ’em. They got pretty sticky on top. The icing did thicken after all. ‘Can’t tell ya how long it took, but when I got home from work it was thickened like a peanut butter consistency, but not as sticky. Good for pretzel dipping! I think dipping before it’s that thick, then a bit more firmed up & sprinkling on pecan pieces might be awesomely delicious! I’m upping the rating one star for the icing. Yay! 😀 Oh, I tried a bit on a muffin/cupcake & really didn’t like the combination; but that’s nothing against either. For me, the combination didn’t get a thumbs up is all. Kind of se
I made these delicious cupcakes for the last three Thanksgivings, work potlucks, fall celebrations, and it’s been a hit with my family and friends. I use organic ingredients and freshly squeezed oj, and steamed sweet potatoes. I did add a little more sweet potatoes, came out a little more dense, but it was still the best!
I’m rating just the frosting on this one. I will try the cupcakes soon. I like the frosting, but I will tell you it is very sweet at fist. Let the frosting and cakes cool completely or it will be overwhelmingly sweet. Also, you can use salted butter if you have no salt butter.
Awesome cupcakes ! This was my first time making these and I didn’t change a thing. Delicious! I will absolutely be making these again.
Fantastic and sweet muffins! The caramel topping might even be a little too much sweetness, although they were great with it. The spices completed each other and the texture was just dreamy. I will absolutely make these again, I might just adjust the sweetness a bit (3
Cupcakes came out decent, they were moist, but they seemed a bit dense (not fluffy cake like) – Maybe I added too much sweet potato. Plus I adjusted the serving size for 24 and only got 18 cupcakes out of it?! Not sure what happened there either. I had to make them small to even get 18, so if I made them a normal size it would have been less. The icing I completely screwed up. When I went to go add the brown sugar mixture to the powdered sugar it got all lumpy. Maybe I didn’t do it when it was hot enough. It was a mess, so I had to throw it all out and make another cream cheese frosting that I was familiar with. I added some cinnamin and toasted pecans on top and they came out pretty tasty, but don’t think I’ll be using this recipe again.
I made these cupcakes and was surprised that they were fairly easy and tasted amazing. I left out the orange zest but kept the orange juice. I did however have a problem with the frosting – I felt it tasted too much like butterscotch so I ended up making a traditional buttercream frosting.
PERFECT in every way! So moist, so yummy, so Fall-ish. Only thing I did different was added a dollop of marshmallow cream to the cupcakes as soon as I pulled them from the oven. Once, cooled, I iced them. I didnt have “fall” liners this time. Next time, I will.
This recipe is very moist and has a great taste. I took some to work and within the hour they were all gone. They taste just as good with the icing as without.
Great, Reduce spices
Great recipe!!!! I had a bake off with my friends for labor day and destroyed them lol Great cupcake and awesome icing 😀
Excellent cupcakes. I half expected these to be more like muffin consistency but it was more like a carrot cake. The texture was definitely cake-y and very moist. The taste was great except it was a bit heavy on the orange for me so next time i’ll add less zest. I added fresh cranberries to 1/2 the mix because i had some left over and i really enjoyed the tartness. Also i had to bake these quite a bit longer (but i always seem to have to increase baking time for anything with pumpkin or sweet potato). Overall a great and new dessert for us!
I get many requests to make these Sweet Tater CCs and get rave reviews everytime I do. Even those who HATE Sweet Potatoes love these little gems. They really are light, airy and delicious. Not heavy as you might expect. BTW, don’t try to pipe the icing. Just slather it on. It’s sweet and yummy!