Ready to ditch your traditional Thanksgiving sweet potato casserole for a decadent sweet potato dessert? Our scrumptious sweet potato cake with marshmallow frosting, courtesy of Divas Can Cook, will make your holiday guests want to skip the turkey and eat dessert first.
This mouthwatering modern take on the standard sweet potato and marshmallow combination is a stunning Bundt cake vividly glazed with a bright white marshmallow frosting and lavishly sprinkled with a pecan crisp topping.
ALSO TRY: Breakfast has never been sweeter than with this sweet potato oatmeal with pecan crumble
Let us eat cake! The sweet potato cake is a basic butter cake kicked up with warm spices and luscious fresh sweet potato puree. The ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves make this cake irresistibly fragrant, and the sweet potato puree lends an earthy hue and additional moistness. Presented as a Bundt cake, the cake alone is an impressive treat. But don’t stop there! Pour on the marshmallow glaze.
The sweet marshmallow glaze can be made in just minutes. Simply beat together marshmallow cream, powdered sugar, and milk until it becomes silky smooth and pourable. When your sweet potato Bundt cake has completely cooled, pour the marshmallow glaze over the top and sides of the cake. It will flow down the cake, filling in the fluted grooves, and drizzling onto the cake plate.
Let the marshmallow glaze frosting set up before serving. For the best presentation, refrigerate your cake until the marshmallow frosting has firmed.
Be warned: If you bring this sweet potato cake with marshmallow frosting to the Thanksgiving table along with the turkey and fixings, you may just find your family and friends gobbling it up like a side dish rather than dessert.
Combine the dry ingredients
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and warm autumnal spices — cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves — for the sweet potato cake. Set aside.
Beat the butter and sugar together
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. As you cream the ingredients, the sugar aerates the butter and will produce tiny bubbles that capture the gases created by the leaveners — baking powder and baking soda — and give your cake a finer, lighter crumb. Next, beat in eggs and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients, buttermilk, and sweet potato puree
Incorporate the flour mixture into the butter mixture a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. Fold in the sweet potato puree.
Prepare the Bundt pan and bake
To keep the cake from sticking, generously grease and flour the Bundt pan. Spoon the batter into the pan.
Bake the cake
Bake at 350 F for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan until the sides of the pan are warm to the touch. Carefully invert the cake onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Combine ingredients for the pecan crisp topping
In a medium-sized bowl, mix together flour, pecans, oats, light brown sugar, and softened butter.
Bake the pecan crisp topping
Line a baking sheet with foil and spread the topping ingredients on the sheet. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden. The topping will continue to crisp as it cools.
Make the marshmallow frosting
In a bowl, combine marshmallow cream, powdered sugar, and milk. Using a handheld mixer, beat until well-blended and the consistency is pourable and silky smooth.
Decorate the cake
When the sweet potato cake has cooled completely, pour the marshmallow frosting over the top and sides of the cake, allowing some of the frosting to puddle at the bottom of the cake plate.
Arrange pecan crisp on cake
Sprinkle the top of the cake with the pecan crisp topping. Arrange pecan crisp in the frosting puddles on the cake plate circling around the bottom of the cake. To firm up the frosting, place the finished cake in the refrigerator.
A gorgeous presentation for your holiday gathering!
Delicious combination of marshmellow, sweet potato and crunchy pecans
A new twist on a classic dish!
Hunks of crisp pecan crumbles waiting to be devoured
The sweet potato keeps this decadent cake tender and moist
Great as a dessert or with your morning coffee!
Sweet potato cake with marshmallow frosting
Yield 12 servings
Ingredients
For cake batter:
- 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1-1/2 cups fresh sweet potato puree (about 3 medium sweet potatoes)
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
For pecan crisp:
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup pecan pieces
- 1/4 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 3 tablespoons butter, softened
For Marshmallow glaze:
- 1 cup marshmallow creme
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 3 to 4 teaspoons heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Cake: Preheat oven to 350 F.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Set aside.
- In a large stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Beat until the ingredients are well-blended, light and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs one at a time.
- Fold in the vanilla extract.
- Incorporate dry ingredients into the wet ingredients a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk.
- Fold in the sweet potato puree and mix well.
- Generously grease and flour a Bundt pan and spoon the batter into the pan.
- Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan until the sides of the pan are warm to the touch.
- Carefully remove cake from pan and allow it to cool completely on a cooling rack.
- Pecan crisp topping: In a medium-sized bowl, combine flour, pecans, oats, light brown sugar, and softened butter. Mix well.
- Line a baking sheet with foil. Spread the topping mixture onto the baking sheet in a single layer.
- Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden, tossing halfway through the cooking time.
- Allow the pecan crisp topping to cool completely. It will become firmer as it cools. Set aside.
- Marshmallow frosting: In a bowl, combine marshmallow cream, powdered sugar, and milk together. Using a hand mixer, beat until well blended. The mixture will be silky smooth and pourable.
- When the cake has completely cooled, pour the marshmallow frosting over the top and sides of the cake.
- Sprinkle the top of the cake and around the bottom of the cake plate with the pecan crisp.
- Refrigerate the cake to firm up the frosting.
- Serve.
Courses Desserts
