Sweet Potato Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I’m finally getting around to finishing off all the sweet potatoes I had accumulated from Bountiful Baskets.  I wasn’t going to frost it, but since I had everything on hand to make cream cheese frosting, I went ahead and made it.  Funny story about making frosting, growing up, I only thought it came in a tubs at the store, I had no idea you could make it.  So, the first time my mom made frosting, I was totally impressed.  Silly, I know.  This frosting recipe will make more than you need for the cake, so store the leftover in the refrigerator until you have another use for it.

This cake turned out very moist and tasty, my daughter had no idea it was made from sweet potatoes.  This would be go to make with the leftover sweet potato dishes from the holidays, you will just want to decrease the sugar in the cake if you had sugar in your sweet potato dish.

Sweet Potato Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

What you need for the cake:

1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil or applesauce (I used Homemade Applesauce since I was out of vegetable oil)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup beer (I used non-alcoholic.  Beer may be omitted, or use water, milk, or apple juice in its place)

What you need for the frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2-4 cups confectioner’s sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

How to make the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9×13 inch baking pan.

Stir together the sugar and vegetable oil (or applesauce) in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and sweet potatoes.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Stir flour mixture into the batter 1 cup at a time, alternating with the beer just until everything comes together. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.

Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting or serving.

How to make the frosting:

Beat together the butter and cream cheese.  Stir in vanilla.  Stir in confectioner’s sugar, starting with 2 cups.  Increase amount of sugar up to 4 cups, depending on how sweet you want frosting.  Spread evenly on cake.

Tags: Christmas, sweet potato, Thanksgiving