I’ve got another delicious dessert to share with you. I found this recipe when I was browsing for a sweet potato dish to bring to my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve never even heard of a cupcake or even a muffin that had sweet potatoes as the main ingredient. I had to see if they tasted as good as the looked. The recipe I found comes from Annie’s Eats, but I tweaked it a little to suit my tastes. I didn’t use the marshmallow crème recipe from this source, instead I used one I found from All Recipes and I tweaked that one, too. I made my first batch last night and loved them. The only drag is that I found this recipe to take a little longer to make than your average cupcake recipe…but I guess that’s why it tastes so dang good.
- Sweet Potato Cupcakes:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 16 Tbsp. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1¾ cups lightly packed brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 heaping cups mashed sweet potatoes
- 7 Tbsp. maple syrup
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- Marshmallow Frosting:
- ½ cup white sugar
- ¼ tsp. cream of tartar
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 egg whites
- 3 Tbsp. cold water
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- ¾ cup marshmallow creme
- Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir with a fork or whisk together and set aside.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
- Mix in the cooled sweet potatoes, maple syrup and vanilla extract, beating just until combined.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the dry ingredients a little at a time, just until incorporated.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners.
- Bake for about 18 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through until a toothpick is inserted in the center of a cupcake and comes out clean.
- Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing to continue cooling completely on wire rack before frosting.
- Marshmallow Creme:
- Combine the white sugar, cream of tartar, pinch of salt, egg whites and cold water in a heatproof mixing bowl.
- Set the mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water and beat with an electric mixer until the mixture is very hot to the touch and stiff peaks have formed, 5-7 minutes.
- Remove the bowl from the heat and beat 1 minute more.
- Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and marshmallow creme and beat until combined.
- To frost the cupcakes, fill a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip with frosting; pipe mini marshmallow-shaped dots all over the cupcakes. Alternatively, use a knife and frost them generously with lots of swoops and swirls.
- Sprinkle the finished tops with chopped pecans (or nut of choice) and very little brown sugar.
Okay, so before doing anything else…rinse off your potatoes, stick em on a baking dish, and…
I found that after an hour of baking (and maybe 10-15 minutes of cooling), the peel just…peeled right off using only my fingers. But while the potatoes are baking, get started on the following…
I was able to divide the batter into 24 cupcake liners.
Sorry, no pics of the frosting. The recipe is pretty straight forward, though.
I didn’t use a pastry bag to frost the cupcakes, just a butter knife, although a bag is a fancy option if you have the supplies. Wait until the cupcakes are completely cool before you frost, otherwise you’ll have a big, sticky, melted mess on your hands. Also, you can use any topping that you like to add an extra crunch or flavor. I chose pecans and a bit of brown sugar. I wanted them to resemble sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving just a little bit more. They came out flavorful and moist and I’ll definitely be baking these bad boys again when the craving calls. Hope you enjoy them, too!
So, before ya go…how ‘bout you tip your baker via a vote for our blog (once, daily)?! That’s a fair trade for the recipe, right? We could use the boost in votes over at Top Baby Blogs. We appreciate your constant support.
Thanks!
