4/26/09

sweet potato & vanilla bean cupcakes

sweet potato & vanilla bean cupcakes

The wonders of creating new baked goods with sweet potatoes always excite me. I am a sweet potato-holic, can't get enough of them. I found this recipe over here, and decided it was perfect, nothing else was needed (although I did change the frosting a bit) and I wanted to create it in mini cupcake form. I love mini cupcakes, so easy to eat so many in a sitting! I just wish I could decorate them better to make them cuter. But I am absolutely horrible at decorating them (as you'll notice in the photo). Plus I really should get one of those turning cake stands--they do help, yes? Do you know that I have on my list to take cake decorating classes? Anyone else out there doing this or have done this? I can't wait. Now I have to hope for a class close to cape cod to appear! I really don't want to have to drive into Boston for this. For those of you that do decorate and are fairly good at it, what did you buy for decorating tools and where? I would love to know, since if I can't find classes, then maybe I can buy them and just practice, practice, practice.

sweet potato & vanilla cupcakes

My changes: for the cake no nutmeg, and I used mini cupcake pans. Made about 12 mini's, not much batter. For the frosting I did 1/2 - 3/4 cup of confectioners sugar, 2TB fresh OJ, half stick of room temp butter (unsalted), tiny pinch of salt, whipped up very well and then chilled for a bit before frosting.

sweet potato cupcakes
adapted from blog.serialcooking.com
print recipe

Cook notes: this does not make much batter. I was only able to get 12 mini muffins from this. You can try using a loaf pan, but use a small one.

Cake:
225g mashed cooked sweet potatoes (1 small sweet potato)
150g plain flour
110g butter
100g dark brown sugar
50ml yogurt
1 egg
1 vanilla pod (alternatively you can use vanilla extract but the taste won’t be quite the same)
½ tsp ground nutmeg (I did NOT use this)
1tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt

For the icing:
½ - ¾ cup confectioners sugar
2 TB freshly made orange juice
Half stick of unsalted butter (4 ounces), room temp
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350 degrees). Spray a mini cupcake pan with non stick spray.
Cream the softened butter with the vanilla seeds scraped out of the pod, sugar, ground nutmeg and salt.
Add in the egg, slightly beaten.
Mix well until well blended.
Add the mashed sweet potatoes and yogurt.
Combine the baking powder and flour and add to the mixture. Mix well.
Pour the mixture into the pan.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
Leave to cool.
To make the icing, mix the icing sugar, butter whip then add in the orange juice. Chill a bit before frosting.
When the cake is cool, spread the icing on top.

59 comments:

  1. I love sweet potatoes! I am sure I would enjoy the little cakes! They look fantastic!

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  2. Oh my word, wow, I'm in love! This is ho down worthy my friend. My goodness it's just awesome! Love the frosting too.

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  3. Yum! The sweet potato cupcakes with vanilla sound excellent! Great recipe!

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  4. sweet potato and vanilla sound like a wonderful combination!

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  5. I made sweet potato butter last year & then used it in so many baked goods, yum!

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  6. these are like cake puddings - they looks so moist...

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  7. I'm obsessed with sweet potatoes too! I think this would be a great recipe to try the next time I buy sweet potatoes. I bought all my tips at Michaels.. it really helps because they have 40 or 50% off coupons, which go a long way because it really adds up! I just started playing around with them again since I did Wilton class 1 last summer. I want to go back to learn how to use fondant.. it looks so cool!

    I think the 1M tip is the best for those big swirls. I've never used the canvas bags, but I hear they eventually break and can be a pain to clean.

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  8. They look so good to me! mmm - I have never done any baking with sweet tatos! I have a gift card for cooking or baking classes and I really can't wait to sign up for one!

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  9. Sweet potatoes work really well in baked goods! Those cupcakes look good!

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  10. Yum! I did cupcakes on my post too. Decorating is not my thing either but I am more about taste:)

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  11. Those look soooooo good. Can we call them muffins and eat them for breakfast? Please?

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  12. Heh, I've never tried to decorate a cupcake past slathering on some frosting. But I don't think those need any fancy stuff, they look great as is.

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  13. Hee, I'm quite horrible at decorating, I just like playing with my food. I've never handled huge amounts of buttercream before-- never had the luxury of having that much butter on hand at once!
    Don't worry about the cupcakes-- they may not look decorative but they sure look delicious :)

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  14. One of my goals is to bake and decorate a layer cake, but I have no idea where to start, lol. Yeah, these mini cupcakes sound awesome. So glad you're enjoying the warm weather :)

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  15. Brilliant combination of flavours here. And I think they look just gorgeous!

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  16. Yum - they look fantastic, sweet potatoes are so great in desserts! I would also love to take a cake decorating class.

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  17. Oh, sweet potatoes how I love thee. LOL. That's just awesomeness right there, Dawn.

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  18. These must be really rich and luxurious! I love splurging on vanilla beans and elevating baked goods to fragrant heaven, I've never tried it with SP, but these sound great! Thanks for sharing and for the gorgeous photos :)

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  19. I want one, I want one, I want one. Ok that's 3 already! Sweet potatoes are so great in baked goods! And forget about decorating skills, they look just adorable!

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  20. Oh, what a great idea, I love sweet potatoes, and mini cupcakes. They are the best. I love my rotating cake stand, and off set spatulas. I want to take a cake decorating class too - I hear good things about Wilton. I took a fondant cake class recently in SF that was super fun.

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  21. I love pumpkin muffins, and these sound even better. Yum. Delicious.

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  22. These mini cakes look super cute. As for decorating, I'm still not good at it but it does take a lot of practice. The more I practice the better I get. When I didn't know where to start I started browsing through youtube for instructional videos and that gave me an idea of what tools to start purchasing.

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  23. Rock on! The combo looks quite tasty. =) There seem to be more and more recipes with flavors I would never had expected together.

    Thanks for expanding my recipe list once again.

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  24. Um, total YUM! I'm just wondering, could those BE more moist! De-lish. I want one right now. Love it!

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  25. Yep, the turning cake thingies are great. I actually use my lazy susan

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  26. Elizabeth from Australia4/26/09, 9:39 PM

    Dawn, these muffins look good. The frosting is looking good also. I want to like the bowls........

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  27. Dawn this sounds so good! I bet the orange in the frosting complimented the sweet potato very well!

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  28. I love sweet potatoes too. We just had them with our steak dinner...mmm. And our bunny loves them also :-)

    I found a really good webite for conversions just the other day. I'll have to send you the link. As for decorating, I just use a ziploc bag. Get the Hello Cupcake book and there are many tips in there on how to use baggies in leiu of tips.

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  29. Dawn, these look fabulously delicious. I wish we could take classes together; it would be so much fun! You have me craving sweet potatoes. I don't bake nearly enough with them. They're so moist and delicious; I really must rectify this soon!!

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  30. I liked the idea of adding sweet potatoes to muffins. The frosting looks fab too :)

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  31. count me among the many sweet potato lovers out there, particularly when they're mashed to oblivion and topped with a buttery frosting. :)

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  32. I'm a sweet potato a holic too! These looks great and any way I can find to incorporate sweet potatoes into a dish, is a good thing. I love the frosting too...doesn't seem to overpower the cupcake.

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  33. There you go again Dawn. You constantly make me crave food that I would never think to make. These little beauties look incredible.

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  34. This is a brilliant sweet idea! I love the use of the sweet potato and I can just imagine how the vanilla kicks up the flavor. Perfect!

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  35. Sweet potato and vanilla make such a wonderful partnership. Those cupcakes sound and look amazing!

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  36. my oh my, how i would love one of these right now!!

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  37. I made sweet potato muffins once and they were delicious. I bet that sweet potato is even better in cupcake form! These look amazing.

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  38. I would love to have some of them beauties to pop in my mouth-right now!! What moist, decadent little treats!

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  39. wow. i adore sweet potatoes..have never had it in a cupcake though. will keep this recipe for when the girlfriend comes round. she loves sweet potatoes ALOT. x

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  40. I think you did a bang up job on the frosting! Really, they look great and I love that you topped them with a generous amount.

    I've taken cake decorating courses(two). Before you give them your money make certain that you sit in on the teacher. Mine knew just a hair more than I did which isn't saying a lot. I should actually take the classes again. Even taking the classes piping takes tons of practice. I would definitely look to buy one of those kits. Michaels sells a decent one and if you wait you'll find a 40% off coupon which makes it very affordable. Good luck and I'm certain you'll be well!
    ~ingrid

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  41. I can't wait to make these!

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  42. My Ma took cake decorating and when I was little I would sit for hours and watch her decorate the most beautiful cakes. She made it look so easy. Some of it is and some not so much. It does take alot of practice practice practice. I wonder if you could find a good class on DVD- Wilton maybe?? I remember Ma making 10 fowers and picking only 1 or 2 that looked right. She also did candy fondant and hollow sugar eggs like the ones you see at Easter. Hope you can find a good class. Oh and here is a tip use disposable piping bags that you can get in bulk at a restaurant supply store. I go to Restaurant Depot in Chelsea I think. Maybe you have one closer. The other bags are a pain to wash all the time and get yucky.

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  43. My BFF took a decorating class and loved it. Never would have thought sweet potatoes in a sweet-yeah, don't go there with the name, I'm dense some (most) times :)

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  44. No matter what you say, those cupcakes look excellent - as far as cupcakes are concerned, I say the messier the better!

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  45. I love the idea of these. My brother's favorite kind of cake is carrot cake but I don't love it. But I DO love sweet potatoes and would probably eat these right up!

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  46. anything with sweet potato is AWESOME in my opinion! yum!

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  47. I am a sweet potato-holic too! I just love those beautiful orange gems! These cuppy cakes look great!

    I love that you want to try your hand at cake decorating! That is the next big thing for you, methinks.

    Glad you like the website! :)

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  48. Yummmmmmmmmmm!

    Those cakes look wonderful I could sink my teeth into one right now!

    I know how you feel about sweet potato and cakes - totally gorgeous.

    By the way I think the frosting tops those cakes off perfectly YUM!

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  49. I am always looking for new ways to deal with sweet potatoes. They are so flavorful and amazing but kind of burnt on just baked or mashed.

    I also never realized how easy frosting is till I started reading your blog. I always thought it was some mumbo jumbo involving voodoo :-)

    Nicely done and pics look awesome!

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  50. I love sweet potatoes. What a great idea to use them in cupcakes.

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  51. wow, this is a flavor combo I would never have thought of. really interesting.

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  52. everything you make looks like the ultimate version of it. those look so good, i want one right now!

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  53. I'm glad you liked the recipe :)
    And what a great idea to make cupcakes with it!
    Nathalie from Serial Cooking

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  54. I'm not a very big fan of sweet potatoes, but those look amazing.

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  55. Let's battle over who is the biggest sweet potato fan. Not sure who would win. Juuuuust maybe you because you made these cupcakes, but even then, it'd be a hard race. :) So so so so so good Dawn. So good!

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  56. WOW! I am truly OBSESSED with sweet potatoes so I will be definitely trying out this recipe. Sounds so sinfully delicious! THANK YOU!

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  57. i will make these...maybe by the weekend, sounds amazing! when i do i will post to my blog! :)
    I love trying new recipes...and new flavor combos!

    as far as decorating classes...wilton does classes out of Michael's craft stores...super cheap...but if you don't want to do the classes...go on ebay and buy the wilton method decorating classes books 1,2, + 3. it's what they give you when you take the classes. I took the level one, even though I knew the basics, it was still good to WATCH someone actually do it.

    but of course the most important thing is to practice!!!

    thanks for the post!!!

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