Full of spiced cinnamon and sweet potato flavor, these marshmallow frosted sweet potato cupcakes are like Thanksgiving dessert in a cupcake!
Fluffy sweet potato cupcakes
Soft, moist, and absolutely delightful, you really cannot go wrong with these homemade frosted sweet potato cupcakes.
They are also a great option for Friendsgiving dinners, because the cupcakes are easy to transport, and guests absolutely love them!
If you wish to take it one step further and stuff the cupcakes with marshmallow fluff or cranberry jelly after baking, by all means go ahead.
Readers also love this Crustless Pumpkin Pie
Step by step recipe video
Above, watch the sweet potato cupcake recipe video
Sweet potato cupcake ingredients
The recipe calls for sweet potato, cinnamon, pure vanilla extract, milk of choice or water, flour, oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and ground ginger.
For oil free cupcakes, replace the oil in the recipe with an equal amount of additional sweet potato puree, Greek yogurt, or milk of choice.
The cupcakes work with spelt flour or loosely measured white flour or gluten free all purpose flour. I have not tried using almond flour, coconut flour, rice flour, or whole wheat flour here and cannot recommend those.
Vinegar and baking soda cause the cupcake to rise, much like in the popular volcano science experiment. So no eggs are required.
For vegan sweet potato cupcakes, simply use water or your favorite plant based milk.
If you’re looking for flourless cupcakes, try these Keto Chocolate Cupcakes.
What type of sweet potatoes?
The recipe works with pretty much any variety of sweet potato or yam, including jewel, garnet, purple, white, and Japanese sweet potatoes.
You can use roasted sweet potato puree (here’s how to cook sweet potatoes) or canned sweet potato puree, which should be available near the pumpkin at many regular grocery stores and health food stores.
And if you wish to substitute canned pumpkin or butternut squash puree, that is fine too. Of course, they will not be sweet potato cupcakes anymore!
How to make sweet potato cupcakes
Start by whisking the sweet potato puree, water, vanilla extract, vinegar, and optional oil in a large mixing bowl.
Let this sit for ten minutes, while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a cupcake tin with nine liners.
Stir all remaining ingredients into the large bowl to form a cupcake batter. Scoop the batter into the prepared liners, going about two thirds of the way up.
Bake for eighteen minutes on the oven’s center rack. Then let cool before frosting.
If you can wait, I like to refrigerate the healthy sweet potato cupcakes overnight, very loosely covered. The liners peel off easily the next day, and there’s no risk of the frosting melting upon hitting a warm cupcake.
You can make mini sweet potato cupcakes in you prefer. Decrease the baking time to nine minutes and bake the cupcakes in lined mini muffin tins.
The recipe was adapted from my Pumpkin Cupcakes and Pumpkin Muffins
Marshmallow Frosting
Feel free to frost the cupcakes in any way your heart desires.
Try cream cheese frosting, softened almond butter, coconut butter, chocolate or vanilla frosting, or a simple dusting of powdered sugar.
I topped the cupcakes with the following homemade marshmallow buttercream icing:
Using beaters or a stand mixer, whip the following until it turns into a thick buttercream frosting: 1 cup butter or plant based butter, 3 cups powdered sugar or erythritol, 1 tsp pure vanilla extract, and 1/8 tsp marshmallow extract.
Sweet Potato Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sweet potato puree
- 1/2 cup water or milk of choice
- 2 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp white vinegar or cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp oil or additional sweet potato puree
- 1 cup flour (spelt, white, or gf all purpose)
- 1/2 cup sugar or coconut sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- optional 1/2 tsp ground ginger
Instructions
- To make sweet potato cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake tin. Whisk first 5 ingredients, and let sit at least 10 minutes. You can sift remaining ingredients in a separate bowl while you wait or add them to the first bowl after time is up, then stir to form a batter. Scoop into the liners, about 2/3 of the way up. Bake 18 minutes, then let cool. These taste even better the next day, and the liners peel off easily after a day as well.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
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My favorite part of sweet potato casserole are the toasted marshmallows on top, and I feel this recipe is incomplete if it isn’t there. Is there a way to achieve that with this frosting, or is there some way you can do that with a different frosting recipe?
Ricemellow Creme or Marshmallow Fluff.
You could probably put some mini marshmallows under the broiler and then sprinkle them on top!
Mmm, you’re so philanthropic
EVERYONE should try the Okinawan sweet potato. It’s PURPLE, dense, sweet, and delicious.
I’ve had those before, they were AMAZING! It didn’t even need any toppings.
What exactly is the marshmallow extract made out of?
There’s a link in her recipe where you can find that info out, Val. It doesn’t contain any fake ingredients or chemicals, if that’s what you’re looking for!
These sound so yummy and perfect for Thanksgiving! Does anyone know if subbing applesauce for the oil would work? Or maybe even just adding more sweet potato?
Baked and stuffed. Avocado, mango, grilled onions and peppers and greens (spinach or kale). Topped with salsa. That’s what it must have and then if there’s anything else in the fridge I’ll add it. I bake 5 sweet potatoes on Sunday and spread these out over lunches and dinner all week. It’s a quick and easy meal after boot camp classes.
“I normally try very hard to not mention current events or anything not directly related to food and recipes (as it’s a slippery slope – there are so many causes, and how can you deem one cause more important than any of the others?)”
I agree–way too many sad/tragic events going on in the world to choose from, that’s for sure. But the typhoon is particularly so. It saddens me how often that side of the world seems to be hit with major major natural disasters.
I’ve just gotten into experimenting with the coconut “whipped” cream–I’ve found not all brands of coconut milk are created equal!
I have always wanted to try baking something sweet with sweet potatoes! These look awesome and I love the marshmallow frosting addition!
Hi Katie,
Silent reader here. This recipe looks amazing, but has forced me to voice a concern, or really a cry for help. My dad LOVES almond roca candy, and we always have it around holidays, so this year I want to make him a cookie bar spinoff: http://itsybitsyfoodies.com/almond-roca-cookie-bars/
There is no healthy or vegan versions of this I can find, anywhere. Is it something you could add to your to-make list?
I would be forever grateful!
Happy remembrance day from Alberta, Canada.
You could probably put some mini marshmallows under the broiler and then sprinkle them on top!
Whoops. For some reason it took my comment to one of the first posters and copied it when I went to comment here? No idea 😛
Anywho, I bet you have a few options if Katie doesn’t have any suggestions!
1. For the crust base use her chickpea blondie recipe ( https://lett-trim.today/2011/05/18/chocolate-chip-blondies-and-theyre-good-for-you/%3C/a%3E ), her fudge recipe for a different spin ( https://lett-trim.today/2011/01/24/%E2%80%9Cgood-girl%E2%80%9D-vegan-fudge/%3C/a%3E ) or use her chocolate chip cookie recipe and make them into bars ( https://lett-trim.today/2011/04/27/worlds-healthiest-chocolate-chip-cookies/%3C/a%3E ).
2. For the chocolate topping use her homemade chocolate bars recipe in the melted form ( https://lett-trim.today/2012/01/15/three-ingredient-chocolate-bars-1/%3C/a%3E ), storebought chocolate, or even carob powder + coconut oil (in equal amounts) makes a great tasting “chocolate” that hardens nicely when frozen.
3. The just top with chopped up almonds and you have a healthy/vegan version of the almond roca bars!
Sorry to but in Katie, but I just wanted to share my thoughts 🙂
Please don’t be sorry at all… I love your ideas!
Awesome ideas! Thank you both!
I can definitely put it on my growing list of things to try and experiment to make 🙂
Yum, these sound so good, especially the marshmallow frosting!