High Altitude Sweet Potato Bundt Cake

This sweet potato bundt cake is made with nutty brown butter and roasted sweet potatoes, frosted with vanilla bean cream cheese buttercream.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

5 from 2 votes

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1 5

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings12

2 medium to large sweet potatoes (you'll need 15 ounces roasted and pureed sweet potato)
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
4 large eggs
½ cup whole milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground nutmeg

4 oz cream cheese (1/2 block), softened to room temperature
4 oz (1/2 cup) vegetable shortening, or unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (see note)
1 tbsp meringue powder (optional)
2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
3 cups powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp milk or cream, only if needed for consistency

Preheat the oven to 425 F.
Wash the sweet potatoes, but don't peel them. Rub the peel with the olive oil, then wrap the potatoes in aluminum foil and place them on a baking sheet.
Roast the sweet potatoes for 90 minutes, until very soft.
Set aside until cool enough to handle, then remove and discard the peel.
Puree the roasted sweet potatoes in a food processor until very smooth. Weigh out 15 ounces for the cake, and save the rest for another recipe.
You can make the sweet potatoes up to 2 days in advance, keeping them in the refrigerator until needed.

Preheat the oven to 350 F and position a rack in the center of the oven. Thoroughly grease a standard 12-cup bundt pan with non-stick baking spray.
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter, swirling the pan occasionally, until the surface of the butter begins to foam and nutty, golden brown solids have formed at the bottom of the pan.
Remove the pan from the heat, and scrape the butter and browned bits into a large mixing bowl. Let cool for 5 minutes.
To the bowl of browned butter, add the pureed sweet potato, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla extract, and whisk until smooth.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and whisk until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake the cake for about 45 minutes. The top will have a deep, golden-brown crust with a cracked surface. When the cake is done, a cake tester or sharp knife inserted should come out clean, or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
Cool the cake in the pan for exactly 15 minutes, then turn the cake out onto a cooling rack. Cool the cake completely before frosting.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and shortening/butter for several minutes until smooth.
Add the powdered sugar, meringue powder, vanilla bean paste and salt. Whip the frosting for several minutes, scraping the bowl down several times, until thick and fluffy. If the frosting is too stiff, add the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Spread or pipe the frosting onto the cooled cake.

Store the leftover cake in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Since there's cream cheese in the frosting, you should refrigerate the cake overnight, but let it come completely to room temperature for serving.
Cream cheese makes a very soft frosting, so adding shortening to the frosting stabilizes it for the piped design in today's photographed cake. If you plan on simply spreading the frosting onto the cake, you can use butter instead of shortening.

Keyword Brown Butter, Bundt Cake, Cream Cheese Frosting, Sweet Potato

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