High Altitude Sweet Potato Layer Cake
This sweet potato layer cake is made with nutty brown butter and roasted sweet potatoes, frosted with salted maple buttercream and crunchy toasted pecans.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- 2 8 or 9 inch Round Cake Pans
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
- Food Processor or Ninja
Ingredients
Cake
- 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 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
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
Frosting
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder (optional)
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1 ½ tsp maple extract
- 1 cup pecans, toasted (see notes)
Instructions
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
- 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.
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly spray the bottoms of two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans with nonstick baking spray. Line the bottoms of the pans with circles of parchment paper, and spray the paper, too.
- 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. Divide the batter between the prepared pans.
- Bake two 8 inch layers for about 30-35 minutes, and two 9 inch layers for about 25-30 minutes. When the cake is done, a cake tester or sharp knife inserted should come out clean, or with moist crumbs clinging to it. Don't under-bake, or the cake can end up too moist and overly dense.
- Set the pans on a cooling rack and let cool for 15 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the sides of the cake, turn the cake out onto a cooling rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting. Peel the parchment paper off the bottoms of the cakes before frosting.
Frosting
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for one minute until smooth.
- On low speed, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder, salt and extracts. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for one more minute.
- If toasting the pecans, let them cool completely before assembling the cake. These maple glazed pecans are fantastic with sweet potato cake. Chop about 1/2-2/3 of the pecans and leave the rest whole for decorating.
- Place one of the cake layers on a cake pedestal or decorating turntable. If necessary, slice off a thin layer of the top of the cake if it's domed.
- Spread a layer of buttercream onto the first layer of cake, then sprinkle with some of the chopped pecans. Stack the second layer of cake on top, and frost all over with a thin "crumb coat" of buttercream. Chill for 15 minutes.
- Frost the cake all over with a final coat of buttercream, and decorate with the rest of the pecans.
Notes
- Store the leftover cake in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- For toasted or maple glazed pecans, see this recipe for sweet potato cupcakes.
- For a 3-layer 8-inch cake, divide the cake batter between three 8-inch pans instead of two, for slightly thinner layers. These will need to bake for a few minutes less.
- For a 3-layer 9-inch cake, increase the cake recipe by 1 1/2 times and divide the batter between three 9-inch cake pans.
- For a smaller cake, cut the cake recipe in half and bake the batter in two or three 6-inch round cake pans.
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