Tastes like Thanksgiving pie but in a cake!
Low Sugar Sweet Potato Cake iced with sweet potato icing!
With carrots, pineapple, orange zest and spices this cake will have you over the moon!
With that description I bet you can almost taste this amazing super moist cake!
While it’s true I have a love/hate relationship with no sugar baking
I’ve turned this one into a lower sugar cake option by using monk fruit sugar in place of half the sugar in the original recipe
New Recipe for Sweet Potato Icing is the literal icing on this cake today!
Be careful not to just eat it right out of the bowl before your cake is cooled!
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Notes for Success
Today I am using 7″ cake pans for three layers but all of this batter fits perfectly into a 9″ x 13″ cake pan for a single layer sheet cake style
Sweet potato icing is so simple to make but will cause this cake to need refrigeration
Alternatively you can use whatever icing you love the most here, like the traditional cream cheese icing!
Baking the sweet potatoes while preparing the cake recipe is my most efficient method.
By roasting the potatoes in their skins at 400F for approximately 30-40 minutes to very tender it’s easy to extract the flesh and discard the skins
For those who prefer the boil their potatoes, by all means peel the potatoes first and then boil away!
Additionally if for some reason you want to skip the sweet potato addition in the cake recipe simply use mashed banana or more applesauce instead!
Monk fruit sugar is my sugar substitute of choice
Regular granulated sugar or more light brown sugar can be used in place of the monk fruit listed below in the same amount
Admittedly sugar free baking with sugar substitutes makes me angry for two reasons
#1) I consider it a green light to eat then entire cake all by myself
#2) If not done correctly it gives a bitter taste and can dry out your cake recipe but this particular recipe converts beautifully with no drying or bitter taste!
Read more about sugar free baking here to see if this is for you!
Low Sugar Sweet Potato Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake Batter
- ½ cup Vegetable Oil (118ml)
- ¼ cup Applesauce (56g)
- 2 cup All Purpose Flour (250g)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder (4g)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda (4g)
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1¼ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Nutmeg
- ½ cup Brown Sugar (105g)
- ½ cup Monk Fruit Sugar *or more sugar (100g)
- ¾ cup Sweet Potato cooked & mashed (180g)
- 1 cup Shredded Carrots
- ¾ cup Crushed Pineapple well drained
- 1½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 Orange Zest (approx 1½ tsp)
- 1¼ cup Toasted Pecans (160g)
For the Sweet Potato Icing
- 1 cup Cooked Mashed Sweet Potato (240g)
- ¼ cup Pure Maple Syrup (56ml)
- 3 Tbs Coconut Oil (45ml)
- 1 Tbs Plant Milk (15ml)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (5ml)
Instructions
- Grease & parchment line 3-7" cake pans (or 1-9" x 13" sheet) & preheat the oven to 350F
- In a large bowl combine the sugars with the oil, vanilla extract, orange extract, mashed sweet potato & applesauce, whisk smooth
- Then sift together all of the dry ingredients directly into the bowl of wet ingredients & whisk smooth
- Add the drained pineapple, shredded carrots & nuts mix smooth
- Pour batter into your prepared cake pans & bake immediately at 350°F in a preheated oven for approximately 35-40 minutes depending on the size of your pans. Or until the cakes are springy to the touch when you gently press the centers
- Cool cakes in the pans until you can safely touch them with your fingers & then flip out onto a cooling rack to cool completely
- Meanwhile prepare the sweet potato icing by combining all the ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth
- Transfer to a bowl & refrigerate until you are ready to ice your cake
Notes
I would like to bake and freeze this in pieces for my parents, but would be easier to store if it were a flat cake. Do you have any thoughts on pan size and cook time to make it in a rectangular pan?
Thanks for your thoughts and another delicious recipe to try!
Yes definitely as a sheet cake I would bake the entire batter into a 9″ x 9″ pan (or 8×8 is that is what you have)
Hi Gretchen, where is the note about the brown sugar? Is it regular brown sugar or it the golden monkfruit?
Hey thanks for pointing that out! I did not mean to have a note direct there, but more for those who don’t want to use Monkfruit I wrote this:
Regular granulated sugar or more light brown sugar can be used in place of the monk fruit listed below in the same amount