Sweet Potato Spice Cake
Do you know what is more delicious than a piping hot baked sweet potato? Sweet potatoes in a cake! This rich, naturally sweetened cake has all the flavors of fall and is perfect for a mid afternoon treat or as a gorgeous holiday dessert.
Ingredients
Cake
- 4 cups organic rolled oats
- 2 tablespoons flax meal
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons ginger powder
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 1 teaspoon blackstrap molasses
- 2 cups sweet potato cooked and mashed
- 2 cups deglet dates
- 2 ¼ cups soy milk unsweetened ,or plant based milk of your choice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Drizzle
- ¼ cup cashews
- ¼ cup deglet dates
- ½ cup water
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Grind oats into a flour in the blender. * TIP: Don’t overgrind the oats. If the flour is too fine the center won’t cook thoroughly and will be gummy.
- Add to a large mixing bowl along with the flax meal, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, ginger and allspice and mix well.
- Add the blackstrap molasses, sweet potato, dates, soy milk, apple cider vinegar and vanilla to a blender and blend until dates are pulverized.
- Pour mixture into the flour mixture and mix well.
- Pour into a silicone bundt pan or lightly greased bundt cake pan and smooth the top with the mixing spoon.
- Bake for 35 – 40 minutes or until you poke with a toothpick and it comes out clean.
- Place cake on a cooling rack, still in pan for 10 minutes.
- Gently ease out of the pan onto a cake tray or plate.
- Let cool completely.
- Add all drizzle ingredients to a blender and blend until completely smooth.
- Drizzle over the cake.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Nutrition
Calories: 323kcalCarbohydrates: 63gProtein: 9gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gSodium: 300mgPotassium: 730mgFiber: 9gSugar: 27gVitamin A: 10976IUVitamin C: 15mgCalcium: 185mgIron: 3mg
This turned out so well, thanks for another great recipe!
I made this cake and it was really good! One thing that tends to happen with oat flour in my experience is the cake does get a little gummy. So you don’t want to overmix the batter. Another thing I was going to try was after it was originally cooked and after cooling I was going to cut it and put it back in the oven to dry it out a bit so the gumminess was less. Jill, any other suggestions?
I always grind rolled oats into a course flour for my baked goods. I find that if I overgrind the oats then the cake tends to be more gummy. I think the same happens with oat flour because it is ground really fine.
Wow! I made this and it is delicious! I actually made them into “cupcakes” since I only had a silicone muffin pan. It worked great. I just cut the cooking time to around 20 minutes. Thanks!
Could you switch from sweet potato to pumpkin?
Yes
Made this for husband’s birthday. Bunt cake was liked by all. This was my first time making my own Oat Flour. Super easy and good, since I tend to always have rolled oats at hand. The drizzle required more water than recipe indicated. Took a photo and will try to post it on FB. Thanks for the recipe and the helpful tips.
I made this recipe and it was delicious! As previously mentioned above, it was slightly gummy and I didn’t realize that you could overgrind oats (I really ground mine fine thinking it was better). Regardless, the cake was oh so good. Made it last night and it’s already half gone and there are only 2 of us. Also, I didn’t use cashews in the drizzle but MoriNu Tofu (1/4 cup) and it tasted great. Wonderful recipe – will be on my Make Again list. Thanks Jill.
I saw you subbed tofu for the cashews. Was it silken, firm or extra firm MoriNu?
firm
Made the cake. Was delicious. My cake was also a bit gummy. However very tasty and held together quite well. Will try slicing it and baking it a little Ionger. What other whole flour would you suggest might work?
I haven’t tried any other fours or combinations. Sometimes if you overgrind the oats, it leads to more gumminess.
Do you know if you could make this cake in advance and freeze it? Then make the icing right before you’re ready to serve it. Thank you in advance for your response.
Hmmm, that is a good question. I think it would do ok
I made this tonight for a special treat. We have friends coming over and I can’t wait for them to try it!
I made this for a small get together – it was a huge hit! Great for breakfast, too 🙂
I added a couple of ripe pears and cinnamon to the drizzle – and topped the cake slices with it as they were served.
I also made my absolute favorite Jill recipe – the pudding filling for her Chocolate Pudding Pie.
There is nothing on this planet that is as good as that chocolate pudding. Seriously. Like, I mean, seriously.
You have not lived until you have eaten that pudding.
Go – go make it – and eat it with this yummy cake. I plan to make this again over the holidays for family.
Thank you, Jill!
Can you make this as a layer cake? So do not use purchased oat flour, I need to grind my own?
yes and yes
When I put in two cups of dates, it’s much less than 450 grams. I have to add quite a bit more to get to 450g. Should I defer to the grams or the cups for measuring the right quantity of dates?
Cups
Hi Jill
I would like to try this recipe, but I’m not sure whether I understand how to prapare the sweet potatoe. Shall I steam the sweet potatoes or bake them in the oven before I make the puree out of them? Here in Switzerland, it’s not yet so common to cook with sweet potatoes..
I usually bake them on 350°F for at least 30 minutes.
Hi Jill,
Could I make this cake with Japanese sweet potatoes?
Thanks, Christine
yes
Can I freeze this cake prior to frosting it?
I have never tried freezing it but I think it would do ok.
I wanted to chime in to say that I really enjoyed this recipe. It was super moist and delicious. I like the spices and think next time I might even use a little more spice. Someone was allergic to nuts, so I made a soy cream out of tofu. Worked out really nicely. Thanks so much!