Southern Sweet Potato Cake Recipe
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This delicious Southern Sweet Potato Cake Recipe is perfect to serve for any occasion, or any time you need a baking project! The cake is made with two soft and moist sweet potato and cinnamon layers and filled with honey cinnamon buttercream for a perfect combination!
For years we’ve enjoyed dining at Brick Street Cafe. Not only do they have a lovely, eclectic atmosphere but the menu, particularly the dessert menu is fabulous. The dessert selection alone is worth a visit. It’s like a tour of the South in dessert form!
A good plan when dining at Brick Street Cafe is to have a light salad for supper to save up room for cake because the cake serving size is crazy huge. One of the cakes they are famous for is their Sweet Potato Cake. It’s a lightly spiced cake, similar to carrot cake, but made with sweet potatoes and oh so moist.
I’ve been wanting to recreate the Southern Sweet Potato Cake for a while now, so a few months back I set out to conquer it. A few renditions later and I’ve settled on a cake that we are delighted with. It’s a moist cake with just the right amount of spice to compliment the sweet potato.
And yes, there is real sweet potato in this cake about 4-5 of them to be exact. Just to push this Sweet Potato Cake over the top, I then paired it with a fluffy Cinnamon Honey Buttercream Frosting. Sweet potatoes, cinnamon, and honey always make a good team, don’t they?
It’s a cake worthy of a special occasion or even just an ordinary day you’d like to make special. I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we have! Happy baking, y’all!
A few Sweet Potato Cake recipe notes:
- I’ve made this cake with and without freezing the cake layers. It is delicious either way but I do think freezing the cake layers (separately) creates a lovely dense and more moist cake. To freeze cake layers, wrap cooled layers (separately) in 2 layers of plastic wrap, then insert each wrapped layer in a zip-top plastic bag. Freeze for up to 2 months. Don’t forget to label and date your cake!
- For the mashed sweet potatoes, I used my Quick Baked Potatoes method. It takes 30 minutes! The potato halves can be easily peeled, then mashed. If you’re planning on baked potatoes for supper, bake some sweet potatoes while you’re at it to have on hand for cake making.
- Try my Cinnamon Honey Buttercream Frosting Recipe with this cake for a delectable combo.
More delicious baking recipes:
Strawberry Upside Down Cake
Chocolate Hazelnut Torte
Homemade Gingerbread Loaf
Easy Blueberry Pie
Southern Sweet Potato Cake Recipe
Southern Sweet Potato Cake Recipe
A delicious cake for any day or holiday, made with sweet potatoes, cinnamon and ginger. Topped with Honey Cinnamon Buttercream for a perfect combination.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes, cooled (about 4-5 sweet potatoes)
- 1 cup whole buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with baking parchment and butter the top of those too.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a mixer, beat together butter and sugar on medium-high for 4-5 minutes until creamy, stopping to scrape down bowl at least twice. Gradually add beaten eggs. Beat on medium-high for 1-2 minutes until fluffy, scraping down bowl as needed. Add vanilla and sweet potatoes and beat until smooth, scraping down bowl as needed (scraping down the bowl is important stuff, y’all).
- Add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture in thirds, alternating with buttermilk. Beat on low speed until just incorporated, scraping down bowl as needed.
- Divide batter evenly between pans. Bake at 350-degrees F for 35-45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes, then invert onto cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
This recipe makes a 2-layer 9-inch cake.Pair this cake with Cinnamon Honey Buttercream Frosting for a delicious combination.
Originally published September 18, 2o15. Last updated July 18, 2021.
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Whst are measurememts for 2 layer 9’13 pan
I use two approximately 9-inch diameter x 2-inch tall pans for this cake.
Tyla swears by this cake and Amberlyn is a huge fan of the Brick Street version, so we are adding it to our Thanksgiving menu. Can’t wait to try it!! Hope y’all are doing well. Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃🍁🍽
I made this cake today because my husband LOVES Brick street’s cake. I can’t remember loving theirs as much as I love this one! It is soooo delicious! Thank you so much for sharing. I’ve tried sweet potato cakes before but never with mashed sweet potatoes. I am so grateful for this recipe!! Thanks for sharing it with the world!!
So good to hear it, Casey! This is one of our all-time favorite cakes, and since we don’t live near Brick Street anymore it sure does come in handy. Happy baking!
I made this delicious cake for my family on Easter weekend, and it was a HIT! My mom is both a fantastic cook and baker and for her to say it was an amazingly moist and flavorful cake was quite the compliment to me. Thank you for this recipe, and for sharing it with the world! Next time, I think I will pair it with some cream cheese icing. 🙂 God bless!
I’m so happy to hear that y’all enjoyed it, Sarah!
Hi. Please can I use sweet potato flour instead of mashed potatoes for this recipe?
I have never tried using sweet potato flour so I would not know how it would turn out, but would NOT suggest to try that.
I made this cake with a few substitutions (due to some dietary issues in my family), and it still came out delicious! So moist and yummy!! I used coconut milk (with a tbsp of lemon) for buttermilk, and substituted coconut sugar and coconut oil for the sugar and butter. Instead of icing/frosting, we topped it with whipped cream (or coconut whipped cream) and some cacao shavings. So glad to have this recipe! Thank you!
This recipe is getting us through covid quarantine! For some reason my kids have latched onto this and we make it twice a week. =) THANKS from california!!!
So good to hear it!
Both of these recipes (cake and icing) intrigued me the moment I read them. I had all of the ingredients on hand, so I made this cake yesterday. It is a winner! I am way too old and lazy to deal with layer cakes these days, so I just used my trusty 9×13 pan. The cake was much thicker than the usual box cake mix, but that was fine with me. It is moist, full of flavor and was a hit with my husband. I did have to bake it longer than usual, about 45-48 minutes (checked often with toothpick in center) but it was perfect and delicious. We were pleasantly surprised to find the flavors were more intense this morning after getting good and cold in the fridge over nite! The icing was…omg…perfection! Such a subtle, delicate honey taste along with the cinnamon and the creaminess of the butter…this is my new go to buttercream frosting. I have plans for using this on many other cakes and cookies! I look forward to making this cake again, heck, I may even pull out and dust off my round cake pans to make it an elegant looking cake for a holiday table! I can imagine this cake topped with a light sprinkling of chopped pecans or walnuts, just as an added glory to an already blue ribbon winner! Yall try this cake! Its easy to make and you will be so proud when the compliments start rolling in! Thank you Amy! Good job! I look forward to trying more of your recipes!
So great to hear, Brenda! Thank you for sharing how it worked in your 9×13 pan. I do like baking cakes in that size also.
Baked in a bundt cake pan and turned out amazing! I am from Greenville, SC and love brick street cafe as well. 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!
This sounds amazing! I’m curious if you think the cake would need to be refrigerated if it’s not eaten right away? I know the sweet potatoes make for a high moisture content.
I do refrigerate this cake once frosted.
Can I make this cake using 3 8-inch pans?
That should work. Adjust bake time accordingly.
I just made this for Thanksgiving. It was delish but didn’t taste like the bakery cak IMO. My husband said is tastes more like a pumpkin cake. The buttercream frosting was also good especially bc my son doesn’t like cream cheese. Next time I will cut down on the amount of cinnamon in the cake if I use the cinnamon frosting. Thanks!
This cake with the cinnamon honey buttercream frosting is life-changing! Delicious! I subbed half and half for the buttermilk because I didn’t have any on hand, and it probably could have stood with being in the oven for a few more minutes, but I like moist and gooey cake too – and this was truly the bomb! And that frosting! Who knew that adding a 1/4 cup of honey could make something so over the top delicious! I used salted butter and the amount of salt required in the recipe and it totally made for a salty sweet goodness for the frosting! I can see how some might think it was too salty, but my family and I LOVED the frosting – and cake, of course! lol Thank you so much for sharing, Amy! I’ll definitely be making this again!
My daughter relocated from Michigan to SC after college while her husband went to grad school. They loved it so much they stayed for 7 years. They have since come back to Michigan to be nearer family as they raise their children. I’m so excited to make her this cake for her birthday since her favorite birthday treat in SC was Brickstreet sweet potato cake! Hope I do it justice, she’ll be reminded of her favorite place on earth!
Love love love the cake. So I have not baked in quite sometime, like years. I was in the mood for a homemade dessert and had some sweet potatoes on hand. So to Google I went. I wanted a different way to prepare sweet potatoes. This is a great and easy recipe. I made a bundt cake instead of a layered cake. Had to bake it for about 10 minutes longer. I also topped the cake with toasted pecans. Delicious!! 😋
Hi Amy,
I cannot wait to make this! I love sweet potato pie, but hadn’t really thought of trying it in a cake. I’m so happy I came across this recipe!
This recipe was fantastic. I’m not a fan of cream cheese and most of the other recipes called for it. I made this cake for a small gatheflring . By the end of the evening there wasn’t even a crumb left. Thank you ! I will definitely be making it again.
Last night I went to a birthday party and they had a sweet potato cake from Brick Street Cafe. I absolutely loved it and immediately started looking for a recipe. I am thrilled to find your post and I’m going to make your cake. Thanks for doing all the hard work to recreate this wonderful cake. Glad to find someone nearby. We live in Simpsonville.
Made this cake, and it is PERFECT! Super moist crumb yet not too dense – still spongy and packed full of flavor 😋 My family loved it. Thanks!
Oh my goodness!! The Brick Street Cafe sweet potato cake is my absolute favorite cake in the world but I always loved it SO much that I never wanted to make it myself for fear of messing it up!! I finally made it using this recipe with one minor change (I replaced half of the sugar with brown sugar) and this was of the best cakes I have ever made! It definitely is as good or better than any I’ve had in a restaurant, even Brick Street Cafe! YUM!!!! Thank you for this wondeful recipe!
So happy to hear this, Rita! I am totally going to try your substitution. Good idea!