These delectable Sweet Potato Casserole Cupcakes have a spiced sweet potato cake, a brown sugar pecan topping and a generous swirl of homemade marshmallow frosting!
I see dishes and I can’t stop thinking about how to turn them into cupcakes. Like these Pumpkin Pecan Pie Cupcakes, Caramel Apple Cupcakes and Peach Crisp Cupcakes! Now I have transformed maple sweet potato casserole into a cupcake form!
Moist spiced, sweet potato cake with a brown sugar pecan topping baked inside, all topped with the easiest homemade marshmallow frosting.
And then you get to torch it! Isn’t this fun!?
Everyone knows that the brown sugar marshmallow topping is the best part of the casserole, so I stuffed this little cupcake with a generous amount of traditional sweet potato casserole topping. Some baked down in the cupcake and some got nice and crispy on top.
This frosting was delightfully easy and the hint of cinnamon paired perfectly with sweet potato cake. It holds it’s shape but will remain soft and creamy so each bite will be better than the next!
This cupcake has it all: texture, sweet and savory flavor, beauty.
The marshmallow frosting is impossibly smooth and creamy, a little crunch from the brown sugar pecan filling and the soft, and moist spiced sweet potato cake is a combination no one will be able to resist!
My only note here is to try not to taste test all of the topping. {cough, cough Lindsey}
Recipe
Sweet Potato Casserole Cupcakes {Homemade Marshmallow Frosting}
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon (slightly rounded)
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup light brown sugar (packed)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest (about 1 small lemon, dark yellow parts only)
- 4 eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup sweet potato puree (about 2 small potatoes, directions below)
- ⅔ cup whole milk
For the Topping:
- ½ cup dark brown sugar (packed)
- ⅓ cup flour
- 6 tablespoons melted butter*
- 1 cup chopped pecans (toasted)
- Dash Saigon cinnamon
- Pinch kosher salt
Frosting:
Instructions
Cook Sweet Potatoes:
- Peel and cut your sweet potatoes into 1 inch cubes. It doesn’t have to be exact. You just want them to be roughly the same size, so they cook evenly. Place in a small saucepot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to medium and continue to cook until very tender and can easily be pierced with a fork. Drain and mash with a spoon, puree with an immersion blender, or press through a ricer (my favorite because it gets out some of the strings).
Make the Topping (Optional)
- Mix all the topping ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside.
Make the Cupcakes:
- Preheat your oven to 350° and line 16 muffin tins with liners (I use 2 plain liners).
- In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, soda, salt and all spices; set aside.
- In a large bowl on in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream sugars, butter, and lemon zest together with a hand mixer until thickened, 3-4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the vanilla with the last egg.
- Add the sweet potato puree and mix on medium until smooth and creamy, about 30 seconds.
- Alternately add flour and milk, beginning and ending with flour. I add a third of the flour then half of the milk and repeat. Fold the last flour addition in by hand to avoid over mixing.
- Scoop into prepared tins, filling almost to the top of the cup. Add a generous amount of topping the top of each cupcake, pressing some down inside. Bake in preheated oven 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few clinging crumbs. Mine took 17 minutes.
- Remove immediately from muffin tins to cool completely on a wire rack.
Assemble the Cupcakes:
- Once cupcakes are cool, frost with your favorite piping tip! You can spread the frosting on but it will be messy and you will probably be covered in marshmallow fluff by the time you are done.
- Toast the frosting with a kitchen torch or under a broiler. The frosting is delicious untoasted, so that is always an option.
Video Instructions
Hi Lindsey. These cupcakes look amazing, I plan on making them this Thanksgiving. Can I make the marshmallow frosting and frost the cupcakes the day before, and if so when would I torch the marshmallow. Thanks
Hi Stacy, You absolutely can! I find the meringue lasts better if it is torched immediately and then stored in the refrigerator! Happy baking!
Thank you Lindsey. Have a great Thanksgiving!!
Hi...looks wonderful! I was wondering...by sweet potatoes do you mean the white sweet potatoes or the orange yams? I know different regions call them different things...just wanted to check
Hi Torie! The orange yams!
Hello, these cupcakes look so delicious and your pictures are amazing. I am wondering if this recipe can be scale down (half)?
Hi Manon, It certainly can! I have made it in half and it worked! Happy baking!
Thanks for your reply! I followed the recipe, but it didn't work for be. The cupcakes were very flat and very dense. They were in the oven long enough, but they looked uncooked.
OMG! These look so amazing! Love the idea of using the sweet potato and marshmallow together!
Hi yes, lets be friends 🙂 Ok great, now please send me some of these cupcakes! OMG LOVE LOVE LOVE this! These are all my fav holiday flavors......YUM
Haha! I would love to send you some cupcakes! If only they transported better. 🙁 I think I'm going to need to mosey on over to your Fit Friday post after all the holiday baking I did this week!
Wow! Those look so much better than the pbj I'm eating for lunch right now.
Most things look better than pb&j to me, Barb! lol
This looks amazing! Thank you for linking up to Party Time and we hope to see you again next week!
Thanks, Jacqui! Absolutely!
Stopping by from Moonlight & Mason Jars link party. You did it again! Look amazing! I will cave and buy a torch, always wanted one and after seeing this....I gotta have one!
You must, you must!!! I use it waaaay more than necessary! 🙂
I just found your site and love it! I'm a history teacher and have assigned projects on the food of the colonial times. The kids have to bake old recipes and bring them in to class. Your site is going to keep me busy tonight 🙂
I'm so glad you found me!! I have definitely deviated from my original purpose but I have tried a lot of early American recipes (or receipts if you will) - some are amazing and some are best left in the past 🙂 I have some favorites that I really want to go back and rephotograph so they can get the attention they deserve!
I wish I had gotten such an awesome project growing up! Super fun!
All of your cupcakes are genius Lindsey! You totally need to write a cupcake cookbook.
Thanks, Christin!! The idea has crossed my mind 🙂
What a great curse! haha I love this one for sure -- one of my favorite things around the holidays is sweet potato casserole, and now I can enjoy it in a cupcake! I think that homemade marshmallow frosting really takes the cake. 🙂
Haha! I know, right! There are certainly worse curses!
I love all the cupcakes you make and sweet potato casserole? These are brilliant and gorgeous! That marshmallow frosting looks so creamy and magical! Swoon!
Thanks, Kelly! The frosting was magical. I could believe how soft and pillowy it was!
That marshmallow frosting looks like a love match to me. I'm seeing hearts in my eyes! Major yummy cupcakes!
Haha! Thanks, Pamela!
All you cupcakes are looking wonderful.. for some reason I hardly find patience to make cupcakes.. but I am willing to try as soon as possible one of your recipes, as they are totally tempting.
It's probably best you don't know how easy they are! Because then you would want to make them all the time!
You need to change the name of your site to American Heritage Cupcakes! Seriously...you have the most amazing cupcake recipes ever. I don't think I'll ever be able to tackle another cupcake again...because I just can't make it look as delicious as yours! And the toasting on the frosting? Ummm...seriously?? Perfection!
For reals right? I am quite positive that you could make just as beautiful a cupcake...I see the magic you work over there!
You do make awesome cupcakes Lindsey! Love how soft these look, beautiful pictures too! Pinned.
Thanks, Manali!
wow these should not be legal! yum!
Haha thanks, Caralyn!
This is an awesome idea, I love these! And yes! You did make that Marshmallow frosting for cupcakes! Pinned of course!
You called it! Thanks for the pin, Mira!
Delicious cupcakes! I love the idea of sweet potato in them. I can sneak some vegetable for my younger son:)
Thanks, Ilona!
These cupcakes are lovely. And the marshmallow frosting looks yummy.
Thanks, Chichi!
Cursed??? Really???
Well - personally, I don't think it's a curse to wanna turn everything into a cupcake...I mean a cupcake is THE perfect gifting option not to mention the perfect serving size 😉 And with that, let me just say I can help you get rid of ALL evidence of your supposed curse ...
BTW - these sound and look so decadent!
Haha! The next time I make some cupcakes...you will be first on my list!
You definitely do turn a lot of dishes into cupcakes, which I LOVE!! Your creativity never ceases to amaze me, Lindsey! And that's definitely what makes your blog stand apart from other! 🙂 These cupcakes look incredible, and that homemade frosting is mouthwatering. Sounds like the perfect treat!
I can't help it. 🙂 I just Luuuurve cupcakes! Thanks, Gayle!
These are lovely!! I am digging your marshmallow treats lately! 🙂
Thanks, Renee! I don't know what's gotten in to me lately!
These look sooooo good! I'm in love with that marshmallow frosting 🙂
Thanks, Kathleen! Me too. The frosting is just divine!
Brilliant! This cupcake has everything!! 🙂
Thanks, Annie! I try {blush}