Sweet Potato Tea Cake With Meringue

Recipe from Elisabeth Prueitt

Adapted by Tejal Rao

Updated August 11, 2022

  • Romulo Yanes for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Vivian Lui.
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
2¼ hours, plus cooling
Rating
5(581)
Comments
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This beautiful tea cake from the San Francisco chef Elisabeth Prueitt has all the fall flavors of pumpkin spice channeled into a moist, spicy loaf with a base of sweet potato purée. It also has a delicious unusual addition: meringue, baked right into the top of the cake. Ms. Prueitt’s head of pastry at Tartine Manufactory, Michelle Lee, came up with the idea of swirling it over the top of the cake before baking. Use a spoon or toothpick to reach down into the cake batter and pull it up, creating beautiful peaks of batter-streaked meringue that bake up golden brown and crisp on the edges. —Tejal Rao

Featured in: Behind the Famed Tartine Bakery, a Gluten-Free Talent

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Ingredients

Yield:1 9-inch loaf

FOR THE CAKE

  • ¾ pound/340 grams sweet potatoes (about 1 medium), peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces

  • Unsalted butter, for greasing pan

  • 3 tablespoons orange juice

  • ¾ cup/180 milliliters vegetable oil

  • ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons/125 grams granulated sugar

  • ⅔ cup/125 grams packed brown sugar

  • 1 ¼ teaspoon sea salt

  • 3 large eggs

  • 1 ¾ cups/225 grams all-purpose flour

  • 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder

  • ½ teaspoon baking soda

  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

  • Pinch of ground cloves

FOR THE MERINGUE TOPPING

  • 2 large egg whites

  • 6 tablespoons/60 grams granulated sugar

  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Prepare the cake: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil sweet potatoes until just tender, 15 to 20 minutes, then drain. (You should have about 2 cups.)

  2. Step 2

    Meanwhile, make the meringue: In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip egg whites, sugar and vanilla until glossy, stiff but not dry peaks form. Scrape meringue into a bowl and set aside; rinse off the whisk attachment and bowl and return to stand mixer.

  3. Step 3

    Heat oven to 325 degrees and butter a 9-by-5-inch (23-by-12-centimeter) loaf pan.

  4. Step 4

    Transfer sweet potatoes to stand mixer bowl. Add orange juice and whisk until smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl to make sure there are no lumps. Add oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar and salt and mix until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition; use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

  5. Step 5

    In a separate bowl, use a fork to mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Add to egg mixture in stand mixer and combine on low speed just until smooth. Transfer batter to the prepared loaf pan.

  6. Step 6

    Use a spoon to top the batter with the meringue, gently swirling it into the batter and pulling it back out a few times to create streaked peaks. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Let cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before slicing and serving.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
581 user ratings
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Comments

G

Not enough meringue for this cake. Same cake recipe appears in Sunset magazine but with more meringue. 3 eggs, 2/3c sugar and tsp of vanilla, which would make a cake that appears more like the picture. Recipe also has a bit different technique for the meringue preparation. https://www.sunset.com/recipe/sweet-potato-tea-cake-with-meringue

Cooked sweet potato yield

What is the volume and weight of the cooked sweet potato? In case you would like to substitute canned.

ellen

I would love to make this GF. Is there a mix you would use in this recipe or is a nice mix of light flours and starches ok? Any recommendations for doing this?

Parker

I doubled the meringue and thus need to bake an additional 20 minutes. Came out great and delicious.

jan

This is a great time to learn about 3 different types of meringue. Here's a short video that explains them: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/v_peKvkZYrk. This recipes uses a French Meringue, while the original Tartine Bakery recipe uses a Swiss Meringue. The French Meringue is not very stable, but can be stabilized by adding some cream of tartar. I would use the Swiss Meringue for its beautiful glossiness and stability.

Rebecca C

Made these as cupcakes…. Worked perfectly. Of course, bake time was much shorter… somewhere around 15-18 minutes. Made extra meringue as suggested and used the leftover to pipe some meringue kisses.

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Credits

Adapted from Elisabeth Prueitt

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