Sweet Potato Layer Cake
Updated Oct. 15, 2025
- Total Time
- 2¼ hours
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour, plus 1 hours' cooling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1cup/100 grams raw pecan halves, coarsely chopped, plus more for decorating, if desired
- Nonstick baking spray, for the pans
- 1½cups/355 milliliters vegetable oil
- 1½cups/300 grams granulated sugar
- 4large eggs
- 2teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2cups/250 grams all-purpose flour
- 2teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2teaspoons baking soda
- 2teaspoons baking powder
- 1heaping teaspoon coarse kosher salt (such as Morton)
- 1teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½teaspoon black pepper
- 3cups/450 grams peeled and coarsely grated sweet potatoes (2 to 3 sweet potatoes)
- 16ounces/500 grams cream cheese, at room temperature
- ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 6cups/612 grams powdered sugar, sifted
- 2teaspoons vanilla extract
- Generous ¼ teaspoon coarse kosher salt (such as Morton)
For the Cakes
For the Frosting
Nutritional analysis per serving (14 servings)
805 calories; 48 grams fat; 13 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 26 grams monounsaturated fat; 7 grams polyunsaturated fat; 89 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 67 grams sugars; 7 grams protein; 475 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Make the cake: Heat oven to 325 degrees. As the oven heats, place pecans on a sheet pan in the oven until lightly toasted and aromatic, 6 to 10 minutes.
- Step 2
Prepare the pans: Coat three (9-inch) cake pans with baking spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Spray the top of the parchment paper.
- Step 3
In a large bowl, whisk together oil, granulated sugar, eggs and vanilla until well blended, thick and creamy.
- Step 4
In a smaller bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and black pepper until well incorporated.
- Step 5
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until thoroughly combined but not overmixed.
- Step 6
In three batches, fold in grated sweet potatoes, then fold in the cooled nuts all at once.
- Step 7
Divide batter equally among the pans (about 2 cups/545 grams per pan). Bake on the same center rack, if possible, until cakes are set in the middle, they still have a bit of an imprint when you touch the center, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. (If baked on separate racks, rotate cakes after 15 minutes.)
- Step 8
Cool the cakes in their pans on cooling racks for 1 hour and then turn them out of the pans to finish cooling while you make the frosting. (The cake layers can also be made ahead: Place fully cooled layers between 9-inch cake boards and wrap well with plastic film. Refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 2 months, bringing to room temperature before frosting.)
- Step 9
Make the frosting: Combine cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a bowl with a hand mixer) and beat at medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until fluffy. Add the powdered sugar in batches and beat until fluffy. Add the vanilla and salt and beat to combine.
- Step 10
Assemble the cake: If necessary, trim any uneven surfaces from the cake layers with a sharp serrated knife. Place one layer on a serving plate (if trimmed, trimmed-side up; if untrimmed, bottom-side up), and top with about 1½ cups frosting; spread evenly across the top. Repeat with another cake layer and 1½ cups frosting. Top with the final cake layer. Apply a thin coating of frosting (a crumb coat) to the top and sides to catch the crumbs and make frosting neater, and refrigerate for 15 to 30 minutes to set the frosting. Finish coating the cake with the remaining frosting, decorating with pecans if you like.
- Step 11
Store the cake at cool room temperature in a cake dome or loosely covered with aluminum foil for up to 1 day, or refrigerate, loosely covered, for up to 5 days. For best flavor, remove from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before serving.
- If your kitchen is warm and your frosting is too soft, use the refrigerator to set each layer of frosting before adding the next layer of cake. This will help create a neater presentation and keep your frosting from setting unevenly.
Private Notes
Comments
Hello from Atlanta! This is a old southern recipe and I've never heard of using raw sweet potatoes. They don't have the 'water' content of carrots. Can't imagine how that comes out. We've made this cake for generations and I'd like to share that you may want to try baking the potatoes. Baking deepens the flavor! Peel them, pulse the pulp to smooth it, then add that to the dry ingredients. Pecans will taste even better. Walnuts would be yumyum too. Add a tiny pinch of ground cloves!
@GInLongBeach This recipe is a revised traditional carrot cake, which has always been made with oil rather than butter. As a type of spice cake, oil is used since it is a neutral flavor that allows the spices to really shine. The batter also has to support heavy ingredients, so all-purpose flour is used instead of cake flour. Since all-purpose flour can make a cake dense or chewy, oil is used to ensure a more tender cake. Another reason for using oil is moisture stability. The four eggs contribute about 150 mL of water, and sweet potatoes are roughly 77 percent water, or around 350 mL in this recipe, so the cake already has a high moisture content. Butter, which contains about 18 percent water, would add even more water. Oil contains no water, so it doesn’t weaken the structure, increase water activity, or make the cake more prone to spoilage. Finally, oil cakes rise higher than butter cakes and oil works better with the muffin mixing method. Butter cakes rely on creaming butter and sugar to create air pockets for lift, but that aeration would collapse once heavy ingredients like sweet potato are folded in. Oil-based cakes use the muffin mixing method instead, where wet ingredients are gently folded into dry ingredients. It’s a more practical approach for dense batters like this cake, carrot cake or banana bread to prevent over-mixing and obtaining a better rise.
Dear Lisa Donovan, This cake sounds great -must try it! But first, please help! By Sweet Potatoes, I assume you mean the ones that have lighter skin and pale yellow flesh. Could what I call Yams, the ones with dark reddish skin and golden-orange flesh, be used instead? Or do you call those darker ones 'Sweet Potatoes'? Those two tubers' names get mixed up in recipe descriptors, there are many species, but my local supermarket and my brain only know those two varieties of pointy-ended potatoes.
Made this into the layer cake with 1.5cu of frosting in between layers. I either mis-scaled or the frosting did not yield enough to fill the layers, make the advised crumb coat, and the final coat, so my sides ended up being a semi-“naked” cake. That said, the cake is fabulous and was devoured at Thanksgiving. The batter mix is super easy and the cake layers bake super flat so no need for trimming. Definitely course chop the toasted pecans - everyone loved the occasional crunch. Everyone thought it was a really good “carrot cake,” but I think the sweet potato component made it unique.
Excellent as is. I baked it in a 13 x 9 pan and there was no overflow.
Has anyone baked this cake? I baked it at 325F since that is the only temperature listed (to toast the nuts). I’ve always baked my cakes at 350 but I followed the directions as I understood them. The cakes didn’t rise much and the batter was a bit runnier than anticipated. Should I bake it next time at 350F?!