Sweet Potato Cake


My mom used to make this cake when I was a little girl!  When I moved out of the house, it was one of the recipes my mom hand copied into a beautiful recipe book for me ...




However, since I've left home (oh... roughly 5 years ago!) I haven't made this cake - largely because my dearly loved Frog Prince is allergic to pumpkin.  I decided to render that, after having discovered that sweet potatoes make a wonderful substitution for pumpkin.  



Seriously.  Trust me on this.  I took this in to work as a "thank you" to some of my colleagues for helping me with my data collection, and one of them said, "this is really good pumpkin cake!"  To which I replied, "it's actually made with sweet potatoes."  He responded, "Wow, I don't like sweet potatoes -- this tastes just like pumpkin."

Yep.     



It tastes just like I remember.



Sweet Potato Cake - Adapted from Mom

1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1/4 C water
2 eggs
~16 oz sweet potato puree
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger

Combine the sweet potatoes and water in a mixing bowl and mix well.



 Then, add in the cake mix, eggs and spices.  



Mix on low speed until moist, and then on medium for 2 minutes.  



Pour batter into a greased 9x13 glass baking dish and bake until cake springs back when lightly pressed in the center ... about 40-45 minutes.  





Serve with cream cheese frosting, or whipped cream, if desired.  It's also great just plain :)  



That's how I prefer it.

But, I'm strange.  I prefer almost all my cakes without frosting -- warm from the oven.  Mmmm.  Mmmm.

Oh, and this cake also works well in a Bundt pan.

This recipe is linked to: