Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream
These quick-bread Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream are moist and packed with the fall flavors of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and Chinese 5 spice and are topped with a Swiss meringue buttercream studded with vanilla bean paste. They’re perfect individual-sized Thanksgiving desserts!
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Cupcakes Ingredients
- 3 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice blend
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup ground flaxseed
- 2 and 1/2 cups roasted sugar*
- 2/3 cups canola oil
- 2/3 cups stout
- 1/2 cup egg substitute* at room temperature
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- 1 and 3/4 cups pureed roasted sweet potato*
Vanilla Buttercream Ingredients
- 6 egg whites
- 1 and 1/2 cups roasted sugar*
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 2 cups unsalted butter at room temperature and cut into tablespoon-sized slices
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste*
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
Sweet Potato Cupcakes Instructions
- Place the oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a standard cupcake baking tin with cupcake liners.
- Combine flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and Chinese Five Spice Blend in a medium bowl and stir with a whisk.
- Combine water and flaxseed in a small bowl and set aside.
- Combine roasted sugar, canola oil, stout, egg substitute, and eggs in a large bowl and beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until well blended.
- Add the flaxseed mixture and sweet potato and beat on low speed until just blended.
- Add the flour mixture and beat until combined.
- Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way up. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the center of the cupcake bounces back when you lightly press your fingers to it or a toothpick comes out clean.
- Take the cupcakes out of the baking pan and let them cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
Vanilla Buttercream Instructions
- In the bottom portion of a double boiler, add water. Make sure when you put your mixing bowl (your stand mixer bowl or whatever you’re using) on, the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Heat over high heat until the water comes to a boil and then lower the temperature until it is simmering.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg whites, sugar, salt, and cream of tartar (off the heat). Set over the steaming water and stir and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula until THE MIXTURE IS NO LONGER GRAINY and the temperature has reached 185 degrees Fahrenheit (about 10-12 minutes).
- Take off the heat and beat the eggs with the whisk attachment on until they are glossy stiff, and cool to the touch. Take off the whisk attachment and put on the paddle attachment or the regular beaters.
- Add butter 1 tablespoon at a time and beat at high speed until the buttercream is thick and creamy. Mix in the vanilla bean paste and almond extract and mix on low until combined.
Notes
Pureed Sweet Potato Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Wrap two sweet potatoes in foil and place them on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 50 t0 60 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are soft.
- Split sweet potatoes open, scrape out the flesh and puree in a food processor or blender until smooth.
- Wait for the puree to cool down until at room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Pour 4 pounds of refined white sugar into a 9x13 inch glass baking dish and roast for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes.
- The sugar should be sandy tan color and coarse, like turbinado sugar.
- Let the sugar cool completely and store up to a year in an airtight container.I used Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste, where 1 tablespoon vanilla paste = 1 tablespoon vanilla extract = 1 vanilla bean.