Sweet Potato Cupcakes

February 23rd, 2009 by justJENN

This is an easy recipe where you just mix it all together…I promise you, you will LOVE these. They don’t taste sweet-potatoey at all, more like a lovely, moist, little spice cake. They came to me in a dream. Seriously. I wondered, if pumpkin cupcakes worked, these wouldn’t be that far off. They turned out better than the pumpkin ones, then again…the marshmallow topper is KEY.

ingredients:
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter melted, cooled
2 large eggs – beaten
1 cup roasted sweet potatoes
1 teaspoon maple syrup
3 TB orange juice

If you haven’t already done so – roast two sweet potatoes (prick them with a fork) on a baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for one hour. When they come out the skin will peel off easily and they can be mashed – you don’t even need a food processor. Set aside 1 cup for later.

Preheat the oven to 350. Prep your cupcake pan with liners and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, white sugar, butter and add the eggs. Add the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Stir in the sweet potatoes, syrup and orange juice.

Divide batter evenly among the cups, it should fill 12 easily about 2/3 full. Bake for approx 20-25 mins depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

Now for the topping so it’s just like REAL sweet potatoes! No involved frosting here (although I have a recipe for that if you like) no, I was going for more of the traditional sweet potato side dish look – by simply topping it with a roasted marshmallow. But how?

Take 2-3 marshmallows and put them in a microwave safe glass dish. Microwave for just 20 seconds. They should come out nice and puffy. Using an offset spatula I carefully lifted one whole puffy marshmallow on top of the cupcake. I did that for each, then put them on a baking sheet, and broiled until the tops were just bruleed.

Lovely. Toasty. Delish.