Sweet Potato Casserole Cupcakes with a Tall Crown

For Sweet Potato Casserole Cupcakes with a Tall Crown, the counter starts with all-purpose flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Portion it for 16 people.

Count on 45 minutes of prep, 20 minutes of cooking, about 1 hour from the first measurement to the plate.

Ingredients Method

What goes in the bowl

For the Cupcakes

• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon slightly rounded
• ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ginger
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup light brown sugar packed
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest, about 1 small lemon, dark yellow parts only
• 4 eggs
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup sweet potato puree, about 2 small potatoes, directions below
• ⅔ cup whole milk

For the Topping

• ½ cup dark brown sugar packed
• ⅓ cup flour
• 6 tablespoons melted butter*
• 1 cup chopped pecans toasted
• Dash Saigon cinnamon
• Pinch kosher salt

Frosting

• Marshmallow Frosting Recipe

How the cooking goes

Cook Sweet Potatoes

1. Peel and cut your sweet potatoes into 1 inch cubes. It doesn’t have to be exact. You just want them to be roughly the same size, so they cook evenly. Place in a small saucepot and cover with cold water. Heat it until it boils over high heat, reduce to medium and continue to cook until very tender and can easily be pierced with a fork. Drain and mash with a spoon, puree with an immersion blender, or press through a ricer (a reliable because it gets out some of the strings).

Make the Topping (Optional)

1. Mix all the topping ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl and keep it to one side.

Make the Cupcakes

1. Heat your oven to 350° and line 16 muffin tins with liners (you use 2 plain liners).
2. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, soda, salt and all spices; keep it to one side.
3. In a mixing bowl on in the bowl of a electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream sugars, butter, and lemon zest together with a hand mixer until thickened, 3-4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the vanilla with the last egg.
4. Put the sweet potato puree and mix on medium until the texture looks smooth and creamy, about 30 seconds.
5. Alternately add flour and milk, beginning and ending with flour. You add a third of the flour then half of the milk and repeat. Fold the last flour addition in by hand to avoid over mixing.
6. Scoop into prepared tins, filling almost to the top of the cup. Add a generous amount of topping the top of each cupcake, pressing some down inside. Bake in preheated oven 15-20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the center comes out with a few clinging crumbs. Mine took 17 minutes.
7. Remove immediately from muffin tins to cool until it is no longer warm on a wire rack.

Assemble the Cupcakes

1. Once cupcakes are cool, frost with your favorite piping tip! You can spread the frosting on but it will be messy and you will probably be covered in marshmallow fluff by the time you are done.
2. Toast the frosting with a kitchen torch or under a broiler. The frosting is delicious untoasted, so that is always an option.

After it comes off the heat

Let the pan settle before you slice, so the crumb stays together. Cover leftovers once they are cool.

If you want another plate from Cupcakes, open Red Velvet Cupcake with a Tall Crown and Vanilla Cupcakes with a Tall Crown.