Sweet Potato Bundt Cake

This utterly delicious Sweet Potato Bundt Cake is infused with the warmth of bourbon and drizzled with a luscious bourbon pecan icing. This unique cake is an excellent choice for holiday entertaining.

More Bundt cakes we love include my Cranberry Swirl Bundt Cake and Lemon Raspberry Bundt Cake.

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I love a Bundt cake. They are old-timey and nostalgic recipes that I absolutely love to bake, especially at the holidays.

This Sweet Potato Bundt Cake is one of my favorites. It has a wonderfully moist texture, it’s lightly spiced with just a hint of bourbon, and the topping is sticky, sweet, and seriously delicious.

With the bounty of pie recipes at this time of year, I love the idea of adding something a little different to the dessert buffet.

This is not an overly boozy cake, but the smoky-sweet, caramel notes of bourbon add a wonderful flavor element to both the cake and icing. Bourbon is a fabulous ingredient to have stocked in your kitchen for recipes like Bourbon Pecan Pie, Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie Bars, Bourbon Glazed Carrots and this lovely cake.

Ingredient Notes

• Wet ingredients: Unsalted butter, brown sugar, eggs, pure vanilla extract, and milk.
• Sweet potato: Red-skinned sweet potatoes, sometimes sold as “yams”, are my favorite choice for baking. They have rich, orange-colored flesh with great flavor.
• Bourbon: You don’t need a super high priced bottle. Any middle-shelf bourbon is a good choice for using in recipes like this. If you’re not a bourbon drinker, liquor stores usually carry brands, like the Jim Beam pictured above, in small 1.7-ounce bottles (airplane bottles or “nips”). A couple of these bottles is enough for both the cake and icing and you won’t have extra liquor on hand that you’ll never drink.
• Dry ingredients: All-purpose flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt
• Bourbon pecan syrup: Granulated sugar, water, butter, bourbon, pure vanilla extract and chopped pecans.

Cook the Sweet Potato

Before beginning, wrap the sweet potato in foil and pop it in a preheated 400 degree F oven for about 45 to 55 minutes, or until it pierces easily with a knife. Once cool enough to handle, use a paper towel to pull the skin right off. Works like a charm! An average sized sweet potato should yield just over 1 cup which is enough for this recipe.

To save time, you can do this step a day or two ahead of time and store the cooked potato in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake your cake.

How to Make Sweet Potato Bundt Cake

1. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs and continue beating until very light and fluffy.
2. Add the sweet potato, bourbon, and vanilla, and beat until well combined.
3. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, alternating with the milk and beating between each addition.

1. Pour the cake batter into a greased 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan, spreading with the back of a spoon to level it off.
2. Bake in a preheated 325 degree F oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before inverting the cake onto serving platter to cool completely.

Bourbon Pecan Syrup

1. In a small saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Add the butter, vanilla, and bourbon and cook over low heat until syrupy, about 5 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in pecans. Allow syrup to cool for about 10 minutes or until slightly thickened.
4. Spoon the bourbon pecan syrup over the completely cooled Bundt cake.

Storage Tips

Because of the height, I usually store bundt cakes on a cake stand with a dome cover. It can be stored at room temperature this way for 3 to 4 days. Individual slices can be transferred to an airtight container to ensure they stay moist and fresh, if desired.

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Sweet Potato Bundt Cake

5 from 2 votes

Author: Valerie Brunmeier

Servings: 12

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 55 minutes mins

Resting Time: 10 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

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This utterly delicious Sweet Potato Bundt Cake is infused with the warmth of bourbon and drizzled with a luscious bourbon pecan icing. This unique cake is an excellent choice for holiday entertaining.

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Ingredients 

1x2x3x

• ▢ ⅓ cup unsalted butter, softened
• ▢ 1½ cups brown sugar, firmly packed
• ▢ 2 large eggs
• ▢ 1 cup red-skinned sweet potato, cooked and mashed (*see notes below)
• ▢ ⅓ cup bourbon
• ▢ 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ▢ 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon salt
• ▢ ¾ cup milk

Bourbon Pecan Syrup

• ▢ 1 cup granulated sugar
• ▢ ½ cup water
• ▢ 1 tablespoon butter
• ▢ 1 tablespoon bourbon
• ▢ ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 3 tablespoons chopped pecans

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Instructions 

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Coat a 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan generously with nonstick cooking spray.
• In a large bowl, use a hand or stand mixer to cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs and continue beating until very light and fluffy. Add the sweet potato, ⅓ cup bourbon, and vanilla and beat until well combined.
• In a separate medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a couple of big spoonfuls at a time, alternately with the milk, beating in between each addition. Pour the cake batter into the prepared Bundt pan, spreading with the back of a spoon to level it off.
• Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes. Invert cake onto serving platter and allow to cool completely.
• Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over MEDIUM-HIGH, bring the sugar and water to a boil. Reduce the heat to LOW and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Add the butter, 1 tablespoon bourbon and the vanilla, and cook over LOW heat until syrupy, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the pecans. Allow the syrup to cool for about 10 minutes or until slightly thickened.
• Spoon the bourbon pecan syrup over the completely cooled Bundt cake.

Notes

Cook the Sweet Potato in Advance

To cook the sweet potato wrap it in foil and bake it in a 400 degree F oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until it pierces easily with a sharp knife. To save time, do this step a day or two ahead and refrigerate cooked sweet potato until you are ready to bake the cake.

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 395kcal | Carbohydrates: 70g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 45mg | Sodium: 188mg | Potassium: 255mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 46g | Vitamin A: 1814IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 101mg | Iron: 2mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated using generic ingredients, and is an estimate not a guarantee. For more accurate results, please refer to the labels on your ingredients at home.

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This post was originally published on October 24, 2015. It has been updated with new text and images.