Sweet Potato Pound Cake With Brown Sugar Maple Glaze

This sweet potato pound cake is so tender, full of warm spices, and topped with a luscious maple brown sugar praline sauce. It's just so good and so simple to make that you'll want to make it all fall long!

The Best Sweet Potato Pound Cake Recipe

If I had to pick one dessert to serve during fall, it would hands-down be this sweet potato pound cake recipe. Every element of this gorgeous cake just represents the season perfectly!

I mean, you have sweet potatoes, aka the official vegetable of fall, in the cake itself. And then cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and brown sugar warm up the cake and give it all of those amazing fall notes and spices we love.

The most divine element of them all, though, is the maple brown sugar praline syrup. It's a magical concoction, and pouring the thick sweet sauce all over the warm cake really creates the most decadent pound cake ever.

Best of all though, is how quickly this pound cake recipe comes together. This sweet potato pound cake should take you just 10 minutes to prepare, and then the rest is just baking and cooling time.

With that said, since it's baked for about an hour, I love throwing this in the oven and then making another simple dessert like this no bake pumpkin pie to serve with the sweet potato pound cake.

Honestly, they're both Thanksgiving dessert staples in our house.

Ingredients

Now, don't be intimidated by the ingredient list for this delicious pound cake! Most of them are kitchen staples, like eggs, flour, sugar, butter, and spices.

Here's everything you'll need to make this sweet potato cake:

• 1 ½ cup sweet potato puree (or cooked mashed sweet potatoes)
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 ½ cup butter
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 ½ cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon salt

And for the maple brown sugar praline sauce, you'll need:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• ½ cup butter
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• ½ cup heavy cream

Pretty simple, right? And you can use a lot of these ingredients to make this Italian hangover cake, so you'll want to stock up on the baking staples.

Ingredient Substitutions and Additions

For the mashed sweet potatoes, you can use fresh sweet potatoes if you can't find pureed ones. You can also roast sweet potatoes before mashing them. Roasting brings out the sweetness of sweet potatoes and lends more complexity to this pound cake.

You can also put your own twist on this delicious cake. For instance, brighten up the sweet potato flavor with a cream cheese glaze or cream cheese frosting. Don't have much of a sweet tooth? Let the cake cool, then give it a light dusting of powdered sugar for a less sweet version.

Now, I love using pecans in this recipe, but you could also use walnuts or almonds. You can also make a few substitutions if needed, such as switching out plain yogurt for the sour cream or using white sugar instead of brown sugar. 

By the way, you'll definitely want to pick up some extra sweet potatoes if you're headed to the grocery store. You can use them to make this old fashioned sweet potato pie or these sweet potato muffins next! Both of them have the perfect sweet potato flavor combined with a selection of ingredients that create two more absolutely delicious recipes.

How to Make Sweet Potato Pound Cake

As I've mentioned a few times, this recipe is so much easier than the result looks.

I mean, this sweet potatoes pound cake looks like it came straight from a bakery, but you'll be whipping it up in your kitchen in just a few steps!

Anyway, let's not waste another second and dive into the steps you'll want to follow to make this sweet potato pound cake recipe!

Step 1: Prep Work

First things, first, preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C), and line a pound cake pan, loaf pan, or bundt cake pan with parchment paper. You can also generously grease the pan with butter - or baking spray - if you don't have parchment paper.

Next, make sure your eggs, sour cream, sweet potato mash, and butter are all at room temperature. This will help them incorporate better into the cake batter. You also avoid overmixing the batter, which can make your cake tough.

Then, measure out your dry and wet cake ingredients directly into their respective bowls. This way, you can just dump everything into the bowl without having to stop and measure as you go.

Step 2: Make the sweet potato batter

Now, in a large bowl, add the flour, brown sugar cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Give it a good mix, so everything combines.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, butter, sweet potato puree, and vanilla extract until smooth.

Then, pour the spiced flour mixture into the bowl of wet ingredients. Gently fold everything together until combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter.

Step 3: Baking The Pound Cake

Now that pound cake batter is prepared, pour the cake batter into the loaf pan, then place it in the oven. Any size loaf pan really works, it will just change the thickness of your pound cake.

Bake the sweet potato pound cake for about 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.

Step 4: Make the maple brown sugar praline sauce

When the cake is almost done baking, it's time to make the mouthwatering maple brown sugar glaze. This is seriously the easiest (and most delicious) part!

Simply place all of the glaze ingredients, that would be the brown sugar, chopped pecans, butter, heavy cream, and maple syurp, into a small but deep saucepan and set the temperature of your burner to low. This will prevent the sauce from burning.

Now, cook the sauce, stirring frequently, until the sugar is melted and the mixture resembles caramel sauce. Then, take it off the heat and set it aside until the cake is ready.

Step 5: Glaze the pound cake

Once the sweet potatoes pound cake is baked, remove it from the oven and place it on a wire rack or directly on your cake plate.

Then, pour the prepared glaze over the hot pound cake, using as much or as little as you like. You can also poke holes in the cake with a skewer or fork to help the glaze seep in. And if you want, you can top it with more chopped nuts.

Step 6: Slice and serve warm

Allow the cake to cool for a few minutes so the glaze can set, then slice and serve warm.

I love eating this pound cake with a big glass of milk. Enjoy!

How to Store Sweet Potato Pound Cake

This recipe for sweet potato pound cake will make about 10 slices of delicious pound cake, depending on how you slice it. It's honestly so good fresh out of the oven that I rarely have any leftovers.

However, if you do happen to save a few pieces, you can store this super moist cake at room temperature for 1-2 days, or refrigerate it for up to a week. Just make sure to let it cool completely before sealing it in an airtight container.

Also, if you want to freeze it, and save it for longer you can totally do that as well. I recommend doing so without the glaze though. Otherwise, the sugar crystals will get hard and make the glaze grainy.

With that said, to freeze the sweet potato pound cake simply wrap the cooled cake tightly in plastic wrap, and then place it in a freezer bag. Stored like this it will stay good in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Then, when you're ready to eat, thaw the cake overnight in the fridge and then add the glaze and serve it as usual.

How to Reheat Sweet Potato Pound Cake

This sweet potatoes pound cake will taste delicious even when cold. But for the full hot, sticky, ooey-gooey amazing experience, I recommend reheating a slice in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds. Then, serve immediately!

If you want to reheat the whole cake, place it on a baking sheet and warm it up in a 350°F oven until heated through for about 10-15 minutes. Also, I recommend covering it with foil to prevent the glaze from getting burnt.

Wrapping It Up

Well, that is how to make sweet potato pound cake!

This dream worthy recipe deserves a spot in any fall tradition. The smell of warm spices filling your kitchen, the sound of the maple praline glaze bubbling in the pot, and that first bite into the warm cake, gah it's all so good!

Anyway, I hope you'll give this sweet potato pound cake recipe a try. If you do, please leave me a comment and let me know how it turned out!

More Dessert Recipes

If you're looking for some equally delicious desserts to make this fall, we have a ton on the blog that you have to try!

Check out all of these tasty recipes:

• Ocean Spray cranberry bread
• Apple crisp without oats
• Sweet potato cobbler
• Pumpkin custard pie
• Pumpkin cream cheese bread
• Reese's peanut butter pie
• Chocolate Jello pudding pie

Oh, and of course, for more easy to make fall dessert recipes, be sure to check out our Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok pages.

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