This easy sweet potato cake with pecan frosting will be a holiday dessert favorite! It’s moist, perfectly spiced and super easy to make.

Sweet potatoes were a staple in my household growing up. Whether it was baked, sautéed, candied, or baked in a pie, we would devour it! To this day, I’m the say way. I love making anything sweet potato and coming up with new recipes to use them in. I’m excited to share this recipe, just in time for the holidays.
About this sweet potato cake
- Easy to make
- Super Moist
- Perfectly Spiced
- Topped with a creamy pecan frosting
- Perfect for the holidays

What you’ll need for an easy sweet potato cake
- Boiled and mashed sweet potatoes
- Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Eggs
- Vegetable Oil
- Buttermilk
- Vanilla
- Flour
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg

How to make a moist cake
Start out by baking sweet potatoes for 45-55 minutes in a 400 degree oven. The sweet potatoes will be done when a fork easily pierces the sweet potato. Remove the skin and mash the sweet potatoes together then allow to cool.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine oil, brown sugar, sugar buttermilk, eggs, vanilla extract, and sweet potato. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until fully combined. It helps to make sure all of your ingredients are room temperature to help the batter come together. This will also help make sure you don’t overmix the batter. Pour the batter into a 9×13 inch lined with parchment and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Tips for a perfect cake
To help make sure your cake comes out perfectly each and every time, start out with room temperature ingredients. This will help your batter come together quickly and will also make sure you don’t over mix. Remember….over mixing will cause a dense cake.
If your in a time crunch, canned sweet potatoes will work just fine. Not the kind drowning in sugary syrup but the kind that’s only ingredient is sweet potato.

Looking for more sweet potato recipes?
Try out this sweet potato cheesecake or this sweet potato Bundt Cake.

Sweet Potato Cake with Pecan Frosting
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Cake
- 2 ½ cup All Purpose Flour
- 2 ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Nutmeg
- 1 cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 ¼ cup Granulated Sugar
- ¾ cyp Brown Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 cup Mashed sweet potato
- 1 cup Buttermilk
Pecan Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 8 oz Package Cream Cheese
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup Crushed Pecans
- Pinch Salt
- 2 cup Powdered Sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9×13 pan with non-stick baking spray.
- Boil 3-4 medium sweet potatoes until fork tender. Allow to cool then peel and mash.
- In a medium size bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Stir and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix the sweet potato, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, buttermilk, and oil. Whisk until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients into wet ingredients then mix until fully combined.
- Pour the batter into the greased pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- While the cake is baking, let’s make the frosting. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt until combined, about 2 minutes. Lastly add in the chopped pecans. Place the frosting in the refrigerator until the cake is completely cooled.
- Once the cake is cooled, top the cake with a generous amount of frosting.
- Enjoy!
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