Vegan Vanilla Sweet Potato Cake

My vegan vanilla sweet potato cake is HERE!

For all who know and love my vegan chocolate sweet potato cake, here is the ‘yellow cake’ version, a vanilla sweet potato cake AND vanilla sweet potato frosting!

And doesn’t it look absolutely divine?

It is.

And as much as I love the chocolate sweet potato cake, I think this yellow sweet potato cake is my favorite.

It was a “must-include” recipe when I wrote Dreena’s Kind Kitchen. I couldn’t release that book without including a vanilla version of my famous chocolate sweet potato cake from Plant-Powered Families.

Healthy Baking with Sweet Potatoes: A Guide to Vegan Vanilla Sweet Potato Cake

When I created this recipe for DKK it was important that the cake met a few criteria:

1. it had to “look” like a yellow (vanilla) cake
2. it had to be as delicious as my chocolate version (or more!)
3. it had to offer a nut-free option

Indeed it meets all three!

And, it wasn’t especially easy to have this cake “look” like a yellow cake. Using orange sweet potato (“yam” in Canada) was out. Yellow sweet potatoes are the secret special ingredient! More on which sweet potato to use in the FAQ below.

As for deliciousness, I love this cake! The frosting is to-live-for and the cake is incredibly moist, even using whole-grain flour.

Next up: nut-free option. In DKK, I really wanted to offer as many nut-free options in recipes as possible. I know moms who struggle with how many vegan recipes use cashews and almonds to achieve that creamy, luscious consistency in recipes. In this recipe, I offer a nut-free option for the cake, and the frosting is nut-free using coconut butter.

But when I released DKK, I received complaints about the use of coconut in the recipes. This is unfortunate because most of the recipes that use coconut are desserts, i.e. special occasion foods.

And, I actually think the frosting for this cake is stellar with the coconut butter. And remember, coconut butter is NOT coconut oil. It is the whole coconut pureed into butter – just like almonds to almond butter! Nevertheless, in this post I will give you the coconut-free option for the frosting. That way, hopefully everyone has a cake to suit their needs: nut-free or coconut-free!

If you are making the Vanilla Sweet Potato Frosting coconut-free (ie with raw cashew butter), please read the notes in my recipe (below). Some tweaks are needed, so please do read the full recipe.

Before we get to the recipe, I will answer some questions that come up with this vegan yellow cake recipe:

FAQ: Top Tips for a Moist & Delicious Vegan Vanilla Sweet Potato Cake

Finally, you can watch me assemble the cake on youtube (and there’s still time to enter the giveaway, comment over on youtube):

Vegan Vanilla Sweet Potato Cake Recipe

Now let’s get to the recipe!

I hope you enjoy this Vanilla Sweet Potato Cake, perhaps as much (or more!) than the chocolate sweet potato cake.

Let me know how you enjoy it – and which version of the sweet potato frosting you decide to make.

x Dreena

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Vanilla Sweet Potato Cake (frosting recipe follows)

With the wild popularity of my Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake from Plant-Powered Families, I had to recreate it in another flavor. This vanilla version is just as good—maybe better! The yellow sweet potato adds mellow sweetness, moisture, and a tender crumb. Frosted with my dreamy Yellow Sweets Frosting it’s positively spectacular. Makes 2 (9-inch) cake layers; serves 8

Course Dessert

Keyword cake, sweet potatoes, sweets, vanilla

Servings 1 double-layer cake

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked yellow sweet potato flesh cooled (see note)
• 11/2 cups non-dairy milk
• 3 tablespoons raw cashew pieces or 2 tablespoons hemp seeds
• 11/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups spelt flour or 2 cups less 2 tablespoons white whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unrefined sugar see note
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly wipe two 9-inch round cake pans with just a smidgen of coconut or other oil, then fit a round of parchment paper on the bottom of each pan. Combine the sweet potato, milk, cashews, lemon juice, and vanilla extract in a blender (or in a deep cup if using an immersion blender) and puree until completely smooth. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry (be sure to scrape out all the blended ingredients with a silicone spatula). Mix until well incorporated. Transfer to the prepared pans. Bake for 21–23 minutes, until the batter looks dry in the center and is set to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely in the pans. Carefully invert the pans to remove the cakes and frost as desired. Makes 2 (9-inch) cake layers; serves 8

Video

Notes

Sweet Potato Note: I use yellow sweet potato in this recipe for a light-colored cake. You can certainly substitute orange sweet potato for the yellow.

Sugar Note: While I normally use coconut sugar as a dry sweetener in recipes, here a lighter sugar is optimal for color. Feel free to use coconut sugar, or even date sugar, if you prefer.

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Vanilla Sweet Potato Frosting

When blended with coconut butter (or raw cashew butter) and a few other ingredients, cooked yellow sweet potatoes transform into a thick, creamy, and not-too-sweet frosting. It’s perfect on my Yellow Sweet Potato Cake, or even on its own, if that’s how you roll—I get it!

Servings 3 -4 cups (enough to frost a 2-layer cake)

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked yellow sweet potato flesh cooled (see note)
• About 1 cup coconut butter not melted (see note) or 1 cup (little scant) raw cashew butter (see note)
• 2/3 cup unrefined sugar plus more as needed (see note)
• 1/2 – 2/3 cup vanilla or plain nondairy milk (ONLY for coconut version see note for cashew butter version
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon rounded pure vanilla bean powder (optional)

Instructions

• Combine the sweet potato, coconut butter (starting with 1/2 cup; see note), sugar, milk (starting with 1/2 cup), and sea salt in a high-speed blender (see note). Process until very smooth, scraping down the blender as needed. If it’s not blending well, add another 2–3 tablespoons milk to assist the pureeing. Taste and add 1–2 more tablespoons sugar if desired. Add the vanilla bean powder (if using) and stir with a spatula. Transfer to a container and refrigerate until ready to use. Or, get a spoon and dig in! Makes 3-4 cups

Notes

Sweet Potato Note: You can cook the sweet potatoes in any way that’s convenient, though I find the flavor and texture is best with roasting the potatoes whole.

Coconut Butter/ Cashew Butter Note: If using coconut butter, you may want to start with 1/2 cup, depending on the power of your blender. If you start with a full cup, it can be too sticky for the machine to puree. So begin with 1/2 cup, then add 1/3 cup, and then the rest if the pureeing is going well. A full cup will give a frosting that sets a little better. If using raw cashew butter, you will NOT need much of the milk, maybe a couple of tablespoons. Use only as much as need to get the mixture pureed. Cashew butter will set differently than the coconut butter, and too much milk will give it a pudding-like texture (which is fine for a pudding, but not a frosting).

Sugar Note: While coconut sugar or date sugar may be preferable from a whole-foods perspective, an unrefined cane sugar works best for color in this recipe. When it’s a special occasion, just go for it!

Blender Note: A high-speed blender makes a world of difference with recipes like this. If you don’t have one, try pureeing the coconut butter with the sweet potato in a food processor to begin, then transfer to a blender to fully blend.