Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Marshmallow Icing

I’ll tell you a story. I found this recipe and told my friend about it. He then wanted me to make these for his family, knowing his mom hates sweet potatoes with a passion. He wanted to see if she would be able to tell. Well, she didn’t pick up on it and in fact she loved them! Sweet potatoes aren’t the first thing I think of when it comes to dessert. So, I was a bit skeptical to make these…but trust me, even if you’re not crazy about sweep potatoes as a food itself, these are really goood! If you like pumpkin or spice cake, you’ll like these.These cupcakes are light and won’t leave you with a toothache. And, I think they’d pass for breakfast!

The icing isn’t made with marshmallows, but it tastes similar to a roasted marshmallow. This means even if you’re vegetarian, you can still have this icing.

Cupcake

• 2 C. sifted cake or regular flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 2 sticks softened butter
• 1 C .white sugar
• 1/2 C. light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 heaping cups of mashed sweet potato (about 4 medium)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 24 cupcake liners

Icing

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 C. sugar
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For Cupcakes

• 1. Cook sweet potatoes (I cooked mine in the microwave for 15 minutes, poking with a fork first). Cut open lengthwise, scoop out potato and mash up in a bowl.
• 2. Whisk together all dry ingredients.
• 3. Mix softened butter until creamy, add white and brown sugars and mix until creamy again. Add in eggs one at a time, and mix. Add vanilla, mix. Add sweet potato, mix. Make sure this is all a puree with no sweet potato chunks.
• 4. Mix in small batches of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, not to over mix.
• 5. Put a large spoonful into each cupcake tin.
• 6. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.

For Icing

• 1. Heat a double boiler (or boil water in a saucepan and use your mixing bowl as the top bowl).
• 2. Add egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar into the double boiler & whisk.
• 3. Constantly whisking, heat the ingredients to 160 degrees (about 10-15 minutes).
• 4. Add vanilla, and begin mixing like crazy (best with a mixer), starting on low and moving to medium-high. This can take a while.
• 5. Mix until the icing makes stiff peaks.
• 6. Allow cupcakes to completely cool before icing. I piped the icing on, but you wouldn’t need to.