This vegan sweet potato cake is very easy to make, with simple ingredients you may be having in your pantry right now! It can be made gluten-free as well as refined sugar-free!
I love this cake because it’s full of flavour: warm spices like cinnamon and ginger meet the cool, tropical coconut (in the icing – you don’t have to use coconut though)!
You can bake this cake in a square tin/pan as I did with the one in the pictures or you can make it as a loaf! Both versions work very well!
So, as always, I’m giving you heaps of options here because, well, I can! This recipe is so easy and versatile, you can change it a lot—if you want to. So, let’s get started!
Ingredients
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- flour (gluten-free options)
- baking powder
- spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove)
- salt
- ground flax (or chia) seeds
- sweet potato puree
- vegan milk
- olive oil
- maple syrup/coconut sugar
Flour: I suppose, you can use nearly any plain/all-purpose flour you like. I’ve made this vegan sweet potato cake with spelt flour and gluten-free (using a blend of different flours, see “substitutions”).
Flax seeds: You don’t necessarily need an egg substitute in this recipe, however, it makes a much nicer cake with flax eggs (see “substitutions”, for more info)!
Sweet Potato Puree: Not sure if you can buy it already made like canned pumpkin, but I highly recommend making your own puree anyway. It’s easy! (see “instructions” below)
Sweeteners: I like a mix of maple syrup and coconut sugar. But I’ll give you options to just use sugar or to just use maple syrup (or any other liquid sweetener).
Instructions
How to make the sweet potato mash?
Step One. Peel sweet potato(es) and cut them into smaller pieces.
Step Two. Method 1: put the sweet potato pieces into a saucepan and cover them with water. Bring water to a boil and cook until sweet potatoes are soft and tender (approx. 20 minutes).
Method 2: use the oven and roast the sweet potatoes at 180°C/350°F for about 30 minutes or until tender! Roasting them adds a bit more flavour, I find.
Step Three. Mash cooked/roasted sweet potatoes with a fork or a potato masher or blend with a stick blender for a smoother result.
You can easily freeze leftovers and keep them for later, to make another sweet potato cake some other time, or even for another recipe. The mash keeps in the fridge for at least a week.
How to make this vegan sweet potato cake?
Step One. Preheat the oven to 170°C/350°F. Grease a square or a loaf tin, or line with baking paper, if you prefer. I just grease the tin and the cake comes out easily.
Step Two. Make the flax (or chia) egg: Mix 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds with 4 tablespoons of water. Let it sit for a few minutes until it’s thickened. Stir occasionally.
Step Three. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.
Add the wet ingredients including the prepared flax eggs and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.
Step Four. Pour the dough into the prepared square tin and bake for about 30 minutes (40-45 minutes, if using a loaf tin).
The cake is baked, when the top springs back when touched, or the toothpick comes out clean. Let this vegan sweet potato cake cool down completely before icing/frosting.
Step Five. Mix all ingredients for the icing in a bowl. Add coconut flour, if needed, to thicken and absorb moisture. Or leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Spread over the sweet potato cake and sprinkle with walnuts or pecans and cinnamon, if you like.
Substitutions
Gluten-free
I love using equal parts of tapioca, oat/quinoa, sorghum and buckwheat. It has worked very well for me and I always get great results!
When it comes to gluten-free baking, I find that it’s important to have some starch (e.g. tapioca or potato starch) in your blend. In many recipes, a ⅓ gluten-free flour and ⅔ starch ratio works well.
You can also just use a plain (or self-raising, omitting the baking powder) gluten-free flour blend. Or just buckwheat flour and tapioca starch (the cake in the pictures is made like this).
Flax eggs
This recipe is made with flax eggs, but you can use ground or whole chia seeds instead or an egg replacer like this one.
I have tried this recipe without the use of any egg replacer and substituted it with more sweet potato mash. It came out alright, however, this cake is much nicer with flax eggs!
Sweet potatoes
Instead of sweet potatoes, you can use pumpkin! It works just as well. If you live in the US, you can shortcut the mashing process by replacing it with canned pumpkin.
If you have to make the mash yourself, proceed just like for the sweet potato mash. The cooking time varies only slightly—pumpkin cooks a bit faster.
Maple Syrup
Instead of using maple syrup, substitute with more vegan milk and add ¼ cup/50g more sugar. Also, you can replace the coconut sugar with brown or raw sugar, if you prefer.
If you want to use maple syrup only, use ⅓ cup/80ml (in total, not additionally). Or use brown rice syrup or agave syrup instead.
Sugar-free
This vegan sweet potato cake can be made sugar-free by simply omitting the sweeteners. You may need to add a bit more milk if the dough appears to be too dry.
You can also sweeten it with sugar alternatives like monk fruit or stevia, however, I don’t really like them and wouldn’t know how much to use, unfortunately.
Olive oil
Certainly, you can use any other cooking oil as well, like sunflower, canola or coconut oil!
Icing
You can absolutely leave out the icing—this cake tastes really good on its own!
If you don’t like my icing, just use any icing you like. If you have a great recipe for a vegan butter cream, you could use that! I’m just not a big fan of margarine, nor vegan butter.
Equipment
I baked the vegan sweet potato cake in the pictures in a 20x20 cm/8x8 inch square tin/pan, as you can see. But I often make this cake in a small loaf tin (max. 5”x9”, 23x13cm).
It’s totally up to you what you prefer. The cake works in both. The only difference is the time it needs for baking (it takes longer in a loaf tin).
Storage
Store this vegan sweet potato cake in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. If you don’t ice it, you don’t need to keep it in the fridge. It keeps for a few days at room temperature.
You can also freeze the cake in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
📖 Recipe
Equipment
- 1 20x20cm/8" square tin or a loaf tin
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 200g / 1 ½ cups plain/all-purpose flour see notes for my gluten-free blend
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon clove or allspice
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon flax seed meal for flax eggs
- 250g / 1 cup sweet potato mash about 1 medium sweet potato
- 60ml / ¼ cup vegetable oil olive, canola, sunflower
- 60ml / ¼ cup plant milk
- 60ml / ¼ cup maple syrup or more plant milk, see notes
- 100g / ½ cup coconut sugar or sugar of choice
For the Icing
- 125g / ½ cup dairy-free yoghurt I used coconut yoghurt
- 2 tablespoon nut butter I used cashew butter
- 2 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1-2 tablespoon coconut flour optional
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat oven to 170°C/350°F. Grease the square tin (or loaf tin), or line with baking paper, if you prefer. I just grease the tin and the cake comes out easily.
- Make flax egg: Mix ground flax seeds with 4 tablespoons of water. Let it sit for a few minutes until it’s thickened.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Then add all the wet ingredients (including flax eggs). Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until well combined.
- Pour into the prepared square tin and bake for 25-30 minutes (45-50 minutes in a loaf tin). The cake is baked when the top springs back when touched, or the toothpick comes out clean. Let the sweet potato cake cool down completely before icing/frosting.
For the Icing
- Mix all ingredients for the icing in a bowl. Add coconut flour, if needed, to thicken and absorb moisture. Or leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Spread over the sweet potato cake and sprinkle with walnuts or pecans and cinnamon, if you like.
Notes
- Gluten-free: For the gluten-free version, I used oat flour, sorghum, buckwheat flour and tapioca (40-50g/⅓ cup each, plus 2 tablespoon of buckwheat). Depending on which flours you use, you might need to add a bit more, if the dough appears too runny.
- Maple Syrup: Substitute maple syrup with more milk, for less sweet, or add ¼ cup/50g more sugar if you'd like to omit maple syrup.
- Icing: You don’t necessarily need to ice the cake—it tastes yummy on its own, too.
- Storage: Keep this vegan sweet potato cake in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.