Sweet Potato Coffee Cake

One of my favorite childhood memories involves my mom’s amazing coffee cake. She makes the very best coffee cake in the world, and it’s one of those recipes that everyone always asks for. And while I think it’s just perfect and a great tasty treat, I have always been keen to try my hand at my own recipe for coffee cake.

A few years ago, I was mistakenly diagnosed with Celiac Disease, and I spent a long time trying to turn my favorite recipes into gluten free versions. I came up with a really yummy GF Coffee Cake recipe using sweet potatoes, and it was out of this world amazing. And while I still avoid gluten for the most part, I do occasionally like to indulge myself with the real thing.

So today, I am sharing my favorite Sweet Potato Coffee Cake recipe for you to enjoy.

This recipe can be a bit involved, but it really isn’t difficult. There are a lot of ingredients that combine to make this really special. I usually make it whenever I’ve recently made sweet potatoes, as it’s super easy to just use leftovers or cook one or two extra ones.

The first step is to combine all of your wet ingredients. The butter and two kinds of sugar get creamed together before adding in the rest of your wets, including the sweet potatoes!

This forms a really lovely looking batter with flecks of orange reminiscent of carrot cake batter. In fact, I’ve been known to sometimes add a few shredded carrots to the mixture with great results!

Once your wet ingredients are combined, you can add in all of your dry ingredients. I don’t bother to mix them separately – I just throw them all into the batter and use a hand mixer to combine them.

I do, however, get a separate bowl out to combine my streusel ingredients. Just throw them all together and form a loose, gravelly mixture. It doesn’t have to be perfect at all.

Now, grease up your favorite 9 inch springform pan and add in half of your cake batter. Top it with a layer of half the streusel. Then add the other half of your batter and top it with the final half of the streusel.

Top the entire cake mix with a layer of toasted pecans. Almonds or other nuts will work as well, but I do love some pecans.

Bake the cake at 350 degrees for about an hour. If you find your pecans are burning, you can add a little foil on top to protect them, but I’ve found the cake is usually done before that happens.

And there you have it. A delicious and moist, yet crumbly and textured Sweet Potato Coffee Cake! It’s absolutely incredible and will really blow your mind!

And while I do love telling people that this recipe includes sweet potatoes, you might want to try changing it up with pumpkin or even butternut squash! The tastes would be slightly different, but it might make for an even more amazing cake!

I try to get 12 full slices out of it when I make it, but you could definitely get more. It’s very rich and filling, so a little goes a very long way!

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Sweet Potato Coffee Cake

Yield: 12 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

If you enjoy coffee cake, you HAVE to try this Sweet Potato Coffee Cake! It's super moist, and it has layers of streusel to make it extra decadent!

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Ingredients

• Cake
• 1/2 C softened butter
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1/4 C packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 C sour cream
• 1 C cooked, mashed sweet potato
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 C all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (optional)
• Streusel
• 4 TBSP melted butter
• ½ C flour
• ¼ C packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 C toasted pecans

Instructions

1. Mix the softened butter, sugar and brown sugar in a bowl until combined.
   
   
2. Add in the eggs and cream them all together.
   
   
3. Add in the sour cream, mashed sweet potato and vanilla extract and combine all ingredients together until there’s a creamy looking soup mixture.
   
   
4. Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, stirring until you have formed a thick batter. Then add the cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice and stir some more.
   
   
5. In a separate bowl, mix the melted butter, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon to form a crumbly streusel mixture.
   
   
6. Pour half of the cake batter into a greased springform pan.
   
   
7. Take half of the streusel mixture and sprinkle it across the top of the batter, making sure it is well distributed.
   
   
8. Add the rest of the cake batter on top and then crumble the rest of the streusel mixture on top of that again.
   
   
9. Chop up some toasted pecans and sprinkle them over the top of the entire mixture.
   
   
10. Place the pan in an oven at 350 F and let it bake for about an hour.
    
    
11. It is ready when a metal knife stuck in the center comes out clean.

Notes

This recipe is great if you have leftover sweet potatoes from the holidays or any time of year.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 400Total Fat: 24gSaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 77mgSodium: 330mgCarbohydrates: 43gFiber: 2gSugar: 19gProtein: 5g

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If you liked this one, be sure to check out my Hasselback Sweet Potatoes!

Katie Reed

Katie Reed is a passionate writer and mother of four vivacious boys from Salt Lake City, Utah. Drawing from her own journey through TTC, pregnancy, and the joys of raising children, she offers a wealth of insight into the world of motherhood. Beyond her heartfelt tales, Katie delights her readers with family-friendly recipes, engaging crafts, and a curated library of printables for both kids and adults. When she’s not penning her experiences, you’ll find her crafting memories with her husband and sons—Dexter, Daniel, Chester, and Wilder.