TL/DR – Sweet Potato Orange Bundt Cake. White sweet potato, fresh orange juice and zest and cardamom combine to make this wonderful dense yet crumbly bundt cake. Make it. Today. –
In the grocery store there are a variety of sweet potatoes. There is a lot to know about sweet potatoes. For instance, they are not yams. Also, there are white sweet potatoes. This being Food, in Brief, I won’t go into the details, but if you want to nerd out on sweet potatoes and yams, check out A Field Guide to Sweet Potato Varieties (and the Dirt on Yams) from Serious Eats.
For this cake, use a medium-large white sweet potato. Wrap it and bake it for about 75 – 90 minutes at 350 degrees F. Then let it cool. This step can be done a day or two ahead of time. Just refrigerate it and then scoop out the contents prior to baking. A cup of mashed white sweet potato is needed.
Cream together butter and sugar, then add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Follow this with orange zest, orange juice and the mashed sweet potato. The orange juice will do gross things to the butter but don’t dismay! It may look fractured but it still works!
Add in the dry ingredients, which include flour, corn starch, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cardamom, alternately with buttermilk. Corn starch is a trick I learned from the recipe for Vanilla Bundt Cake on delish.com. It gives the cake crumble factor. They use much more in their recipe than I do in this recipe, but while tweaking this recipe I definitely noticed a difference with only 2 T of cornstarch.
Spray a bundt pan very generously with nonstick spray. I also find that when baking, a lighter colored pan is always the way to go. I don’t like cakes that are too brown. But that’s just me. Bake this delicious cake for 50 to 55 minutes, then cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning it out onto a rack to cool completely.
Ice it with a mixture of fresh orange juice, orange zest and powdered sugar. It is truly delightful. For more sweet potato sweets, try these Purple Sweet Potato Cookies.
Sweet Potato Orange Bundt Cake
This delightful dense yet crumbly bundt cake has wonderful flavor from white sweet potato, orange and cardamom.
Ingredients
- 1 medium-large white sweet potato, baked, yielding 1 c mashed sweet potato
- 3/4 c unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/4 c granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 t vanilla
- 1/2 c fresh orange juice, divided
- 1 T orange zest plus one teaspoon, divided
- 3 c all purpose flour
- 2 T corn starch
- 1 t baking soda
- 1 t baking powder
- 1 t cardamom
- 3/4 t iodized salt
- 1 c buttermilk
- 2 c powdered sugar
Directions
- Step 1 Wrap and bake the white sweet potato at 350 degrees for 75 to 90 minutes. Allow it to cool completely and scoop out the contents into a bowl and mash them well with a fork. If this step is taken ahead of time, cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to bake the cake.
- Step 2 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Step 3 Cream together the butter and the sugar for 2 minutes on high speed.
- Step 4 Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds.
- Step 5 Add 1/4 c orange juice, 1 T orange zest and the mashed sweet potato and mix on medium speed for 30 seconds. The orange juice will cause the butter to look fractured, but it is fine and will not make a difference in the outcome.
- Step 6 Sift the dry ingredients together, flour through salt, and add them alternately with the buttermilk, mixing well on low speed between each addition, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Only mix until just incorporated. Do not overwork the batter.
- Step 7 Grease a 12 cup bundt pan generously with nonstick spray. Pour in the batter and even it out with a spatula.
- Step 8 Bake for between 50 and 55 minutes, testing after 50 minutes for doneness.
- Step 9 Cool for ten minutes in the pan, then turn it out onto a rack to cool completely.
- Step 10 Once the cake is cool, whisk together 1 t orange zest and around 4 T of fresh orange juice with the powdered sugar. The icing should be relatively thick but still drippy enough to drip off of the sides of the cake. Ice it while on the rack over a cookie sheet, then move to a cake plate.
