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Home Β» Dessert Β» Creamy Sweet Potato Frosting (Without Powdered Sugar)

February 17, 2021

Creamy Sweet Potato Frosting (Without Powdered Sugar)

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This sweet potato frosting is smooth and creamy and sweetened only with maple syrup (no powdered sugar, no cane sugar). Just four ingredients are all you’ll need for this recipe.

bite taken out of square piece of cake topped with sweet potato frosting on white plate with fork. bowl of frosting and plate with cake in background.

Search for sweet potato frosting on the web and you’ll find only chocolate sweet potato frosting. I’m sure it’s totally yummy, but not what you get here.

This frosting is such a perfect topping for cinnamon flavored desserts including my gluten and dairy-free carrot cake cupcakes. And, because it’s not too sweet, top my gluten-free, dairy-free sweet potato muffins, zucchini,carrot, apple muffins, gluten-free pumpkin bread, and vegan, gluten-free pumpkin bread. See my full list of gluten-free muffins and gluten-free cupcakes.

Frosting Cakes

close up of slice of gluten-free spice cake with sweet potato frosting (without powdered sugar) on white plate with fork. Fresh ginger root and cinnamon sticks in front, whole cake in back,

This frosting is not as firm as a traditional buttercream frosting. I have used it in layer cakes, but it needs dam of buttercream frosting if you use it between layers. A dam is a ring of firm frosting around the edge of inner layers. This will hold softer fillings and keep them from oozing out. This frosting is firm enough to pipe and loosely hold simple shapes.

Ingredients

Overhead view of cupcakes with creamy sweet potato frosting. Wood background.

Sweet potato – Home-baked garnet or jewel yams work best for this recipe. I tried using canned sweet potato and the water content was too high. So plan to bake them yourself. I baked mine in my Breville Toaster oven (with temp controls) so I don’t have to heat up my big oven. This takes a little time, but to have a frosting that uses so little sweetener is worth it to me! Once it’s baked, you’ll puree the yams in the blender or food processor.

Butter – Unlike in most frosting recipes, the butter is added to the sweet potato melted. It incorporates better this way.

Maple syrup – less than 1/2 cup of maple syrup sweetens this frosting. If you prefer, agave or other sweeteners can be used.

Cream cheese – The combination of the butter and cream cheese works best to make this a smooth, creamy frosting. I tried this recipe with vegan cream cheese (Violife) and it worked, but was much softer – somewhere between and icing and frosting consistency.

Mixing the Frosting

This frosting does best when it is mixed with all ingredients slightly warm. So once the sweet potato is pureed with the melted butter and maple syrup, you’ll want to warm up the cream cheese. I smash it onto a plate and warm it in the microwave in 5 second increments until it is close to the temp of the sweet potato mixture. If it is cold, you’ll end up with little lumps of cream cheese in the frosting.

More Frosting Recipes

If you’re looking for more, here is my full list of frosting recipes including my pipeable cream cheese frosting, vegan chocolate cream cheese frosting and my strawberry buttercream frosting.

Continue to Content
square pan with gluten-free spice cake topped with buttercream frosting and sweet potato frosting (without powdered sugar). Round cooling rack underneath. Piping bag with frosting and small spatula in front, bowl with frosting in back. White background.

Sweet Potato Frosting (Without Powdered Sugar)

Yield: 2 1/2 cups
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

This four ingredient, sweet potato frosting is smooth and creamy and sweetened only with maple syrup (no powdered sugar).

Ingredients

  • 14 oz, garnet or jewel yams (1-2 medium sized)
  • 4 Tbsps butter, melted
  • 6 Tbsps agave 1 Tsp vanilla extract
  • 8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature

Instructions

NOTE: This frosting does best when it is mixed with all ingredients slightly warm to yield a smooth texture

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 400°F
  2. Rinse the yams and bake for approximately 1 hour, or until soft in the middle, Most canned sweet potato has too high a water content and does not work well in this recipe.
  3. Hold with a towel and pull off the peel. Measure 1 3/4 c of yam.
  4. Place the yam in the food processor with the melted butter, maple syrup and beat for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for 30 seconds again. Repeat until the mixture is smooth.
  5. Let the mixture sit for 10-15 minutes or until it is not hot. It is best if it is still warm when you add the cream cheese.
  6. Smash the cream cheese onto a plate and warm it in the microwave in 5 second increments until it is close to the temp of the sweet potato mixture. If it is cold, you'll end up with little lumps of cream cheese in the frosting.
  7. Add the softened cream cheese and beat for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides and beat again until smooth.
  8. Let the frosting come to room temperature, then store in the refrigerator if not using immediately.
  9. This frosting should go no more than one day without refrigeration.

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© Janet Harlow
Cuisine: American / Category: Dessert
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Posted In: Dessert · Tagged: frosting

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About Me
Hi, Welcome! I'm Chef Janet and I create gluten-free recipes that everyone will love, gluten-free or not.

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I am so excited to present these after & before ph I am so excited to present these after & before photos of my Gluten-Free Spice Cake (also dairy-free) with sweet potato frosting. Link to the recipe in my profile.Β 
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The 3rd photo, from back in 2015, was on my old blog. When I started to learn photography last year, I also launched a new blog & didn't want to post the recipe with that unappealing photo. I finally got around to a re-shoot & the recipe is back.
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Thank you to @dr_nadiafazal and @sweet_tooth_by_drj for hosting and to @heathygoodiesbylucia for judging this
#foodphotoglowup & inspiring me to do something I'm proud of!Β 
Check out the # for some beautiful food photography.
No food coloring or powdered sugar (no cane sugar No food coloring or powdered sugar (no cane sugar at all) was used in this Sweet Potato Frosting. Just sweet potato, cream cheese butter and maple syrup. Maybe using sweet potato in frosting sounds really weird to you, I think it is perfect. Link to the recipe for this creamy, dreamy frosting in my profile. 
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In my opinion most frostings are way too sweet. Using a naturally sweet base for frosting, means less added sugar. This frosting is just sweet enough and is perfect slathered on carrot cake, spice cake, vanilla cake or even chocolate cake.
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This post is my contribution to #youbakemecrazy hosted by the wonderful @prettydeliciouslife @peaches.and.company @jackelinnepastry @the.magic.whisk  and @marilynfoodie
Huge thanks to them for hosting and putting in the work!

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Two kinds of frosting on one gluten-free chocolate Two kinds of frosting on one gluten-free chocolate cupcake. Vegan chocolate cream cheese frosting and cream cheese frosting (with dairy). Both recipes are linked in my profile @chefjanetk
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These frostings are just the right consistency for piping onto cupcakes or decorating a cake. I tried making vegan cream cheese frosting without the chocolate and it's yummy, but more like a runny icing. The gf, df cupcake recipe is coming very soon!
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