Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting

The Foodies' KitchenOctober 26, 2014

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The end-of-year weather is definitely here. Coats, scarves and sweaters are out of our closets, and the baking days have begun! These Sweet Potato Cupcakes are delicious. We thought that they could come out rubbery, tough… but the exact opposite happened: They are subtlety sweet, moist and light. The toasted marshmallow frosting gives it the right amount of sweet that compliments the spices from the cupcakes perfectly.

We baked and frosted the cupcakes all throughout a morning, and we skipped taking pictures from the directions as we usually do. We were going to guest post with this recipe on a friends’ site, but because of scheduling and content we are moving our post to a very near future and we are sharing it here.

To make up for it, we are giving out a very detailed information on the step by step instructions and a picture styled by Kristen! This is one of the recipes that we knew we had to try out together. We baked these cupcakes all morning (this recipe makes 30 cupcakes!), then frosted and torched them as you will see bellow, and after picking the little sous-chef from school we started a bigger scaled photo shoot. After watching us go through the photo shoot styling, she asked if she could help us as well. She went to get her best toy props and added told us where she wanted the elements to “add color” (her words!). And the end result (in her words), it’s a beeeautiful picture!

Helga & Kitty

Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting

Cupcake recipe adapted from Taste and Tell and Meringue adapted from Martha Stewart
Yield: 30 cupcakes and enough frosting to decorate them

Ingredients for Cupcakes:
¾ cup butter, at room temperature
2 ¼ cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¾ cups milk

Ingredients for Marshmallow Frosting:
1 cup of sugar
¼ cup of water, room temperature
1 ½ tablespoon of light corn syrup
4 egg whites, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cream of tartar

Directions:

To make the cupcakes, Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 30 muffin tins with cupcake liners.
Beat the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a mixer until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions. Beat in the vanilla and then the sweet potatoes.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and cloves.
Mix half of the flour mixture into the sweet potato mixture, followed by the milk, then the remaining flour.
Scoop the batter into the prepared cupcake liners, filling each about ¾ full. Transfer to the oven and bake until the center springs back when touched, 18 to 22 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.
To make the frosting, bring sugar, water, and corn syrup to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cook, undisturbed, until syrup registers 248 degrees on a candy thermometer.
Meanwhile, whisk whites with a mixer on low-speed until foamy. Add salt and cream of tartar. Increase speed to medium, and whisk until soft peaks form, about 8 minutes.
Reduce speed to low, and pour hot syrup down side of bowl in a slow, steady stream. Increase speed to high, and beat until mixture stops steaming, about 3 minutes. Use immediately.
Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag with a star tip and decorate the cupcakes. To get the toasted marshmallow look, use a kitchen torch as this one to toast very carefully the cupcake tops.