November 15, 2009

MarthaStewartCupcake Club: candied sweet potato cupcakes

this month's msc club choice was the perfect preview for thanksgiving. 2 cups of sweet potatoes in the batter? no milk or oil? where would the moistness come from? obviously you have never baked sweet potatoes for over an hour so their juices seep out and caramelize. holy candied sweet potatoes! i baked these the night before so i could save my fingers from burning...

i woke up at 6 and was finished with the whole process by 8. waking up this early for me is not easy. but one must wake up early on thanksgiving morning to get the turkey in the oven, so this too was a sneak peek of sorts. mash potatoes until they are smooth & drink coffee until you are awake.

the batter tasted delicious! while the cupcakes were baking, i made my own caramel (so simple this boiling of sugar and water!) and caramelized myself some sweet and crunchy pecans.

next came the broiling of the marshmallows. have you ever tried to make pyramid stacks of mini marshmallows? have you ever tried to take a melted pyramid of sticky marshmallows and transfer them to waiting sweet potato cupcakes? not easy.

for my next 12 i nestled the cupcakes back in their pan and broiled the marshmallows right to the top of the cupcakes. much easier! i stuck a few pecan pieces into the melty marshmallows and voila!

these tasted so GOOD right out of the oven -- melted sweet goodness with a slight pecan crunch on top of moist sweet potato heaven. just like the candied sweet potatoes on the thanksgiving table.

these were favorites with everyone, including paul who doesn't like sweet potatoes.


these will definitely be repeated! in about 11 days...

special thanks to karen of karen's cookies, cakes & more for her pick this month. kayte of grandma's kitchen table picked december's challenge: gingerbread cupcakes with cookie cutouts. make sure you check out the other msc bakers creations.

7 comments:

mike said...

I agree - GREAT out of the oven and unfrosted, in my opinion! Nicely done - these look fantastic. So glad you made the topping - I chickened out!

k.a.r.e.n said...

Awesome looking cupcakes! Thanks for baking along with me this month.

Unknown said...

Haha, yes, getting the marshmallows to behave was definitely the trickiest part of this whole process. In the end, I thought it was worth the effort :) Your cupcakes look wonderful!

Lori said...

Good idea on putting your cupcakes back in the pan and broiling the marshmallows then. I chickened out and made cream cheese frosting but I heard that the marshmallows definitely tended to be a little difficult to deal with!

my little cupcake said...

those look yummy, great job!

betty geek said...

Nice job on the cupcakes! They look AWESOME. . . and these were also a favorite of mine. Even though the Pumpkin Patch slightly edged over these, I will still make the sweet potato cupcakes again!

Thanks so much for baking along with us this month! You rock! :)

Suzanne Lowell said...

just realized i had 10 comments to moderate! was feeling so sad that noone had commented. silly me! thanks for visiting everyone!