Sweet Potato Whoopie Pies
Softly spiced sweet potato whoopie pies, filled with magical cream cheese frosting. A perfect after-school treat for fall!
My husband and I came up with the most fabulous recipe idea last week.
I was so sure it was going to be totally amazing.
Like, that trifecta of awesome flavor, easy to make, seasonal, and beautiful to look at.
Um, ya, so that’s four things. What do you call it when it’s four things? Quadfecta? Quadrifecta? Sounds like some kind of disease or something.
Whatever, it doesn’t matter because it ended up being a total FAIL. Like, one fail when you’re like ok, it didn’t work out quite the way I’d hoped, but if I tweak it a little, I just know I can get it right. So you stay up waaaaaay past your bedtime babysitting the oven and washing a crap-ton of dishes, just to have it totally FAIL in your face all over again.
I don’t know what hurts more, tossing a bunch of food down the garbage disposal, tossing a day’s work down the tubes, or not having a post to put up and getting completely derailed from your schedule.
SIGH! Well, I haven’t completely given up. I’m still going to try to salvage that post come hell or highwater… But for now, I’m bringing you a super delish and seasonal sweet that makes a perfect afternoon snack!
These whoopie pies are so fun. I love that they have sweet potato in them, because it’s sorta like pumpkin, but a little bit different. The spices are subtle but you definitely get that fall vibe. And hey, you’re sneaking some veg into your kiddos! I’m always up for that.
I tweaked a recipe from one of my new fave cookbooks, The Brown Betty Cookbook. It’s loaded with the most gorgeous, vintagey cake recipes, all interspersed amongst the most heartwarming stories of a close-knit Philadelphia family. I read the whole dang thing cover to cover and by the end I was wishing I had been raised in this family!
Anyhow, the Brown Betty recipe starts with whole roasted sweet potatoes, peeled, mashed, and passed through a fine-mesh strainer. It wasn’t ’til I was done with all of that that I realized I probably could’ve just used canned sweet potato puree. If you’re short on time, I’ve used Farmers Market brand in the past and been really happy with it. Just don’t use sweet potato pie filling, because that’s already got sugar and spices in it, so it’d be overkill.
I filled these whoopie pies with my Magical Cream Cheese Frosting. It’s a little more stable than the regular kind, so it works really well in a whoopie pie. Sometimes things that are sandwiched get mooshed and the filling ends up spilling out the sides, so this is great because it really stands up and holds its shape. You can download the recipe here.
Have you ever had a recipe fail? Did you have to scramble, or worse, show up empty handed, because of it? Or are you Super Organized, with dishes ready and waiting for such an emergency? I really need to figure out how to do that. I can never seem to get on top of things…
Maybe I can occupy my kiddos for a while with these sweet potato whoopie pies, while I come up with a better time management schedule…
As an amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Sweet Potato Whoopie Pies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (170.25 g) unsalted butter, (1 1/2 sticks), softened
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (55 g) light brown sugar,, loosely packed
- 2 eggs, (large
- 3/4 pound (340.19 g) sweet potatoes, (1 6-inch x 3-inch diameter sweet potato), roasted, peeled, mashed, and pressed through a sieve, or 1 cup canned sweet potato puree.
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups (312.5 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 cup (118.29 ml) heavy cream, (I'd like to try this again with Greek yogurt; I think it would make a great sub!)
- 3 cups (1020 g) Magical Cream Cheese Frosting, (1 1/2 batches)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until well blended.
- Mix in the sweet potato puree and vanilla extract.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices in a medium bowl, and add one third of the mixture into the batter.
- Mix in half the cream, and scrape the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl with a silicone spatula.
- Mix in half of the remaining dry ingredients, then the remaining cream, and scrape the bowl again.
- Mix in the remaining dry ingredients and drop 3-tablespoon-sized mounds of the batter onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 20 minutes, cool completely, and fill with magical cream cheese frosting.
Great idea! I’m dying to try your Magical Cream Cheese Frosting and that’s a good excuse 😉
Hi Erika! I’m so happy you liked the Sweet Potato Whoopie Pies. They taste great with Magical Cream Cheese Frosting. Hope you enjoy!
Talk about Kitchen disasters! I was baking a batch of cookies once and added tooo much of the bananas and mu dough was like really runny almost like a cake batter! and the worst thing was I ran out of flour! -_- !!!
These sweet potato whoopie pies look sooooooo prettttty!!! Loveeee it! 🙂
Oh no! That is definitely a major fail… so sorry!
Thanks for the awesome comment, Samina! So happy you liked the post 🙂
Mmm these look good! I made some pumpkin spice whoopie pies the other week, and since then have been thinking of some other flavors I could incorporate into whoopie pies! These look great! Thanks for the inspiration! 🙂
My pleasure, Maria! My family really enjoyed those sweet potato babies… I hope you do too! And if you’re looking for whoopie pie recipes, you should check out the red velvet ones I have: https://bakingamoment.com/all-natural-red-velvet-whoopie-pies/. They were inspired by Sophistimom’s all-natural, no-dye red velvet cake. That’s right, NO DYE! They’re made with beets but you’d never know it. Do I sound like a commercial? lol… thanks for reading, and thanks for the sweet comment! Hope you’re having a great weekend <3
I love that you used sweet potato Allie! As always, your photography is stunning and I find myself scrolling back through your pics multiple times…you’re so talented! Pinned these beauties!
Aw, Trish, you have no idea how much your kind words mean to me! I’m not so sure about the talented part, but I have been working really hard at improving. It’s so nice to hear that the hard work is paying off! Your photos are so beautiful too, and I know what you mean about scrolling back for a second look! I do that all the time! Hope you’re having a super weekend… 😉
Don’t you just hate a smooshie filling, I know I do. They look great Allie, I may have to give sweet potato a try in the baking department. I had a fail the other week, a cake overflowed from the tin and then sank in on itself lol! Tasted nice though.
Ugh, I’m so sorry to hear about your cake fail! It’s the pits… at least it was tasty, though!
The original recipe (from the cookbook) was for a layer cake, and it was so gorgeous!
Thanks so much for the sweet comment; see you around, Laura! xoxo
Sorry to hear about your kitchen disaster. I hate when that happens too. Actually, I ruined my friend’s birthday muffins yesterday :(( Worst feeling ever, I’ll have to keep trying!
But hey at least you’ve got these lovely whoppie pies to make up for it. They truly look amazing, it’s such a great twist on pumpkin! 🙂 I love how cute they look, pinning! x
And happy Friday!
Thanks so much for pinning, Consuelo! And sorry to hear about your muffin snafu 🙁
Hope you’re having a fun weekend! xx
Oh, I hate when a recipe attempt fails. It happened to me and I didn’t have a back-up and I had to scramble around trying to figure out something to post. I still don’t know why it failed but I didn’t even try a second time! These whoopie pie looks delicious and I liked that you used sweet potatoes!
Isn’t it just the worst? I am trying so hard to get ahead on posting, so that I have a backup for when things don’t work out, but it’s so hard! I’m thinking about changing my method, and baking up a ton of recipes on the weekend, to photograph and write about during the week when my kids are at school. Have you ever tried doing it that way? I’m hoping it’ll work out, since my kids let me do kitchen stuff, but forget about getting on the computer. They are constantly chattering in my ear and I can’t concentrate worth a darn! Also I was thinking maybe this way, if something doesn’t work out, then I’ve got a few other things I can post about, and then maybe try again during the week if I can find some extra time. Who knows?1? I wish there was an instruction book on how to blog, lol!
Anyway, thanks for reading and I’m so glad you liked the whoopie pies! 😉
Such a great idea. They sound delicious!
Thanks, Melanie! They really are. I’ve nothing against pumpkin, but these are a nice change of pace. So happy you enjoyed, and thanks so much for stopping by! 😉
I love these sweet potato whoopie pies! Glad they were not part of the fail story…I was worried when I started reading and was thinking “how would great looking pies like that be a fail”? I’ve had a few failed incidents especially with cakes. Once I was supposed to be bringing a birthday cake over to a friend’s birthday and the cake failed to rise a few hours before the party. So frustrating. But I like your perseverance. You will kick that recipe’s behind 😉
Ha ha, thanks for the encouragement, Zainab! And thank goodness the whoopie pies turned out so well. I don’t think I could’ve handled another failure! 😉