These Sweet Potato Cakes are soft on the inside, super crispy on the outside and truly appealing to kids and adults alike. They’re a great side for the holiday dinner table, or any time of year, really!
Although Sweet Potatoes in Orange Cups is my favorite, tried and true dish to serve at Thanksgiving, this year I wanted to try making something a little bit different. Sweet Potato Cakes are the perfect solution for the members of my family (basically just my husband) who just can’t deal with yet another year of a sweet potato side dish topped with marshmallows.
Sweet Potatoes are so naturally sweet this entire recipe only calls for one tablespoon of brown sugar, which is a win. It’s a sweet potato for the people who don’t love the super sweet casseroles that typically adorn the Thanksgiving table. I for one, love those, but it’s good to have options!
I love this recipe too because it doesn’t have to be Thanksgiving or Christmas to make these. If you have a bunch of sweet potatoes that you’re not sure what to do with, it’s a great go-to. It’s super easy and requires very little time spent actually cooking. Pop them in the oven for an hour and get some other things done while they bake! Then just mash them up, saute and boom — delicious Sweet Potato Cakes ready to go!
If sweet potatoes aren’t your “thing”, you can make Mashed Potato Pancakes which are similar to this recipe, but made with regular potatoes. My kids love them! But if sweet potatoes are your favorite, you’ve come to the right place. I have so many sweet potato recipes for you to try like Sweet Potato Pancakes, Mini Sweet Potato Muffins or Potato Packets.
Whether you decide to make these Sweet Potato Cakes for Thanksgiving or any time during the fall or winter, they are guaranteed to be a sure fire hit!
Sweet Potato Cakes
Ingredients
- 3 medium sweet potatoes
- 1 large egg, whisked
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups panko or bread crumbs, divided
- vegetable or canola oil, as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Poke a few holes in the sweet potatoes and bake for 1 hour.
- Remove and discard the skins from the potatoes, mash flesh in a bowl and allow to cool.
- Mix the egg, cinnamon, sugar, salt and ½ cup of panko or bread crumbs into the sweet potatoes.
- Place the remaining 1 1/2 cups of panko or bread crumbs in a separate bowl.
- For each cake, coat 2 tablespoons of the mixture with the panko and shape into small patties.
- Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a skillet over medium heat and place the patties into the skillet.
- Pan-fry for 4 minutes on each side until golden.*
- Continue to pan-fry the remaining cakes with oil as needed.
- Serve.
- * Sweet Potato Cakes can be kept warm in a 250 degree oven until ready to serve.
They make gluten free panko now. Kikkoman has worked for me.
Catherine, I love your recipes!!!! I am a Retired Administrative RDN, LD and love to cook. Has anyone tried cooking in the air fryer? I saw comments about baking…. they might work if sprayed with an avocado or olive oil spray and increase the temperature to 425, at least to start. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
I used this recipe to have instead of chicken in Katsu Curry 🙂 very nice
I actually am trying to bake them now. They are taking a long time but at least they aren’t burning, like they did both times I tried them in a pan.! I always have a hard time cooking something in a skillet without burning it (I am terrible at pancakes). I put them on parchment paper in a 400 degree oven and they are taking about 15 minutes a side to brown nicely.
Can I skip the brown sugar and the cinnamon ?
These patties were packed with flavor! Our grandchildren loved them and for a special treat I added a squirt of whipped cream just for fun after the patties cooled a little bit…thanks for a great recipe!!!!
I made these the other day, and my husband and one-year old loved them! My daughter has been very picky lately and had stopped eating sweet potatoes, but she gobbled these up. I did not have any problem with them falling apart at all. Thank you so mich for your wonderful recipes! 🙂
We made these the other day and they turned out beautifully. My kids ate them with maple syrup, while my husband and I liked them plain. A big yum. Now we’ll be making them for Thanksgiving too for our extended family. Thanks for the recipe!
Made these yesterday and they tasted very good but the texture was not of a patty. They fell apart every time i turn them over and i ended up with a lot of small pieces.
I don’t think coconut would get crispy like panko would, but I can suggest using Chex cereal. They have Rice and Corn Chex which are both gluten free. You could crush them up and use to coat the sweet potato cakes.