Easy to make with a cake mix, this sweet potato bread with cinnamon swirl is a fall flavor explosion. It includes sweet potato, cinnamon, brown sugar, pecans, nutmeg, and a vanilla glaze in a perfectly soft, moist, and sweet package.

This scrumptious sweet potato bread recipe is just the perfect treat. As you bite into a slice the sweet taste of the bread coupled with the spicy cinnamon flavor is so satisfying. Feels like home and when it’s cooking it smells like fall. If you like carrot cake, pumpkin cake, banana bread, or pumpkin bread, this quick bread recipe is right for you with its moist cake-like texture.

It’s filled with all your favorite fall flavors. Besides the sweet potato and cinnamon (the ultimate combo) it also includes nutmeg, a streusel-like topping with brown sugar and pecans, and a simply sweet vanilla glaze on top. Fortunately, it’s so easy to make this sweet potato bread recipe as we take a shortcut and use a cinnamon swirl crumb cake mix.

If you’re new around here, I’m not shy about using a cake mix and I’m all for quick bread and treat recipes. With this cake mix, we get the added bonus of the cinnamon crumb. No need for excess wheat flour, baking powder, butter, and sugar is a win in my books.

This week I was making my sweet potato dumplings and I had some leftover sweet potatoes, so decided to put this recipe together and boy am I glad I did. While we call it a Southern sweet potato bread recipe, it’s basically a tender and moist cake in loaf form. Let me just say, it pairs perfectly with your morning coffee. Now let’s get baking!

Recipe Ingredients

Krusteaz Cinnamon Swirl Crumb Cake Mix
Canned sweet potato
Egg
Water
Nutmeg
Crushed pecans

How to Make Sweet Potato Bread with Cinnamon Swirl

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare a 9-inch loaf pan by lining it with parchment paper and then spraying the paper with a non-stick baking spray. The parchment will make it so the crumb topping doesn’t fall off during removal.

In a large bowl, mash up the yams (sweet potatoes) with a fork until most of the lumps are removed.

Add the egg and water to the mashed sweet potato and mix until well combined.

Using a spatula or a hand mixer on low speed, mix the dry ingredients (the cake mix) into the sweet potato mixture until all of the dry crumbs are blended in. Set aside.

In a small bowl, pour the brown sugar packet that was inside the cake mix box and mix together with the nutmeg. Set aside.

Pour half of the batter into the prepared loaf pan, spreading the batter to the edges.

Sprinkle half of the brown sugar mixture over the top.

Spoon globs (that’s a technical cooking term hehe) of the remaining batter all over the top.

Use a knife to help spread the batter to the edges.

Sprinkle the remaining brown sugar mixture and crushed pecans all over the top.

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then move to a cooling rack using the parchment paper liner.

How to make powdered sugar glaze to drizzle over the sweet potato bread

Now if you want to add a little bit of extra yum to this recipe then you can add a little powdered sugar glaze on top.

In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and enough cream to achieve desired consistency (usually 3 to 4 tablespoons). Add a little vanilla extract if you please. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over the sweet potato bread.

And there you go. Now it’s time to look like a baking genius to your family and friends. Mmmm, mmmm good!

Look at that cinnamon swirl in there!

And now enjoy a slice of the best sweet potato bread with a cinnamon swirl.

Storage

Store bread leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. This Southern treat also freezes extremely well so you can enjoy it for a long time to come. Double-wrap individual portions (best without the vanilla glaze) and store them in the freezer for up to 6 months. Thaw overnight before enjoying at room temperature.

Recipe Notes

If you like your bread with extra spices, feel free to add your favorite. I recommend a teaspoon of ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon of ground allspice, and 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves.
You can also adapt this recipe to make a sweet potato cake in a Bundt pan (bake for approximately 1 hour) and sweet potato muffins (about 18 to 20 minutes). But I also have recipes for a vegan sweet potato cake and easy sweet potato muffins 😉.
I won’t tell anyone if you want to add a pecan layer when you add the cinnamon swirl between the cake layers.
I also know how expensive pecans can be, so feel free to do what I do a lot of the time and substitute them for walnuts. For something different, you can also top your bread with pumpkin seeds.
Want to up the sweetness? Add chocolate chips to your cake batter.
While you can use fresh sweet potatoes to make this sweet potato quick bread, the canned sweet potato (or yams) has added sweetness. However, you can also make your own sweet potato puree if you want to go down that path.
Instead of the vanilla glaze, drizzle your sweet potato bread in maple syrup instead. YUM.