Pumpkin cupcake alternative: Sweet potato cupcakes

I'll be honest, I've been slightly jealous seeing all the pumpkin cupcakes around, in years before I have searched everywhere for pumpkin puree and still have not found any. My trusty sources have informed me that 2 supermarkets now stock pumpkin puree however there is still none to be found in a 20 mile radius of my house, and the pumpkins aren't even in stock yet. I'm sure other people have had this problem, maybe it's just me, I will eventually get my hands on a tin of this but for now I had to come up with an alternative.

It's orange, it's spiced, it's almost like you can trick yourself into believing they're the real deal. If you don't like sweet potatoes I'd say don't knock it till you've tried it, and if you do have pumpkin puree and you haven't had sweet potato cupcakes before, try them anyway, they're so moist and yummy. Even thinking about them is making me want one.

For the cupcakes
115g butter/margarine
220g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
260g mashed sweet potato (about 230g of raw sweet potato)
250g plain flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
120 ml milk, I use almond but any will work

For the butter cream
100g butter/margarine
250g icing sugar
1 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4 and line or grease a cupcake tray.

First peel and chop the sweet potato and put in boiling salted water until softened, this should take about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes then mash and set aside.

Beat butter/margarine and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time making sure each egg is blended well before the next is added, then beat the vanilla and sweet potato in.

Blend the flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices together. Add half the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated, then add the milk and the rest of the flour and blend.

Spoon batter into 12 cupcake cases, put into a preheated oven and bake for 20-22 minutes. The tops should spring back when touched and a toothpick should come out clean. Leave to cool.

Meanwhile make the icing; Beat the butter/margarine, then mix in the icing sugar, milk, cinnamon and vanilla.

Once the cupcakes are cool add the icing in any simple or elaborate way you see fit, then enjoy the taste sensation!