THIS IS AMAZING! God, so good. The yams don't need to be cooked. Just peel them and grate them on the smallest holes on your cheese grater! It takes less than 2 minutes and it's healthy and natural. I 1/2ed the recipe and baked this in a muffin tin for 12 individual cakes. I completely omitted the white sugar as I decided they were probably sweet enough! I was right, and the glaze is just delicious. I'd hate to have to leave that out. I used non-hydrogenated margerine instead of butter and I used all purpose wheat free flour. I also used just 1 egg and 1 egg white instead of two eggs. I added 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon. All in all, they came out SUPER moist (they key is getting a fresh and firm yam because they are full of water). They are so tasty, especially with the cinnamon. The grated yam melts away into the texture of the cake much like grated carrot in carrot cake. I implore people to make these and NOT use canned yams! :D

Wonderful recipe, and although hardly a health food, a yummy way to get beta carotine and antioxidants into your family. I've made twice now, once exactly as written, and once with some additions. They are extremely sweet as written, and I've found that reducing both the white and brown sugars to 3/4 cup each produces a still appropriately sweet (but not cloyingly so) bar. The second time I made these, I added 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp ginger, plus 1 cup of raisins. That made them over-the-moon delicious, and they were inhaled in record time. Don't get me wrong - without the spices and raisins, their flavor is simple and uncomplicated, but some may interpret this as bland. Both times I shredded the peeled sweet potatoes using the shredding disc on my Cuisinart, and it was plenty fine enough. The shreds of sweet potato melded into the brownie and were not discernible. Moist and appealing with a sunny orange-gold color, they are also excellent keepers, if you can manage to hide a couple for later on. They may be frozen and thaw beautifully, with no discernible difference between frozen and fresh, provided you wrap carefully airtight and don't freeze for too long (say around 3 months, max.) Thank you for a real gem!

WOW!! Just... wow. These were super awesome. I had my doubts when I was measuring insane amounts of sugar, and saw the weird brown and orange batter, but these are something special. I wasn't sure if the recipe writer meant yams or sweet potatoes, which are not the same, but I used sweet potatoes, knowing that what most of us from the US call "yams" are really sweet potatoes. That was fine. I didn't cook the potatoes before hand, I just peeled and shredded them like the recipe says. I'm not really sure why everyone is cooking them, you really don't need to. And I certainly don't know why you would used canned, which have so many preservatives and tons of sugar and salt. They cook plenty in the oven with the batter, there is no need to use pre-cooked. I think next time I will double the frosting though. I really liked the way the frosting complimented the brownies. I think more would be excellent. However, I let the brownies cool before putting on the frosting in order to preserve the sort of crusty top that brownies get. Thanks for the great recipe!

This was an incredibly easy and yummy recipe. Instead of going through the hassle of cooking, peeling, and shredding yams, I just used 1 medium sized, drained can of "Bruce's Yams" which I smashed. I think these actually add more flavor and made the recipe very moist. This probably saved me 30 minutes of work!

This was amazing! Being me .. I used 2 eggs verses 4 and canned yams drained verses 'fresh'. This made the brownies hold together in a super moist way. I was afraid 4 eggs would be too brownie like. Excellent decision! The only thing I will do differently the next time I make this is to double the batch. My MIL said, "This was better then any chocolate brownie I have ever tasted." I have to agree!

This smelled wonderful while cooking. I was looking for a way to get some Vitamin A and beta carotene as well as potassium in my 4 kiddos, and yams/sweet potatoes seemed like they could do the trick. I started with 3 smallish fresh "yams". Scrubbed them clean, poked them on each side with a fork a few times, & placed them on a couple of paper towels in the microwave. I then nuked them for 3 1/2 minutes, turned them over, then nuked them all for another 3 1/2 minutes. Let them cool a bit before removing the skin (came off easily) and throwing them in my food processor to get them all nice and creamy. (It was so thick I needed to use 2 of the 4 eggs in the processor to help make it liquidy enough to process.) Followed the rest of the recipe exactly. Perhaps by using fresh yams and using 2 eggs to puree or whip them smooth is what made me need 10 additional minutes on my cooking time. I have to say- all of us, from age 4 to my hubby, LOVE these and they are delicious! I did not do the last step and add even more sugar and butter and milk on the top when it was warm. They were absolutely sweet enough and moist enough w/o adding even more sugar and saturated fat, so I do not regret leaving it off. This recipe is a keeper for us but we renamed it. Brownies are drier and crumbly. These are moist and awesome!! Plus I can not help but think of chocolate from the word "brownie". So thank you thank you for giving us the recipe for the "Golden Yam Cake". :-)

Excellent recipe, I read most reviews before baking as they are always helpful. I made the following changes and they turned out great, instead of 1 cup butter I used 3/4 c and a 1/4 c more yams which I mashed. I used 1/2 c Splenda and 1/2c white sugar, 1 1/4 c white flour and 1/4 wheat bran. I also added a 1/4tsp of cinnamon and a little extra vanilla ;), they would be great with raisins and maybe a little more bran to soak up some of the moisture. I also had to bake them an additional 10 minutes on top of the 30 minutes and I didn't bother icing them they were great without the extra calories. Next time I would add a little more bran and start my cooking time at 40 minutes. I baked my own yams and mashed them, they came out perfect from the microwave as others had suggested. Oh I also only put 3 large eggs in instead of 4. Not sure how they would be if I had left the recipe as it was written but everyone that tried them thought they were fabulous the way I made them. Thank you Starflower for a great recipe!

This is a fantastic recipe. Easily prepared and amazingly rich and satisfying. I highly recommend it, even for those who don't care for yams. An A+!

WHEN I ASKE MY BOYFRIEND WHAT DID HE WANT FOR THANKSGIVING,ONE OF HIS REQUESTS WAS YAMS. SINCE I NEVER MADE YAMS BEFORE I DECIDED TO CHECK OUT "MY ALL RECIPES". WHEN I NOTICED THIS RECIPE WAS RATED 5 STARS I KNEW I HAD TO TRY IT. NEEDLESS TO STAY THAT I FOLLOWED THE RECIPE EXACTLY WHAT IT CALLED FOR AND MY YAMS CAME OUT PERFECT. MY BOYFRIEND AS WELL AS THE REST OF MY GUESTS LOVED IT!!!

I found this recipe while searching for anything w/ yams in order to get more potassium in my diet. I followed advice and microwaved 3 yams, peeled them and put them in a food processor w/ 2 of the 4 eggs. I did have to cook approx 5 min longer and I did make the frosting. WOW! This was incredible. I had 5 kids eat 2 portions each and ask for more. The adults loved it also. Thanks for a great recipe.