cookbook_challenge | Sweet Potato Bourbon Cake

My mother lives 2 hr away from me, but since last year we've been in a quasi-bubble and see each other every month or so. For her birthday, I wanted to visit and bring her a homemade cake. She asked for a sweet potato cake like the one found in The Victory Garden Cookbook (which is one of her favorite cookbooks).

Not online, so I've typed up the recipe from The Victory Garden Cookbook below. Forgive any typos.

This cake is lovely absolutely plain, but if you wish, spring with confectioners' sugar.

3 cups cake flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 ts group cloves
1 1/2 cups salad oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
5 eggs, separated
1/3 cup boiling water
2 Tb bourbon
1 cup chopped pecans
3/4 lb sweet potatoes
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt

Grease a 10-inch tube pan. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside. Beat oil and sugars together until smooth. Beat egg yolks into mixture, add boiling water gradually, and beat for 2-3 minutes. Add dry ingredients to sugar mixture gradually, stirring well. Stir in bourbon and pecans.
Peel and grate sweet potatoes. (You should end up with 2 cups packed.) Stir into sugar mixture. Beat egg whites until they form soft peaks, adding the cream of tartar and salt when they are foamy. Stir one-quarter of the whites into the sweet potato mixture to lighten it, then fold in the remainder. Place in tube pan and bake approximately 1 hour in a preheated 350 oven. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before unmolding.

This process seemed a bit fussy and I don't own a tube pan, so I used google to adapt it to either a sheet cake or 2-round layered things. I found this sweet potato cake recipe which had similar ingredients/portions and sort of merged the two recipes.

Modifications:
+ I don't have salad/vegetable oil, and substituted coconut oil instead (warmed to liquify).
+ I didn't have enough pecans, so made up the difference with a combination of walnuts and unsweetened shredded coconut.
+ I didn't have bourbon and used a coffee infused whisky that's been hanging around since pre-pandemic days.
+ I used store-bought cream cheese frosting.

The result was a very dense and flavorful cake, which both my mom and I liked. I would definitely make again. I would add a bit more whisky and fiddle with the spices a bit (but the flavor was very good as is) and would like to try the frosting from the linked recipe at some point.
I don't have a picture because I forgot to take one once I'd gotten it to her house and assembled/frosted it. My frosting skills aren't all that artistic anyway ~~and my mom is worse!~~ but it tasted good - and that's what counted! :)