Butter Pecan Cake

Butter Pecan Cake Recipe

If you like cakes and you like pecans, you're sure to love this butter pecan cake! It's moist, delicious, buttery and nutty. It can be frosted with either a traditional buttercream icing or a cream cheese icing, depending on your preference. I'm going to link both icings in this post and you can decide what's better. Just remember: if you use cream cheese icing, the cake should be stored in the refridgerator. If you use buttercream icing, it's best stored in an air-tight container at room-temperature. 

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Butter Pecan Cake
If you like cake and you like pecans then you will love this butter pecan cake! It's a delicious, moist white cake filled with roasted pecan pieces and layered with the best buttercream icing you'll ever taste. Top with additional pecans and you're in a pecan-lovers heaven.
Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1.5 cups white sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 cups pecan pieces, toasted in butter (optional)
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup sour cream or full-fat yogurt
  • 1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line the bottom of 3 cake pans with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, combine milk and sour cream. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together sugar and butter until fluffy. Add eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla and beat well. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with the milk mixture. Mix until just combined, do not over-mix. Fold in 2 cups of chopped pecans. Divide batter evenly between cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees just until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Check at 20 minutes. Be careful not to overtake or your cake will be dry. Cool for 15 minutes on wire racks before removing cakes from pans. Allow to cool completely then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before frosting.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 12 servings

Below are your frosting choice recipes. If you're a lover of cream cheese frosting, skip the first and go to the second recipe. If, however a good buttercream butters you up, you'll go nuts over the traditional American buttercream frosting. And, speaking of nuts, no matter which frosting you go with, don't forget to add the chopped pecans to top it off. 

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Basic American Buttercream Frosting
This cake frosting/icing is so simple yet it's so incredibly good. If you want to kick it up a notch, brown the butter before starting the process. But even if you don't have time to do that, it's delish.
Ingredients
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2-4 tablespoons cream or whole milk
Instructions
Whisk softened butter until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and whisk on a medium speed until fully incorporated. Add cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, while beating until you’ve reached thick but spreadable consistency. Add vanilla and mix until incorporated. Now spread on your butter pecan cake or whatever cake, cupcake, cookie or the like that your heart desires.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 24 servings
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Cream Cheese Icing
This traditional cream cheese icing can be used on cakes, cinnamon rolls, cupcakes, or just eaten with a spoon :).
Ingredients
  • 16 ounces (2 bricks) cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 8 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2-4 tablespoons cream or milk
Instructions
Beat all ingredients except cream/milk until smooth. Add cream/milk 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach a thick but spreadable consistency.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 24 servings
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