Love pecan pie? Us, too. This recipe is the best of both worlds — mama’s old fashioned pound cake with a pecan pie flair. You can’t go wrong serving this to your Texas guests; after all, pecans are the state nut. Check out San Saba for some of the best pecans around. This cake is rich and indulgent, so a small slice is plenty! (With a dip of Blue Bell, of course.)
If you’ve made pecan pies before, you’ll recognize some similar ingredients. Of course, there are pecans. They get sprinkled into the bottom of the pan so that they top off the finished cake. There is also corn syrup, which is a pecan pie staple. I don’t use it frequently, but I do keep it on-hand mostly for pecan pie purposes. And there’s brown sugar in the glaze for that hint of caramel-like flavor.
This is a solid, significant cake. It manages to be dense yet soft at the same time. I really love its texture. And, of course, the glaze just makes it even sweeter and tastier!
INGREDIENTS:
4 sticks butter
4 cups sugar
4 cups flour (cake or all purpose)
8 large eggs
8 oz. cream cheese
2 to 3 tsp of vanilla flavoring
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup brown sugar
1 jar of caramel ice cream topping
INSTRUCTIONS:
Leave cream cheese, butter, and eggs out to reach room temperature.
In mixer, cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time. Then, add flour, one cup at a time. Last, add vanilla flavoring.
Grease and flour tube/bundt pan and pour in batter. Pour in batter first, then sprinkle pecans and brown sugar on top (a cup or little more of each). Lightly press into the batter.
Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. (You may want to tent the top with foil to keep the nuts from scorching.) Then, increase the temperature to 325 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Test the cake with a fork or wooden skewer to check for doneness. The utensil should come out dry and clean (no batter). Bake 5 more minutes if not quite done.
Remove from the oven and allow a few minutes to cool before removing from pan. When you invert onto a plate, you may lose a few nuts, but most will bake into the top layer of crust. Then, turn the cake onto another plate so that the nuts are on top. Drizzle with jar of caramel ice cream topping. Heat from the cake will make the caramel melt over the pecans. Enjoy!