Homemade Pecan Pie Pound Cake Recipe is a soft, buttery pound cake recipe that’s studded with sugared pecans and caramel.
Moist, finely textured Pecan Pie Pound Cake Recipe is the combination of two favorite Southern desserts. I combined the popular flavors of the Pecan Pie with the even crumb potluck-favorite Pound Cake
A friend recently asked me if I’d ever made a Pecan Pound Cake. I thought he said Pecan Pie Pound Cake and answered ‘no’, but I was highly intrigued especially since I had just started my Pound Cake Review series.
Turns out I couldn’t find a recipe for Pecan Pie Pound Cake. I thought about it for a couple of days and how I could get Pecan Pie flavors in a dense Pound Cake.
Now you also may be asking yourself, isn’t a Pecan Pound Cake and a Pecan Pie Pound Cake the same? Well, in my mind they are not. Pecan Pound Cake would be putting pecans in a or on top of a traditional Pound Cake. What I want is the flavor, the richness, the gooey-ness of a Pecan Pie in cake form.
I achieved the flavor combination that I wanted by using brown sugar, toasted and salted pecans, and caramel both in the cake and drizzled over the cake.
For my Pecan Pie Pound Cake Recipe I used brown sugar along with granulated sugar. Brown sugar adds a deeper, richer flavor. Think about a chocolate chip cookie (minus the chocolate chips) versus a sugar cookie. The brown color and deeper flavor of a chocolate chip cookie comes from the brown sugar whereas a traditional sugar cookie is made with granulated white sugar. There’s a huge different in taste, right?
I also used Sugared Pecans, again to add another layer of texture and flavor. You can use salted and toasted pecans if you don’t want to make Sugared Pecans. The taste will be ever-so-slightly affected so if you have time I highly recommend making the sugared pecans.
Finally, to acquire the Pecan Pie ‘gooey-ness’, I used Caramel Bits throughout the batter. (You can also find Caramel Bits in this recipe.) Caramel Bits are chewy balls of caramel ideal for baking in cakes and cookies…. or eating by the handfuls. I don’t judge!
Pecan Pie Pound Cake Recipe Tips
- Read through the recipe before beginning
- Prep your ingredients. Prepare the pan and measure ingredients. Sit butter and eggs on counter to come to room temperature at least 30 minutes.
- Use real butter. I also find that name brand ingredients make a better tasting pound cake. Use the best vanilla you can afford always.
- Measure carefully. Extra flour or sugar can make a huge difference when baking. Read this post on how to correctly measure flour.
- After the oven comes to temperature, place the cake pan in the center of the oven. I always sit my cake pan on a cookie sheet in case the cake overflows.
- Do not open the oven door to check cake until the very last 5 minutes. This will cause a drastic change in temperature making the cake fall.
- Test for doneness with a long, thin skewer. When it comes out clean or with dry crumbs the cake is done.
Use this recipe for the Caramel Sauce
Use this recipe for the Cinnamon Sugared Pecans
Pecan Pie Pound Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the pound cake
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 6 large eggs
- 3 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 3/4 cup caramel bits
- 1 cup sugared pecans chopped (See link in post)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- *Caramel Sauce see link in post
- 3/4 cup whole pecans top garnish
Instructions
- Spray a tube pan with non-stick spray or spread an even coat of solid vegetable shortening then dust with flour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Cream butter, shortening, brown sugar and granulated sugar together until smooth.
- Add eggs to sugar mixture one at a time beating well after each addition. (Beat about 30 seconds after each addition.)
- Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour. (You add 1/3 of flour, 1/2 of milk, 1/2 of flour, 1/2 of milk and last 1/3 of flour.)
- Pour 1/2 batter into tube pan.
- To remaining batter add pecans and caramel bits, fold to combine.
- Pour remaining batter in tube pan.
- Bake 80 to 85 minutes at 350 degrees or until cake skewer inserted into cake comes out clean or with dry crumbs.
- Allow cake to sit in pan on a wire rack 20 minutes before inverting on a serving tray to cool completely.
- Top with Caramel Sauce and pecans.
Notes
Nutrition
If you like Pecan Pie Pound Cake Recipe, you may also like my Pound Cake series!
Maureen says
I couldn’t find the caramel bits, so can I use the same caramels that are individually wrapped, and cut them up into smaller pieces? Because aren’t they the same thing?
Paula says
Yes, you can
Jennifer says
Hi Paula can this recipe be made gluten free
Paula says
I don’t cook with gluten-free flour. I did find this article to help you. http://blessedbeyondcrazy.com/how-to-make-almost-any-recipe-gluten-free/
Angie Evans says
I couldn’t find the link for the caramel sauce nor sugared pecans
Paula says
https://www.callmepmc.com/brown-sugar-caramel-sauce/
https://www.callmepmc.com/cinnamon-sugared-pecans/
Where is says ‘use this recipe of the caramel sauce’ the link is there. Click the words ‘caramel sauce’ it shows in a different color. I also posted above
Brenda Hill says
I also had trouble finding the recipe for the caramel sauce. So thank you, I do have a question can these be made into little mini flute cakes?
Paula says
most bundt cake recipes scaled for traditional 10-inch bundt pans make 10 to 12 cups of batter, since a 10-inch bundt ban holds 12 cups.
If you are scaling a recipe down for the smaller pans, check to see how many cups the pan holds and scale accordingly. My experience has been that those mini-bundt pans often hold half a regular batch of cake batter, so we will do two batches with one pan.
Joan says
Could I use cake flour instead of all purpose flour? Would cake flour make a more fluffier cake?
Paula says
Yes, it’s not a 1 to 1 ratio. This is the substitute for cake flour for ap flour>
To substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour use 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour for every cup of all-purpose flour. Make your own – one cup sifted cake flour (100 grams) can be substituted with 3/4 cup (85 grams) sifted bleached all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (15 grams) cornstarch.
VJ says
Can I bake this in a bundt pan or is a tube pan a requirement?
Paula says
a 10-inch tube pan is 16 cups and a 10-inch bundt pan is 12 cups. I think it will fit in a 10 inch bundt just make sure not to fill it closer than 1 inch from the top to give it room to rise. If you do have a little left, you can bake it as a muffin for about 18 minutes
Robin says
Do you think this cake would do ok if I put in two cups of sugared pecans instead of just the one cup the recipe calls for?
Paula says
Yes, I do think it would be wonderful with 2 cups sugared pecans.
Anita says
Can give receive 4 Ggluten free?
Lindsey says
Could the cake be made the day before and the sauce made the day of the event?
Paula says
Yes, in fact, I like this the next day better. It gets more moist and flavorful to me.
Robin C says
I did make the pecan pie pound cake for Easter Sunday. After 85 minutes, my cake was pretty dark. So next time I make this cake, I won’t leave it in the oven quite as long or I’ll cover the top so it doesn’t get so dark on top. I used caramel morsels b/c that’s what my store had but apparently those were not right. Next time I’ll find caramel bits. The caramel sauce recipe makes way too much sauce if you’re only using it for this cake. So, I’ll try to alter the recipe to make less sauce. The cinnamon sugar pecan recipe makes 3 cups worth when you only use 1 cup of them in the cake but we did enjoy just eating them as a snack. They are really good. Overall, the cake was good and my family and I enjoyed it.
Robin Coleman says
In the ingredients for pecan pie pound cake, are the two cups of brown sugar firmly packed or loose? Plan to make it Easter Sunday,
Paula says
They are firmly packed, Robin.
Imom says
These look amazing….. Looking forward to the holiday baking weekends
Susan P says
Wow, all of your pound cakes look amazing. I’m going to make each and every one of them this fall/winter. Thanks for sharing!
Rosalind says
Do you have a pound cake recipe book for sale ?
Paula says
No, I don’t at this time, but that is a great idea!