SOUTHERN BUTTER PECAN POUND CAKE

Melt-in-your-mouth Southern Butter Pecan Pound Cake is a moist, rich, and delicious cake recipe with the texture of classic pound cake and crunch from buttered pecans.

Butter pecan is popular in the U.S. particularly in the South where pecans are the nuts of choice. The flavor ‘Butter Pecan’ is the combination of roasted pecans, butter, and vanilla flavoring. Most people think of butter pecan flavor as being reserved for ice cream. However, the flavor combination is good in desserts from ice cream, cookies, and cakes.

The flavor of my Southern Butter Pecan Pound Cake is rich and complex. It’s buttery, nutty, with a hint of caramel. The texture is soft and tender. I made a butter pecan glaze and poured it onto the hot cake. This glaze seeps into the cake making it moist and decadent.

Please hop over and read How to Bake the Perfect Pound Cake. I share a lot of helpful tips. You may also enjoy some of the other pound cakes in my Pound Cake Series. Below are a few of the pound cake recipes that I’ve shared.

Additionally, a glaze is optional, but I highly recommend it. For me, it really adds that extra something special to this Southern Butter Pecan Pound Cake.

This bundt pan worked well on the Southern Butter Pecan Pound Cake. Typically, I prefer and use this tube pan. Since I wanted the glaze to soak into the cake, I found a bundt pan worked better.

Southern Butter Pecan Pound Cake

1. I used buttermilk as the liquid in my Southern Butter Pecan Cake. Buttermilk is amazing in cakes and pound cakes. As a result, it makes the baked good soft, springy, and tender while the texture has the perfect density and fluffiness. It’s unparalleled to any other dairy in cakes. Substitute for buttermilk: For each cup of buttermilk, you can use 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice plus enough milk to measure 1 cup. Stir, then let stand for 5 minutes. You can also use 1 cup of plain yogurt or 1-3/4 teaspoons cream of tartar plus 1 cup milk.
2. For the pecans: I pulsed the pecans in my mini-food processor so that they were approximately the size of a sunflower seed (not the hull, the seed). They were small but not ground fine or like flour. Most noteworthy, the pecans I used as a garnish in the photos are larger than the pecans I stirred into the cake. Pecans gave a nice texture and crunch to the cake.
3. Use real butter. No substitutions.
4. Furthermore, I also recommend real vanilla extract. The tastes in real versus imitation is evident. Consequently, real vanilla extract is more expensive, but you only use about one tablespoon per recipe. Another note, store your vanilla extract in an airtight jar, in a cool, dark place. Your kitchen cupboard is usually an ideal place. Primarily keep it away from your stove or another heat source.
5. As well, a good rule of thumb when baking pound cakes is to always leave 2 inches from the batter to the top of the pan to allow for the cake to rise. If you find you have too much batter, use the extra to make cupcakes. In particular, my Old Fashioned Blue Ribbon Pound Cake and my Mile High Pound Cake are very large cakes with more batter than normal.
6. Finally, always place your baking pan on a cookie sheet to catch any overflows.

Printable Southern Butter Pecan Pound Cake Recipe below! Enjoy!

Print Recipe

5 from 5 votes

Southern Butter Pecan Pound Cake

Made with buttermilk, Southern Butter Pecan Pound Cake is soft and moist. It has a nice caramel flavor from butter and brown sugar and crunch from pecans. 

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time1 hr 15 mins

Total Time1 hr 50 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, Southern

Keyword: cake

Servings: 16 slices

Calories: 546kcal

Author: Paula

Ingredients

CAKE

• 1 cup butter at room temperature
• 1 and ½ cups granulated sugar
• 1 and ½ cups brown sugar firmly packed
• 6 large eggs at room temperature
• 3 cup all-purpose flour sifted and measured correctly
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons butter  
• 1 and ½ cups pecans finely chopped

GLAZE

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• See the narrative above for substitutions.

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F
• Grease and flour (or sugar) a 10-inch tube pan.
• Melt 2 tablespoons real butter and toast pecans until fragrant. Cool
• Mix butter until smooth. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar and mix until smooth and fluffy.
• Add eggs one at a time, mixing until the yolk is incorporated before adding the next egg.
• Combine flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. 
• Combine vanilla and buttermilk.
• Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to mixture, beginning and ending with flour.
• Fold in toasted pecans by hand.
• Spoon batter into prepared tube pan. 
• Bake at 325 degrees F for 65 to 70 minutes. Test with a wooden pick. The cake is done with no crumbs or dry crumbs remain on the pick.
• Cool 20 minutes on a wire rack.
• While the cake is cool, make the glaze. 

FOR THE GLAZE:

• On medium-low heat, add butter, sugar, and water to a small pan. Heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved, but do not boil the mixture. When the sugar is dissolved, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
• Pour hot mixture over the cake (that's still in the bundt pan). You can poke holes in the cake if desired so the cake soaks up more of the glaze. 
• Allow the cake to sit 10 more minutes to absorb the glaze before inverting on a serving tray.
• Serve warm or room temperature. It's great with vanilla ice cream. 
• Store up to 5 days in an airtight container. Can be stored up to 9 days in the refrigerator.

Notes

Recipe from Paula @CallMePMc.com All images and content are copyright protected. 

Nutrition

Calories: 546kcal | Carbohydrates: 69g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 130mg | Sodium: 290mg | Potassium: 169mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 50g | Vitamin A: 720IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 72mg | Iron: 2mg

You can also find great recipes at Recipe Index or at Meal Plan Monday or Weekend Potluck

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