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This Browned Butter Pecan Layer Cake has three layers of buttery vanilla cake filled with toasted pecans that are covered with a delicious browned butter frosting! It’s the perfect cake for the holidays!
Browned Butter Pecan Layer Cake
Can you believe that it’s November already? The holidays are approaching fast. I mean, not to freak you out or anything, but Thanksgiving is two weeks from Thursday. I’m not sure I can even wrap my head around that. We will actually spend the holiday with my family in Charlotte this year though, so I guess that means the pressure isn’t entirely on me. 🙂
We are getting into one of my favorite times of year – the holidays. Not only do I love the food and all the vacation days off, but I also love the time spent with family, slowing down a bit and being thankful for all that surrounds me and all that has happened during the year.
And this year we have so much to be thankful for. The hubs’ job has been going well, I released a cookbook, Simply Beautiful Homemade Cakes, and (breaking news!) I’m leaving my other job to blog full-time starting in December. Not to mention so many other wonderful things that we take for granted every day. Ultimately it’s the seemingly little things that we should be most thankful for.
One thing I totally take for granted is cake, since I’ve pretty much always got some in our house. But you know I love it and this cake is no exception.
The cake layers are a moist, buttery vanilla cake spotted with toasted pecans. The flavor of the cake alone is delicious. The pecans add a whole other level of awesome. Before adding them to the cake batter though, they are tossed with butter and brown sugar and toasted. Don’t skip this step! The flavor of the cake is so much better with the pecans toasted versus un-toasted. If you’ve never toasted pecans, all you need to do is put them in the oven on a cookie sheet for about 5 to 7 minutes until they’ve browned a bit and you can smell them. A wonderful way to make your house smell delicious and like the holidays have arrived!
The cake layers are frosted with my new favorite frosting. It begins with browned butter, which is heavenly and lends a caramel-y flavor to the frosting that pairs so well with the toasted pecans. Of course I used Challenge Butter, which is such a wonderful, good quality butter. And browned butter is just as it sounds – butter that is browned right on your stove top. The frosting recipe uses a good bit of browned butter so it takes a bit of time to brown, but you really just melt the butter and allow it to brown. It’ll get a little foamy as it cooks, but eventually the foam will subside and you’ll be done.
The butter is chilled until it’s firm again and then you can use it in your frosting! I love it! The full finished pecan layer cake is super moist and delicious!
And in the spirit of the season and being thankful, Challenge Dairy is giving back. They are joining forces with UNICEF to fight and raise awareness of the childhood malnutrition crisis – which results in the unnecessary loss of nearly three million young lives a year. To do that, every recipe pinned from Challenge Butter’s “2016 Pin a Recipe, Feed a Child” pinterest board will result in a meal being donated to UNICEF for a child in need. Challenge Dairy hopes to provide up to 75,000 means to UNICEF, so let’s help them make this a reality! Here’s the pin for this recipe, if you’d like to pin that.
I hope you’re able to hop over and pin a recipe (or two!) and give this delicious Browned Butter Pecan Layer Cake a try! You won’t regret either!
Browned Butter Pecan Layer Cake
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 Slices
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Browned Butter Pecan Layer Cake has three layers of buttery vanilla cake filled with toasted pecans that are covered with a delicious browned butter frosting! It’s the perfect cake for the holidays!
Ingredients
TOASTED PECANS
- 1/4 cup (56g) salted Challenge butter, melted
- 2 1/4 cups (370g) finely chopped pecans
- 2 tbsp light brown sugar, loosely packed
CAKE LAYERS
- 3/4 cup (168g) unsalted Challenge butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups (310g) sugar
- 1 cup (231g) sour cream, room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 5 large eggs, room temperature
- 3 cups (390g) all purpose flour, preferably sifted
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup (240ml) milk, room temperature
- 2 tbsp (30ml) water, room temperature
BROWNED BUTTER FROSTING
- 2 1/4 cups (504g) salted Challenge butter, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups (237g) shortening
- 10 cups (1150g) powdered sugar
- 6 tbsp (90ml) water or milk
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
2. Combine the melted butter, pecans and brown sugar in a medium sized bowl and toss to coat.
3. Spread the pecans evenly onto the cookie sheet and bake for 5-7 minutes, or until toasted.
4. Set pecans aside to cool.
MAKE THE CAKE LAYERS:
5. Prepare three 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper circles in the bottom and grease the sides. Leave the oven at 350°F (176°C).
6. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light in color and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Do not skimp on the creaming time.
7. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
8. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until combined after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
9. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then combine the milk and water in a measuring cup.
10. Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until well combined. Add the milk mixture and mix until well combined. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
11. Gently stir 1 cup of the toasted pecans into the batter.
12. Divide the batter evenly between the cakes pans and bake for about 24-26 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.
13. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.
MAKE THE FROSTING:
14. Melt 2 cups of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. It’s best to use a light colored pan so that you can see the butter browning. Whisk the butter occasionally so that it cooks evenly.
15. Cook the butter until turns a nice toasty brown. It will foam up at first, particularly since this is a good bit of butter, but it will eventually subside and you’ll have browned butter. Some of the brown bits may separate, but that’s ok. Once the butter has browned, pour it into a heat-proof bowl and set it in the fridge to cool completely.
16. Bring the butter back to room temperature, then add it to a large mixer bowl with the additional 1/4 cup of butter and the shortening. Beat until smooth.
17. Slowly add about half of the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
18. Add 4-5 tablespoons of water and mix until smooth.
19. Slowly add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
20. Add the remaining water, if needed, and mix until smooth.
TO ASSEMBLE THE CAKE:
21. Use a large serrated knife to remove the domes from the top of the cakes so that they’re flat. Place the first cake on a serving plate or a cardboard cake round.
22. Spread about 1 cup of frosting evenly on top of the cake, then top the frosting with 3-4 tablespoons of the remaining toasted pecans.
23. Add the second layer of cake, another cup of frosting and 3-4 tablespoons of pecans.
24. Top the cake with the remaining layer and frost the cake. Refer to my tutorial for frosting a smooth cake, if needed.
25. Pipe swirls of frosting around the top edge of the cake and press the remaining pecans into the sides of the cake and sprinkle some over the top. Store the cake in an airtight container. Cake is best for 2-3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice
- Calories: 1194
- Sugar: 94.3 g
- Sodium: 211.3 mg
- Fat: 77.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 121.3 g
- Protein: 10.2 g
- Cholesterol: 179.4 mg
Enjoy!
Hi, this cake looks amazing and I am going to try your recipe. However, my question is off the wall. I want to know where you got the cake stand from. I love it!
It’s from Home Goods.
This is a beautiful cake! I made this today and it came out gorgeous. I used 3 9 inch cake pans, the layers are a little thinner but today finding things not so easy so I made due. I used Irish Butter and thought it great. I did not use the frosting recipe because I just can’t do that shortening thing but I do understand why you would but I don’t want my friends to eat that so I found another browned butter butter cream recipe and I really liked it. All in all a real winner.
I made this cake last night. It’s a very good cake!! However, the ingredients call for entirely too much powdered sugar in the frosting. It made the frosting so sweet that it overpowered the taste of the actual cake. Next time I’m going to cut that and use maybe 4 1/2 cups of powdered sugar instead.
My wedding in 2005 had a butter pecan layer and a strawberry layer. Every year I usually do a strawberry cake but 15 year I searched and luckily landed on your recipe! When I saw brown butter I was all in! Paula Dean has a brown butter icing spiced oatmeal cookie that I take to all cookie exchanges so I had made that before. But I never did refrigerate it and bring to room temp. When I saw all that black stuff (burn flavor crystals) I freaked out and I almost threw that settlement away!!! I am so glad I didn’t! Also the toasted pecans were heavenly on their own. In fact I still think about that part. I made this cake in June to the T. I did use swans cake flour though. Today I want to make a pumpkin crunch cake I plan to use your method of toasting the pecans I cut the recipe and added cinnamon to the pecans and it definitely messed something up. Back to the drawing board. But this recipe I bet I gained 5 lbs! LOL It is Rich but great for a special occasion. I posted on my FB page and used my new icing tools and people went nuts,
I baked this cake this week for my sister in law’s birthday.
I really should have read through the reviews first because there are a couple of things I would have changed and will change up – mainly with the frosting.
The cake itself will be my go-to cake for vanilla cake. The cake, although dense, is moist. When building a cake, this is exactly the kind of cake you want – it will hold its shape very well. And the flavour is bar-none one of the best vanilla cakes I’ve ever had! Well done!
However, with regards to the frosting, there is way too much icing sugar. I will next time be cutting that in half and starting from there…adding more as needed. I’ll also be cutting the shortening out all together – replacing it with butter. It makes for a very hard to pipe frosting as the shortening makes it very hard to handle when using smaller tips. Shortening doesn’t break down as easily as butter. As well, the flavour of an all-butter frosting will beat out a shortening blend any day for me. I also should have added more cream than I did. But then I used whipping cream (my go to in frostings) instead of milk. I find it usually gives a creamier texture which is so nice. But in hindsight, cream is thicker than milk and I should have added more.
I loved the flavour of the browned butter and the specks it created in the frosting. So beautiful!
For the pecans I used the dark brown Demerara sugar to candy them – oh my goodness such an amazing flavour to add to the pecans!
Thank you for sharing this great recipe.
All in all a great go-to for a Butter Pecan Cake!
Soo excited to try this recipe out! Just wondering, can I make this cake with 9″ pans? If not, I’m having my weekly shopping trip tomorrow so I can purchase some. Thanks!
If you make two 9 inch cake layers, you would want to bake them for less time because they will be thinner.
My husband asked for a cake inspired by chocolate chip cookies. So I used your recipe and added semi-sweet chocolate chips. He loves it! I had to “make my own” powdered sugar for part of the frosting, which turned out a bit gritty. But I will definitely keep this in my repotoire.
May I ask what flour brand you use or recommend using? Thank you! I’m so excited to try this recipe based on all the positive reviews!
I have used a storebrand flour, gold metal, white lily and Pillsbury before and typically don’t notice a huge difference between them in the end product. White lily has a lovely texture to it though.
I was asked to make a cake for a benefit auction, and decided to make this one. I made it exactly like the recipe, and it turned out perfectly. Luckily, I knew the guy who bought it, and he saved me a piece. This is my new favorite cake, and I really don’t even like pecans. That’s how good it is! And, it raised $600 at the auction!!!
Awesome! Glad it was a hit!
Made this cake a few times and it is so good! Like one of the best cakes I’ve ever made. So thank you for that! Secondly, I have a friend who is obsessed with pecan… Do you think it would be overkill to make this cake but fill it with your pecan pie filing from your your pecan pie cake recipe? Or do you think the flavors still work?
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! If she really loves pecans, it shouldn’t be overkill. I think this cake is a little more dense than the other one, but I would think they should go together fine.
Can I use more butter instead of the shortening for the frosting?
Definitely!
I made this for my husband’s early Thanksgiving potluck at work. Everyone loved it (including myself, I made 1.5x the recipe so I could have some all for me haha)! I did a lattice border on the top layer and sprinkled the remaining chopped pecans in the center to imitate a pecan pie 😉
The decoration sound so fun! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Can I half this recipe?
Sure, you’d probably just want to use smaller cake pans and maybe adjust baking time.
Made it tonight for my husband’s birthday. So fin
Where is the actual recipe?
I’m so sorry for the trouble! There was an issue today that affected thousands of sites – mine included. It looks like it’s been resolved, so you should be able to access it here now. Sorry about that!
Awesome cake but would just cut down on the icing sugar in the frosting was a little too sweet. I cut mine down by 4 cups.