Pumpkin Cake with Candied Pecans
This pumpkin cake is perfect for Fall! Moist and delicious pumpkin cake layers with a tangy cream cheese frosting and crunchy candied pecans.
I hope you’re celebrating it with friends and family. Ryan and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner again this year — nothing fancy, just a large roast chicken using Ina’s recipe (it’s amazing) and some sides. We usually do a turkey on Thanksgiving, but there are always so many (too many) leftovers, and it’s just my parents coming over so we’re opting for a smaller bird. And, of course, this Pumpkin Cake will be served as dessert.
In true Olivia fashion (at least recently), I meant to get this recipe out weeks ago so that you too could have it for Thanksgiving. Alas, it was not meant to be. Too much life stuff (aka puppy) going on that has put a serious damper on my baking. It’s all good though, she’s adorable (most of the time), and growing so fast that I want to soak in the puppy time as much as possible!
Last year I abstained from inundating you with pumpkin recipes and opted for some other Fall flavors like Pecan Pie Cake, Chai Cake, and Sweet Potato Cake. This year, I’m back with another Pumpkin Cake recipe for you!
How to Make this Pumpkin Cake Recipe
This is probably one of the easiest cake recipes I have on my blog. It’s a two-bowl (one bowl if you’re lazy) method that doesn’t require a mixer. All you have to do is:
- Whisk the dry ingredients together (skip this for one bowl)
- Whisk the wet ingredients & sugar
- Add the dry to the wet and mix until just combined
Cake Tip
To make the recipe in one bowl simply combine all the wet ingredients then add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Paired with a simple cream cheese frosting, it does not get any easier! The most challenging part of this recipe for me, honestly, was the candied pecans.
How to Make Candied Pecans
Who knew making candied pecans would be such a pain? The recipe I have for you below is super easy, but I stumbled a couple of times in my experimentation.
I had a vision of what I wanted the candied pecans to look like: shiny and glossy, but not clumped together or glued with caramel. Most of the candied pecan recipes show sugary coated nuts, and that was just not the look I was going for.
To make candied pecans, you start with a frying pan over medium heat, tossing in the pecans to toast for about 3 mins or so. In the meantime, mix the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and when the nuts are ready, pour the mixture into the pan with the nuts and stir continuously for 5-10 mins. It may take some adjustments to ensure even cooking!
While caramelizing the pecans, they’ll go from a liquid glaze to grainy and crystallized, but just keep stirring until they caramelize into a deep, dark color. It’s crucial to watch them carefully as they can burn quickly near the end.
This candied pecans recipe is so much easier than others out there, and you can decide how you want them to turn out!
I chose to pair this pumpkin cake with a simple cream cheese frosting, but it would also work well with a plain vanilla frosting or a cinnamon frosting if you’re looking to amp up the spice even more!
