For more Thanksgiving recipes, tips, menus, and inspiration, head to our 2025 Thanksgiving Hub.
Who says Thanksgiving has to be all pie? Enter this bourbon caramel pecan cake: all the gooey, nutty flavor of a classic pecan pie transformed into a tender, buttery cake. This showstopping dessert is layered with toasted pecans and finished with a sticky glaze that seeps into the cake for maximum richness and moisture.
Pressing toasted pecans on top of the cake batter before baking ensures they stay crunchy for a satisfying texture and gives the cake a built-in wow factor. You’ll finish by brushing a generous slosh of bourbon caramel over the still-warm cake, letting it drip down the sides and soak into the crumb, ensuring every bite is rich with flavor and wonderfully moist.
Tips for the best pecan cake:
- Toast your nuts. Sorry, no, you can’t skip this step. Toasting the pecans enhances their flavor, aroma, and texture. Because the pecan halves will be glazed, toasting them gives them a crisper texture, creating a more dynamic crispy-gooey topping.
- Use room-temperature ingredients. Baking with room-temperature ingredients ensures they incorporate smoothly without lumps. For the butter, you should be able to push a finger into it and meet some resistance. To quickly warm the eggs, place them in a bowl of warm water.
- Overmix? Never worry. This cake uses the reverse creaming method: beating the butter into the dry ingredients, which coats the flour mixture with fat and inhibits gluten formation. This means you don’t get the aeration that usually comes from traditional creaming (beating butter and sugar until creamy). As a result, when adding the wet ingredients, you’ll whip the cake mix for about 2 minutes—a step that can feel like you’re doing something wrong. Trust the process
- Prep your pan. We love Pam Baking Spray—it’s not the same thing as cooking spray. The former is a solution of oil and flour that forms a more stable coating and almost guarantees zero stickage.
- Pan swap. If you don’t have a springform pan, you can bake this cake recipe in a tall (at least 3") round 9" cake pan. Line the pan with parchment and add 2 strips of parchment paper in a cross pattern to help lift the cake out of the pan.
Recipe information
Total Time
1 hour 30 minutes
Yield
8 servings
Ingredients
Cake
8
2¼
1½
2½
2
1
½
¾
¾
1
3
Glaze and Assembly
1
¾
½
¼
½
Special Equipment
Need to make a substitution?
Preparation
Cake
Step 1
Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 325°. Lay a sheet of parchment paper on base of pan. Place band on top and clamp sides shut so they hold parchment in place. Lightly coat parchment and sides of pan with nonstick vegetable oil spray or unsalted butter, room temperature. Toast 8 oz. raw pecan halves (about 2 cups) on a small rimmed baking sheet, tossing halfway through, until slightly darkened in color and fragrant (you want them on the lighter side as they will continue to toast later when you bake them on top of the cake), 8–10 minutes. Let cool.
Step 2
Beat 2¼ cups (281 g) all-purpose flour, 1½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar, 2½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1½ tsp. Morton kosher salt, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, and ½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed to combine, about 1 minute. Add ¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter; beat until mixture is sandy with no visible butter pieces remaining, about 45 seconds. Add ¾ cup whole milk and 1 tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract and beat until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes (this mixing time will help keep the cake from sinking later; don’t worry about overmixing). Add 3 large eggs one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition; batter should be smooth and creamy. Scrape into prepared pan and arrange pecans in a single layer on top, pressing in gently to adhere.
Step 3
Set pan on a rimmed baking sheet and bake cake until a wooden tester inserted into the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached (don't worry if the cake puffs up a bit and is slightly domed; that's normal), 50–60 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cake cool in pan.
Glaze and Assembly
Step 4
While the cake is cooling, cook 1 cup (packed; 200 g) dark brown sugar, ¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1" pieces, ½ cup heavy cream, ¼ cup bourbon or water, and ½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisking often, until thick enough to coat a spoon, 8–10 minutes. Let glaze cool.
Step 5
Pour half of glaze over cake in pan. Let sit 15 minutes. Unmold cake; transfer to a cake stand or large plate. Serve with remaining glaze for drizzling over.
Do Ahead: Cake can be made 2 days ahead. Cover cake and remaining glaze separately and chill. Let both sit at room temperature 1 hour before serving.