Pecan Pie Cake
This Southern pecan pie cake recipe features all those irresistible pecan pie flavors in cake form. With a caramelized brown sugar and pecan layer on top of the cake, it’s decadent and delicious!
Hands up who loves pecan pie? It’s definitely one of the most popular desserts to enjoy during the holidays and throughout fall. There’s just something about the delicious combination of caramelized brown sugar and chopped pecans that has you coming back for more, right?
Well, with this pecan pie cake recipe (a Southern dessert specialty I might add), we take those flavors and add them on top of a box cake mix. The end result is a cake that’s decadent, rich, and moist. It’s almost like a dump cake!
Fortunately, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to make this delicious holiday dessert. All you need are 7 ingredients (cake mix, butter, light corn syrup, eggs, dark brown sugar, vanilla, and pecans) and a stand mixer. Once you mix and bake the cake layer, you then mix and bake the gooey and sweet pecan pie layer. That’s it! Enjoy a slice of pecan pie cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of fresh whipped cream.
Speaking of Thanksgiving and Christmas, a few of my other favorite desserts include my easy pumpkin pie recipe from scratch, pecan pie cheesecake, pumpkin praline cake with cream cheese icing, and loaded sweet potatoes with marshmallows.
Recipe Ingredients
- Butter cake or yellow cake mix
- Melted butter (or margarine)
- Light corn syrup
- Eggs
- Dark brown sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Chopped pecans
How to Make Pecan Pie Cake
Mix the cake mix, 1 egg, and melted butter until well blended.
Reserve 2/3 cup of this batter.
Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.
Spread the remaining cake batter into this pan and bake at 325 for 15 minutes, or until just lightly brown.
In a mixing bowl, stir together the reserved 2/3 cup of batter, syrup, remaining eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, and pecans.
Pour the on top of the cake layer.
Cook at 325 for 50-60 minutes or until set in the center.
Doesn’t that look exactly like a pecan pie?
But hiding underneath is a fluffy cake. What more could you want?
Allow the cake to cool completely before serving.
Enjoy!
Storage
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. I recommend reheating leftovers quickly in the microwave.
Recipe Notes
- Use any box cake mix you like. You might even want to enhance the pecan flavor and opt for a butter pecan cake mix.
- You can use salted or unsalted butter. If you choose the latter, I’d also add a pinch of salt.
- You can also use either or dark .
Recipe FAQs
How do you serve pecan pie cake?
There’s nothing better than a slice of Southern pecan pie cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. But it also tastes great on its own or with some fresh whipped cream.
You may also like these other pecan recipes:
Butter Pecan Shortbread Chippers
Candied Pecans Recipe: Family and Friends Favorite
Ingredients
- 1 box yellow cake or butter cake mix
- 1/2 cup melted butter or margarine, I don’t judge
- 1 1/2 cups light corn syrup
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
Instructions
- Mix cake mix, 1 egg, and melted butter until well blended. Reserve 2/3 cup of this batter.1 box yellow cake or butter cake mix, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup melted butterÂ
- Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Spread the remaining cake batter into this pan and bake at 325 for 15 minutes, or until just lightly browned.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together the reserved 2/3 cup of batter, syrup, 3 eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, and pecans.1 1/2 cups light corn syrup, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
- Pour the pecan mixture on top of the cake layer and cook at 325 for 50-60 minutes, until set in the center.
- Allow the cake to cool completely before serving.
Enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes.
Am wondering if pretzel bits can be substituted for the pecans (as in your Faux Pecan Pie recipe). I might just give it a try since I cannot eat nuts. Should work!?
Absolutely, just follow my recipe for those on my faux pecan pie. I’ve put the link in several other comments here so you should be able to find it easily 🙂 If not holler at me and I’ll be happy to find it and paste it again
I loved today’s post. I’ve been going through a hard time physically the past few months, and my default attitude has unfortunately become a whiny one. The Lord spoke to me though what you had to say.
I thought my family were the only ones who came into contact with woolyboogers! Been using that word all my life, but I’ve never heard anyone outside my family use it. And you’re spot-on with your pronunciation of pecan. As a proper southern belle I can’t tell you what p-can reminds me of. I’ll leave it to your imagination!
Praying for you!
I hope you get to feeling better soon Angie!! Thank you so much for your prayers, I will be praying for you as well.
You have become my go to person for recipes. Well actually I look to my mom’s recipes (they became mine after her death in 1992) and they you and the Pioneer woman are my two favorite bloggers. I wsh the cooking network would give you a show too. Hmmm… Maybe a write in campaign to get u you’re own cooking show, my DVR would be full.
… What I wanted to say really was that I saw your previous dessert post about the pecan pie without pecans. And I was hooked, I loved my mom’s pecan pie but as I’ve gotten older and my health has also gonna gotten worse, and someone I live with is allergic to tree nuts; I just can’t eat but maybe 1 piece. But thinking of your pie made me wonder if I could make turtles without the nuts. And after much searching online I found an easy recipe for Rollo (the chocolate caramel candies we loved as kids) and pretzels. And easy candy to add to Xmas goody tins that my family will receive. Your recipes have recently been becoming new recipes in my own “family recipes.”
thank you so much.
Super Post today Christy. The recipe looks great too !
Thanks Kristy! For a recipe to take to my Labor Day family reunion. But more for humbling me and making me try to stop whining. Lots of things coming up this weekend that I’ve been dreading. The family reunion is not one of those. Evil boss and co-workers in my life. From now on, I’m gonna try to be quiet and wash them out!! Can’t wait to bake this cake!! I know it’ll be as sweet as your blog!!
Oops, I meant Christy. :0/
I’m from So. Calif. and I call them Pa cons! Pe cans just sounds wrong to my ears. Whatever you cal them, they are delicious! Thanks Christy, I was looking for a dish to take to the Memorial Day potluck. This fits the bill!
Praise the Lord… another southern that says PA CON, that’s the way we’ve “always” pronounced it, never heard P can until my sister-in-law from California called them Pcans!!
This recipe sounds delightful, Blessings and Prayers to ya Christy!!!
This too shall pass! Keep the FAITH sweet pea!
Kaye : )
Oh yes! Only “PA CON” for this Mississippi girl too! And I will be making this recipe very very soon. Looks “DE VINE” 😉
I am from SC by way of WV and had always said puhcan but a lot of the ladies around here say prefabricated and I accidentally said the old adage about the bucket you take into the woods. Whoa! Thhat was a mistake. So now I say each to her own. LOL!
Christy,
I love my Wednesday mornings so much. I teach a ladies class on Wednesday night at church. I go back over and study my notes and work on the lesson some more. (That can take a couple of hours or so) Then it is my time with YOU!! I read all of the postings that you have done since the following Wednesday. I start with God and then I finish with another wonderful friend that shares my passion for the kitchen and food.
Hope you are up going strong soon and that those woolybuggers stay out of your life!