Butter Pecan Pound Cake in a Loaf Pan

This butter pecan pound cake has a simple butter cake base with plenty of toasted pecans and a dollop of sour cream to keep it moist. The brown sugar pecan ribbon through the middle adds a delightful crunch, and the vanilla icing drizzle makes it absolutely irresistible. It bakes up in a standard loaf pan and is perfect for impressing guests or enjoying a cozy treat at home.

Like all my homemade cake recipes, this butter pecan pound cake is so good served with a scoop of ice cream (butter pecan ice cream is a natural fit!) but I also love serving it with a cup of my French press cold brew coffee for breakfast.

If you've made my lemon-blueberry pound cake or old fashioned vanilla pound cake this butter pecan pound cake will feel very familiar to you. It uses the classic creaming method for cake making, with the addition of toasted pecans and vanilla bean paste to really emphasize that butter pecan flavor.

I added a brown sugar pecan ribbon through the middle of the cake and as a decoration on top, which is just so wonderfully crisp and crunchy. And the drizzle of vanilla bean icing is a lovely finishing touch that adds a hint of sweetness that so perfectly contrasts with the cozy, nutty flavor of the toasted pecans.

When I first started developing this butter pecan pound cake recipe I was so sure that the nutty flavor of brown butter would be the best way to emphasize both the butter and the pecan flavors you expect from anything labeled "butter pecan".

I made about seven test butter pecan pound cakes this way before deciding to give it a try without browning the butter and voila — it turned out that pure buttery flavor was exactly what this cake needed. And it was one less step in the recipe, a real win-win!

Not only does using plain, non-browned butter give this pound cake a more intensely buttery flavor, it also helps the cake rise a lot more dramatically than the brown butter did, producing a butter pecan pound cake with a gorgeously domed top. Perfect for drizzling ribbons of vanilla bean icing over.

Ingredient Notes

Here are the ingredients that you'll need to make this butter pecan pound cake! See recipe card for quantities.

• Whole or Halved Pecans - While you will chop and toast the pecans for this recipe, I prefer buying whole or halved ones and chopping them myself so that I can use some whole pieces to decorate the top of the cake. If you don't want to do this, you can absolutely buy already chopped pecans.
• Unsalted Butter - This recipe uses unsalted American-style butter (e.g. not European butter like Kerrygold, which has a different milkfat percentage). If using salted butter, cut the amount of salt in the recipe in half.
• Sugar - Plain old regular granulated white sugar.
• Brown Sugar - Dark or light brown sugar will work. This adds some moisture and a rich flavor to the cake.
• Eggs - This recipe uses large eggs. Extra large eggs will also work.
• Vanilla - Vanilla is a key component of butter pecan flavor. I use a vanilla bean paste which has flecks of real vanilla bean in it, but you can use vanilla extract here instead if you prefer.
• Flour - I use regular all-purpose flour in this cake. Gluten-free cup-for-cup all-purpose flours should also work, but I haven't personally tested them.
• Sour Cream - Full-fat sour cream (or full-fat Greek yogurt) adds a ton of moisture and makes this cake very tender.
• Salt - I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt which is half as salty as other brands and types of salt. If you're measuring salt by weight, you can use any type or brand of salt. But if you're measuring by volume (teaspoons) and using a different brand of salt, even a different brand of kosher salt, cut the amount of salt in half.
• Baking Powder - Double-acting baking powder helps ensure you get a nice rise on this butter pecan pound cake.
• Powdered Sugar - Also called "confectioner's sugar," this is needed to make the vanilla icing drizzle on top.
• Milk - Also for the icing. You only need a teaspoon of it, so any type of milk you have on hand is fine, even milk alternatives.

• Bring the butter to room temperature. Let the butter sit out at room temperature (~70°F) for an hour or two prior to baking. To speed this process up you can microwave the cold, wrapped sticks of butter for about 4 seconds per side. The butter should still feel slightly cool to the touch but and soft enough to press a finger into, but not so soft that it's greasy or melty — you're looking for a temperature of about 65°F.
• Bring the eggs to room temperature. Submerge the eggs in very hot water for about 10-15 minutes prior to mixing. This helps them incorporate into the cake batter easily and will allow your cake to rise. If they're cold when you add them to the butter and sugar, they'll cool down the butter, causing the batter to break and separate instead of emulsifying into the mixture.
• Mix the dry ingredients together. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.
• Chop and toast the pecans. You'll need the chopped and toasted pecans divided — a portion for the batter, and a portion for the filling and topping. Do this before you start making the cake batter so you aren't rushed!

Chopping & Toasting Pecans

Before you start making the cake batter, chop and toast the pecans. You can do this in either order, but I prefer chopping first because the smaller pieces toast faster.

I chop the pecans by pulsing them a few times in my favorite 5-cup mini food chopper, but you can also just use a knife if you prefer. I like some variety in the size of the pecans, so I try not to chop them too small. You do you.

Add the chopped pecans to a dry skillet over medium heat and toast them, stirring frequently to prevent burning. When the pecans are fragrant and the smaller pieces are starting to visibly brown, remove the skillet from the heat.

NOTE: No, you don't need to toast the pecans. But toasting releases some of the natural oils from the nuts and gives them a more complex flavor. I recommend it! But if you'd rather skip that step, you can.

How to Make Butter Pecan Pound Cake

Just like my old-fashioned vanilla pound cake, this butter pecan pound cake uses the creaming method of mixing. You can read a lot more about that process in detail in that blog post, and I do recommend it if you're new to this mixing process!

During the creaming process, the sugar granules tear thousands of tiny holes in the butter, which are then sealed up, trapping air inside. This trapped air helps the butter pecan pound cake rise in the oven. It's super important that you give this step of the recipe the time it needs; don't rush it!

When properly creamed together, the butter and sugar mixture will be pale khaki in color, light, and fluffy looking. If you rub it between your fingers the sugar granules should be almost entirely dissolved but still feel slightly gritty.

The next step is to add the eggs one at a time, giving each egg plenty of time to incorporate (about 45-60 seconds) before adding the next one. Scrape down the bowl and beater before adding each egg, and then again at the end before you add the dry ingredients.

Scrape down the bowl, and add the sour cream. Mix again on the lowest speed just until the sour cream is barely combined.

Why do we mix in the flour on the lowest speed? When you add flour to liquid and mix it, the flour begins forming a gluten network. A gluten network is great in bread recipes where it provides the strength needed to shape bread dough. But in a cake recipe, developing gluten will make the cake tough and dense. We don't want that!

Finish by plopping the remaining butter pecan pound cake batter down on top of the filling.

Use a mini offset spatula to smooth out the top, getting the batter into all the corners of the pan. Sprinkle the top with the rest of the brown sugar pecan filling and decorate the top with a few whole or half pieces of pecan for an extra flourish too.

Pressing the cake batter down into the pan is important for removing any air bubbles that might be hiding inside. Smoothing out the top helps ensure the pound cake bakes evenly with a nice domed shape.

Bake the cake at 325°F for 75-85 minutes, until a toothpick or small knife inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it. You're looking for an internal temperature of around 200°F.

Let the butter pecan pound cake cool in the pan on a rack for about 15-20 minutes. Then run a knife around any sides of the pan without parchment paper and use the parchment sling to lift it out and onto the rack to finish cooling completely.

NOTE: The cake must be completely cool before you add the icing or it will melt off the top.

Vanilla Bean Icing Drizzle

Making this simple vanilla bean pound cake icing drizzle takes literally 30 seconds. Super easy. You don't even have to sift the powdered sugar first (though you may want to if your powdered sugar is particularly clumpy).

Let the drizzle dry — it happens quickly, just give it a few minutes. Your butter pecan pound cake is now ready to serve!

Suggested Equipment

Here's the equipment I use to make this butter pecan pound cake. You don't need to have all of these same tools, but they may make the process easier!

• Mini Food Processor - I used my 5-cup cordless mini food processor to chop the nuts, but a knife, a bullet blender, or a smaller 3.5 cup mini food processor will also work just fine. If you're using any sort of appliance to chop the pecans, just make sure you can pulse it to chop rather than running it in long bursts — if you run it too long without stopping you risk making pecan butter by mistake!
• Electric Mixer - I use a KitchenAid stand mixer with a paddle attachment. An electric hand mixer will also work — the creaming stage may just take a little longer.
• 1 Pound Loaf Pan - A "1 pound" loaf pan is approximately 8 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 3 inches tall. A 1.25 pound loaf pan (9x5x3) will also work but your cake may not have the same height that mine does in these photos as there's more room for the batter to spread out. Metal pans work best for getting that golden brown crust. You may need to adjust baking time and temperature if using a glass pan.
• Quarter Pan Pre-Cut Parchment Sheets - I use these pre-cut parchment sheets to create a parchment sling that lines the pan to make the pound cake easier to remove. You'll have to trim about an inch off one of the long sides for it to fit, but they work very nicely!
• Metal Binder Clips - To secure the parchment paper in place so it doesn't fold in on top of the cake in the oven. Do not use plastic binder clips in the oven. I repeat, no plastic in the oven.
• Mini Offset Spatula - For smoothing out the cake batter in the pan. Trust me, you'll think a regular spatula or a knife can do the same job, but once you try using a mini offset spatula, there's no going back.

Storage Notes & Freezing

This butter pecan pound cake can be stored at room temperature with an airtight cover for 4-5 days. You can also refrigerate it in an airtight container for up to a week.

The pound cake itself can be frozen for up to 3 months. Wrap it well once the icing drizzle is fully set. Defrost in the fridge, then let come to room temperature to serve.

Practical Tips and Recipe Notes

• If the cake batter begins to look split or curdled as you're adding the eggs, don't sweat it too much. It will come back together when you add the flour.
• When in doubt, SCRAPE DOWN THE BOWL. If it feels like you're stopping too often to scrape down the bowl, that means you're doing it right. You don't want any ingredients to go unincorporated or you'll end up with large air bubbles or clumps in your final cake.
• Mixing the dry ingredients on the lowest possible speed and stopping as soon as they're all combined is super important. The goal is to avoid developing gluten in the cake batter, which would make your pound cake dense and tough, with lots of trapped tunnels of air bubbles inside.
• To keep the cake from sticking to the pan, spray the pan with non stick spray, then line with a parchment paper sling. The non-stick spray helps the paper stick to the walls of the pan. I use metal binder clips to help hold the paper in place, but this is optional.
• Make sure your baking powder is fresh! If you aren't sure, it's probably not. Baking powder lasts about 6 months, after that it loses its strength. To check if it's still good, Epicurious recommends mixing 1 cup very hot tap water with 2 teaspoons baking powder: "If there’s an immediate fizzing reaction that dissipates all of the powder, you’ll know it still works. If there’s no bubbling, the baking powder is no longer potent and needs to be swapped out."
• IMPORTANT: If you use the 2X/3X buttons in the recipe card, that will only change the numbers to the left of the ingredients. It won't change any numbers given in the recipe card or in the parentheses to the right of the ingredients; you'll have to do those conversions yourself!
• GLUTEN FREE/ALMOND FLOUR/WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR - Cup-for-cup gluten free flour should work just fine here. Almond flour is just ground almonds, it will not work in this cake. Whole wheat flour will make the cake very dry, I don't recommend it.

Why Temperatures Matter

Make sure you pay attention to the temperature directions in this pound cake recipe.

• If your butter is too warm, it won't incorporate enough air. If the butter is too cold, it will take much longer to cream properly.
• If you use cold eggs, they will cause the butter to firm up in the mixer and you risk it curdling or splitting, resulting in a flat, dense, tough cake.
• If your oven runs hot or cold, this can affect the cake's rise, the thickness of the crust, the texture, and the baking time. My oven runs about 50 degrees hotter than the temperature I set it to. I recommend using an oven thermometer to make sure you're baking it at the right temperature!

Why is this recipe in grams? I want to use cups!

A kitchen scale is more accurate than cup measurements and will give you the right ratio of dry and liquid ingredients so that the cake batter behaves the way we want it to. The name of this cake is literally pound cake — it's super important that you have equal amounts of flour, butter, and sugar by weight to get the best results.

I tested and developed this recipe using weight measurements. If I were to convert it to volume measurements, I would be using an online conversion calculator — just like you would. There's no set standard for how much "1 cup" of flour weighs (I use 120 grams, like King Arthur Baking does, but other recipe developers use as much as 150 grams as "1 cup"), which means this will produce wildly varying results. Use a kitchen scale for best results!

📖 Recipe