Maple Pecan Cake with Maple Buttercream {A Scratch Recipe}

We LOVE this moist and flavorful homemade Maple Cake! 

It is a fantastic go-to recipe no matter what time of year, but we make it most often in the fall when we crave maple and pecan desserts the most!

Why we Love It

There are so many reasons to love this scratch Maple Cake recipe!

• Wonderful maple flavor (thanks to the maple syrup and maple extract in the recipe)
• Moist, tender crumb
• Maple and pecans are a heavenly combination
• Perfect fall cake, fall birthday cake recipe, potluck dessert, Thanksgiving cake, and so many more special occasions!

Maple Glazed Pecans

Maple and pecan are such a satisfying combination of flavors, especially when those pecans are coated with a heavenly maple glaze. Ahhhhh.

We've used maple glazed pecans as a delicious topping, and incorporated them into the cake filling for an added flavor boost and a little crunch. So good!

Maple Pecan Buttercream Recipe

Another star of this cake is the Maple Pecan Buttercream. This simple and delicious frosting is a must for your recipe file (especially your fall favorites), and is SO simple to make!  

This is an American Buttercream, which means that it is made primarily of butter, powdered sugar, milk, and flavorings. It does develop a light crust.

In this case, we used maple flavoring to give us the flavor that we were looking for! Maple flavoring is often sold on the baking row at the grocery store but can also be easily found online!

You could experiment also with maple syrup, but the maple extract gives us all of the great flavor without having to add too much liquid to the frosting.

***Update: We also now have a great Maple Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe, which we used in our Apple Walnut Cake!

How to Make Maple Pecan Cake

You can find the full, printable Maple Pecan Cake Recipe further down in this post! Here is a quick rundown the steps for the cake!

*Make the Maple Glazed Pecans first according to our instructions. This gives such great flavor to the cake!

For the bake batter...we used the traditional method of mixing...

1. In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
2. In another bowl combine the milk, sour cream, vanilla and maple extract. Blend with a fork and set aside.
3. In the bowl of your mixer beat the butter until smooth. With the mixer on medium speed slowly add the sugar and mix 4 to 5 minutes.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg until no streaks of egg yolk color remains.
5. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to butter mixture alternating with the milk mixture. Begin and end with the flour mixture ( 3 additions of dry and 2 of liquid)

Divide the cake batter between two 8 inch prepared cake pans.

Other Favorite Cake Recipes for Fall

This Maple Pecan Layer Cake is a fantastic choice for fall (or year-round!). If you are craving more maple flavored cakes, you must try our Maple Carrot Cake and our Maple Toffee Cake!

We have so many other cozy fall cake flavors in our Recipes section! Don't miss our Roundup of Favorite Fall & Thanksgiving Cakes.

Some of our most popular are Carrot Cake, Gingerbread Cake, Pumpkin Spice Cake, and easy Apple Bundt Cake.

Favorite Pecan Cakes

We also have many more cakes where pecans play a starring role. Many of these are classic cakes like our favorite Italian Cream Cake, Spice Cake, and German Chocolate Cake recipes.

Here are a few more favorites!

• Toffee Pecan Caramel Cake

• Pecan Spice Cake

• Banana Cake with Butter Pecan Cream Cheese Filling

Don't miss all of our favorite cake recipes in our Cake Recipes section. You'll find more go-to cake recipes from scratch as well as simple and delicious cake mix reicpes!

More Maple Cakes

If you love maple cakes and desserts, don't miss our Maple Pound Cake, Maple Pecan Cake, Maple Carrot Cake, and Maple Toffee Cake recipes!

Maple Pecan Cake with Maple Buttercream {A Scratch Recipe}

BY Melissa and Bebe

We love this deliciously flavorful Maple Pecan Layer Cake recipe! This recipe is perfect year round but we especially love it in the fall!

Course: Dessert

Servings: 15

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Ingredients

For the Maple Glazed Pecans

• ▢ 2 cups (200 g) pecans, chopped
• ▢ ½ stick (56g) unsalted butter
• ▢ 3 Tablespoons (39g) maple syrup (I used pure maple syrup)
• ▢ After baking the pecans mix the following 2 ingredients and pour over pecans and stir to cover
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (2g) maple extract
• ▢ 2 Tablespoons (26g) maple syrup

For the Maple Cake

• ▢ 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter,softened Should still hold its shape but leave an impression when pressed.
• ▢ 1 ½ cups (300g) granulated sugar
• ▢ 3 large eggs, room temperature (place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes if you are in a hurry)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) maple extract
• ▢ ⅓ cup (73g) milk
• ▢ 1 cup (242g) sour cream
• ▢ 2 ½ cups (285g) cake flour
• ▢ 2 ½ teaspoons (12g) baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) salt

Maple Buttercream Frosting (Double this recipe if you plan to do lots of piping.)

• ▢ 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened
• ▢ 6 cups (690g) confectioners sugar (adjust amount slightly up or down to your liking)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) maple extract
• ▢ ¼ cup (60g) whole milk or more if needed
• ▢ pinch of salt

Instructions

For the Maple Glazed Pecans (Do this before baking the cake)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. If using aluminum foil, spray with non-stick cooking spray
• In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat, add 3 Tablespoons maple syrup
• Add chopped pecans and stir until pecans are coated.
• Spread pecans on baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and put into medium sized bowl.
• In a small bowl, mix together the 2 additional tablespoons maple syrup and ½ teaspoon maple extract. Pour over pecans and stir to coat.

For the Cake

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour two 8 inch round cake pans
• In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
• In another bowl combine the milk, sour cream, vanilla and maple extract. Blend with a fork and set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer beat the butter until smooth. With the mixer on medium speed slowly add the sugar and mix 4 to 5 minutes.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg until no streaks of egg yolk color remains.
• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to butter mixture alternating with the milk mixture. Begin and end with the flour mixture ( 3 additions of dry and 2 of liquid)
• Pour into 2 greased and floured 8 inch round pans.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake layers cool in the pans 10 to15 minutes then turn out.
• Makes 7 cups batter. Also works for cupcakes (little to no dome)

For the Maple Buttercream Frosting

• Cream the softened butter until smooth, blend in the flavorings. Add half of the powdered sugar and most of the milk.
• Mix at medium speed until the powdered sugar is incorporated. Add the remaining powdered sugar and milk and mix at medium speed another 3 to 4 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally.
• Slow down the mixer to the lowest speed during the last minute of mixing to help eliminate air pockets in the buttercream. The texture will become very smooth.
• Makes about 6 cups of frosting

Assembly of Cake

• Reserve a small bowl of frosting for your desired amount of filling. Stir in your desired amount of maple glazed pecans. Assemble the layers. Frost the cake (we piped ruffles with a tip 104). Use the remaining glazed pecans as topping for the cake.

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