Toffee Pecan Bundt Cake

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This moist Toffee Pecan Bundt Cake has such a delicious combination of caramel, toffee, and pecans! It is tender with a fine crumb, and has wonderful flavor.

Sliced Toffee Pecan Bundt Cake on white pedestal.

Why we Love It

Ingredients for Toffee Pecan Cake

Here are the ingredients that you will need for this delicious bundt cake recipe! *You can find the full, printable recipe card further down in this post!

Ingredients needed for the Toffee Pecan Cake.

A Few Tips on Ingredients

Unsalted Butter, softened (It shouldn't be completely soft, but softened enough that it "dents" when touched). We use unsalted so that we have more control over the amount of salt that we will add to the recipe

Light Brown Sugar In addition to the white sugar in the recipe, brown sugar adds even more moisture and a nice caramel flavor as it contains molasses.

Cake Flour Cake flour has a lower protein content, making for a softer, more tender crumb. (No cake flour? See Notes section of the recipe card for a substitution.)

Sour Cream Adds richness, and the acidity interferes with gluten formation which softens the texture (as with our Sour Cream Pound Cake, Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake, and Chocolate Sour Cream Cake!)

Milk We use whole milk for added richness

Toffee Bits Complements the caramel flavor of the cake! If you cannot find toffee bits, you can also crush a Heath Bar.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

How to Make a Toffee Pecan Bundt Cake

You can find the full instructions for this recipe further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of the steps for this delicious toffee cake.

  • First, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour bundt pan or tube pan. (See Notes for additional pan details)
Bundt Pan that has been Greased and Floured.
  • In a separate bowl combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk at least 30 seconds to blend. Set aside.
Bowl of dry ingredients with whisk
  • In another bowl combine the sour cream, vanilla extract, vegetable oil and whole milk. Stir and set aside.
  • In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and beat on low to medium speed until smooth. Slowly add the white and brown sugar, mixing on medium speed until the mixture is lighter in color and fluffy, approximately 3 to 5 minutes ( a bit longer if using a hand mixer).
Butter and Sugar Mixture in Stand Mixer
  • Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg until the yellow of the yolk is blended in.
  • With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. (We did three additions of the dry ingredients, alternating with two additions of wet.) Stop & scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula as needed (once or twice). Mix just until combined.
Bowl of cake batter for the Toffee Pecan Cake recipe
  • Once the batter is mixed, using a spatula fold in the toffee bits and the chopped pecans. The cake batter is thick, this will help to keep the nuts and toffee bits from sinking to the bottom of the pan. This recipe makes 8 cups of batter.
Folding toffee bits and pecans into bowl of cake batter with a rubber spatula
  • Scoop batter into the prepared bundt pan. Smooth the top with the back of a spoon. Bake for 45-50 minutes (adjust time as needed).
Prepared bundt pan filled with toffee pecan cake batter
  • The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center pulls out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out.
Freshly baked Toffee Pecan Bundt Cake in pan, cooling on wire rack

Caramel Glaze

This cake is delicious just as it is, but we wanted to add another layer of flavor with an easy caramel glaze! We love caramel glazes and have used them on several of our cakes, including our Pumpkin Toffee Pecan Pound Cake, Apple Pecan Bundt Cake, and Banana Pecan Bundt Cake (just to name a few)!

Caramel sauce is the perfect addition to the brown sugar, toffee, and pecan flavor of this recipe.

  • This cooked caramel glaze is prepared in a saucepan on the stovetop. It is a simple combination of butter, brown sugar, heavy cream, salt, vanilla extract, and light corn syrup. (The light corn syrup helps to prevent sugar crystals form forming).
  • After simmering for 5-6 minutes, the saucepan of caramel sauce should be removed from the heat in order to cool.
  • After cooling a bit, pour the glaze into a casserole dish to speed up the cooling process.
Caramel sauce, cooling in a glass casserole dish.

Decorating the Bundt Cake

Once the cake has cooled, and the caramel has cooled to the desired amount, it is time to apply the glaze!

You can spoon the caramel glaze over the cake if you would like. We added ours using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away. (You can also do the same with a ziplock bag with the corner snipped away).

Drizzle the caramel sauce over the glaze, and then sprinkle with toffee bits, crushed pecans, or both! (We used toffee bits on top).

Glazing the toffee cake with caramel
Sliced Toffee Pecan Bundt Cake with caramel glaze on a white pedestal. Top is sprinkled with toffee bits.

Recipe FAQs

Can this recipe be made as a layer cake?

Yes it can! Check out our Toffee Pecan Layer Cake. This is the popular layer cake recipe that we based this recipe on.

Can this Cake be Frozen?

Yes! Just as with the majority of our cake recipes (from lemonade cake to strawberry pound cake, sour cream pound cake and more), this cake freezes beautifully.

If baking well in advance, allow the cake to cool almost completely before wrapping with plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil. Label with the date, and freeze for up to three months!

When it is time to thaw the cake, place in the refrigerator the night before (still wrapped), and then remove the next morning to finish thawing on kitchen counter.

How Should the Cake be Stored?

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days .

More Caramel Cakes

In addition to other nutty cake flavors like pistachio cake and Italian Cream Cake, we have more delicious caramel cake recipes to share with you! Here are just a few favorites for you to try:

Don't miss our full collection of cakes and cupcakes in our Cake Recipes section! There, you will find our go-to cakes, including cake mix recipes and cake recipes from scratch.

We also have hundreds of free cake decorating tutorials to share with you!

Toffee Pecan Bundt Cake on white pedestal

Toffee Pecan Bundt Cake

This moist and tender Toffee Pecan Bundt Cake has a soft, fine crumb and wonderful flavor!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Course: Dessert
Servings: 15
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Ingredients

  • 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened Should be just soft enough that it dents when pressed.
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature (to warm quickly — put into a bowl with very warm water for 10 minutes.)
  • 1 cup (200g) white sugar
  • 1 cup (217g) light brown sugar (packed into measuring cup)
  • 3 cups (342g) cake flour (if you do not have a scale, spoon into a measuring cup and level off with back of a knife) See NOTE below for cake flour substitute
  • 1 Tablespoon (12g) baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
  • 1 cup (242g) sour cream
  • 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
  • ½ cup (121g) milk (we used whole milk)
  • cup (68g) vegetable oil (we prefer canola oil)
  • ½ cup (72g) toffee bits (we used Heath Bits O' Brickle toffee bits)
  • ½ cup (49g) chopped pecans

Ingredients for Caramel Sauce

  • ½ stick (57g) unsalted butter (if using salted butter, do not add additional salt)
  • 1 cup (217g) light brown sugar (packed into measuring cup)
  • ½ cup (126g) heavy cream
  • ½ teaspoon (2g) salt
  • 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
  • 1 Tablespoon (18g) light corn syrup

Instructions

For the Cake

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour bundt pan or tube pan. (See Notes for additional pan details)
  • In a separate bowl combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk at least 30 seconds to blend. Set aside.
  • In another bowl combine the sour cream, vanilla, oil and milk. Stir and set aside.
  • In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and beat on low to medium speed until smooth. Slowly add the white and brown sugar, mixing on medium speed until the mixture is lighter in color and fluffy, approximately 3 to 5 minutes ( a bit longer if using a hand mixer).
  • Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg until the yellow of the yolk is blended in.
  • With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. (We did three additions of the dry ingredients, alternating with two additions of wet.) Stop & scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula as needed (once or twice).Mix just until combined.
  • Once the batter is mixed, using a spatula fold in the toffee bits and the chopped pecans. The cake batter is thick, this will help to keep the nuts and toffee bits from sinking to the bottom of the pan.
  • Scoop batter into the prepared bundt pan. Smooth the top with the back of a spoon. Bake for 45-50 minutes (adjust time as needed). The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center pulls out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out.
  • This recipe makes about 8 cups of batter

Caramel Sauce

  • Using a medium size sauce pan (deep enough to prevent boil over) melt the butter over medium heat.
  • Add the brown sugar and the remaining ingredients.
  • Stir to blend, try to keep mixture off the sides of the pan. Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat to low.
  • Simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, check the pot making sure it will not boil over.
  • Keep in mind that the caramel with thicken up a bit as it cools. You can pour it into a long glass casserole dish if you want it to cool more quickly.
  • Makes 1 cup caramel sauce. It can be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.

Decorating the Cake

  • Once the cake has cooled, and the caramel has cooled enough to thicken to desired amount, you can spoon the glaze over the cake or pipe it with a piping bag. A piping bag gives a bit more control- we simply snipped the end away to create a small hole in the bag. You can do the same with a ziplock bag and snip away one corner.
  • Top with toffee bits, crushed pecans, or both. (Ours is topped with toffee bits).

Notes

Substitution for cake flour:  For each cup of flour in the recipe, measure out 1 cup all purpose flour (plain in the UK) remove 2 Tablespoons of the all purpose flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK).  This recipe has 3 cups of flour so measure 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch.  Whisk to blend.
Bundt Cake Pan:  Our bundt pan has a baking capacity of 12 cups, and measures 10 inches across.
If you are using a different size pan, the baking times may vary. If using a smaller pan, the general rule of thumb is not to fill the pan more than ⅔ full.
5 from 4 votes (3 ratings without comment)

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5 Comments

  1. Just curious. Can you add other chip type things or more nuts etc.? This looks amazing and I can’t wait to try it!

    1. Hi Linda! Yes, you should be able to doctor it up with your preferred add-ins with no issues. The batter is pretty thick! When using chips in our cakes, we usually go with mini chips just to be on the safe side as they are lighter weight. Hope you enjoy the cake!

  2. 5 stars
    I absolutely LOVED this recipe. It turned out EXACTLY as it shows. I followed everything to a T. In all of my years of baking, I've never mixed the sour cream, vanilla, milk, and old separately. It was genius! The only thing I did different was drizzled some cream cheese frosting over it instead of caramel. Trust me I LOVE caramel but bc my daughter had a bad Starbucks experience I didn't use it bc I didn't want to be stuck with this delicious cake to eat myself, although that would've been fine also. Lol. I turned out great! Super moist and very favorable. Thanks for sharing.

    1. Hi Natasha! Thank you so much for your feedback, we are so happy that you all enjoyed the recipe. We are big fans of cream cheese frosting also- sounds like a great combination! ;0)