Decorating Bundt Cake With Nuts

I've been a little obsessed with pecans lately. Maybe it's Canada taking a hold of me and slowly morphing me into a Canadian, but they're just so crunchy and delicious and I don't know how I didn't use them more often in the past! This maple pecan bundt cake is really a celebration of pecans. The sweet, maple sponge sets the stage for the toasted, candied pecans and everything is tied together with a dreamy maple cream cheese glaze.

Can you make Maple Pecan Cake without a Bundt Pan?

If you don't have a bundt pan, don't worry! You can still make this maple pecan cake in either a regular cake tin or even as a loaf cake. Both the cake texture and the thickness of the glaze lend themselves really nicely to either of those formats, so keep the delicious flavour and make this cake in any form you like!

Tips for the Maple Cream Cheese Glaze

Honestly you could eat this maple pecan bundt cake without the glaze and it's utterly delicious. But the glaze just makes it that little bit extra special. Consistency is really important for a glaze like this – too thick and you won't get those gorgeous drips down the side, too runny and it will dribble right off the edge of the cake. Test the thickness out running the glaze from a spoon into a bowl, it should move relatively slowly and sit on the surface for a while before sinking back in. If you need to thicken it up a little, add some more icing sugar, if you need to thin it out, add a splash of milk or a little more maple syrup.

I find the easiest way to decorate bundt cakes is to use a piping bag, I kind of make zig-zag drips across the cake from outside to inside, then encourage them to drip down in the areas I want them to. It's hard to make this look bad to be honest so just whatever feels right. At the end of the day, a maple pecan bundt cake is going to be delicious no matter what it looks like!

How to Get a Bundt Cake Out of the Pan Perfectly

A lot of people are intimidated by bundt cakes but there's really nothing to fear! The main thing is just to make sure that your cake pan is really well greased before putting your batter in. Back in Scotland i used to use a spray called 'Bake Easy', but for some reason it doesn't seem to be available here in Canada, so I had to improvise with a homemade concoction of 1 part shortening, 1 part flour and 1 part vegetable oil. I just add a spoonful of each to a small bowl, mix together until smooth and then spread generously onto the cake pan with a pastry brush. The maple pecan bundt cake just pops right out!

It's also important that you remove the cake at the right time. You don't want to take it out immediately as the cake will be too hot and may break apart, but if you leave it for too long it will start to sweat and go a bit soggy. Ideally, leave the bundt cake to sit in the pan for 10 minutes after removing from the oven, then flip upside down onto a cooling rack and it should slide right out.

Try Not To Eat All the Pecans… like I did!

This maple pecan bundt cake is honestly such a treat. It's classy and understated, but so full of flavour. The toasted, candied pecans are so moreish you'll have to try really hard not to eat them all right off of the tray – I had to make extra to decorate at the end because I scoffed too many of them!

Maple Pecan Bundt Cake

Fluffy maple sponge packed with toasted, candied pecans and topped with a dreamy maple cream cheese glaze

Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 55 mins

For the Cake

▢ 1 cup Unsalted Butter
▢ 1 cup White Sugar (caster sugar in the UK)
▢ 1 cup Golden Sugar (light brown sugar)
▢ 2/3 cup Maple Syrup
▢ 2 Eggs
▢ 3 cups All-purpose Flour
▢ 1 cup Milk
▢ 2 tsp Baking Powder
▢ 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
▢ 1/2 tsp Salt

For the Toasted Pecans

▢ 2 cups Chopped Pecans
▢ 3 tbsp Salted Butter
▢ 3 tbsp Golden Sugar

For the Maple Cream Cheese Glaze

▢ 1/2 cup Cream Cheese room temperature
▢ 1/4 cup Butter room temperature
▢ 1 cup Icing Sugar
▢ 1/4 cup Maple Syrup
▢ 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

Toast the Pecans

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Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking tray with parchment paper
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Chop pecans into various sized chunks and place in a bowl. Keep a handful or so of them whole to decorate the top of the cake
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Melt the butter and add to the bowl along with the pecans and golden sugar, stir until the pecans are evenly coated
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Bake for 7 minutes until toasted, then remove from the oven and set aside while you prepare your cake batter

Make the Cake

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Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy
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Add eggs, one at a time and incorporate
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Stir in the maple syrup and vanilla extract
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Sift flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl and add a third of it to the batter, stir in completely
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Add half the milk, followed by another third of flour, the remainder of the milk and then the remainder of the flour, making sure to incorporate completely in between each addition
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Fold in your chopped pecans (remember to keep some aside for decoration)
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Pour into a well greased bundt pan and bake for 45 – 55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean
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Remove the bundt cake from the oven and allow to sit on the worktop for 10 minutes, then flip it upside down onto a cooling rack and remove from the pan. Let cool completely before decorating

Make the Maple Cream Cheese Glaze

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Put all the ingredients into a mixer and beat until smooth and slightly runny
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Pour over the bundt cake as you like and decorate with toasted pecans

Keyword bundt, cake, maple, pecans