Nuts About You Buttered Pecan Cake

There will be no red or pink here today. Instead, three moist layers of maple syrup cake, mounds of crunchy brown buttered maple pecans and copious amounts of rich, silky, smooth ruffles.

A compromise worth making.

Love is a lot of different things to a lot of people, and for me one of those things is fun. Love is all about having fun! Whether you're side by side on the couch catching up on PVR'd episodes of your favourite HBO shows, trying to kick each other's butts on the squash court, curled up in bed reading to each other, or whipping up sweet stuff in the kitchen - from the mundane to the magical moments - they should all be FUN. That's it! My over simplified, uncomplicated definition of love. 

And if love were a cake, it would look and taste a lot like this...only in chocolate. ;)

This was not my intended v-day post. If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw previews of cookies, cupcakes and heart-shaped meringues. In the end, I just wasn't feeling any of them, so I shelved them. Then K, who does more cooking than baking, decided we should make a cake together, and being the healthier of us two, his conditions were no fondant, no food coloring, little sugar, and very little or no buttercream. My response - dude, you're in the wrong kitchen! I don't mind excluding fondant and food color and curbing the sweetness, but no buttercream! I told him he might be more interested in pie. Pecan is his favourite. But I'm not much of a pie girl, so we brought the two together and I negotiated the buttercream back into the deal. It's what I do for a living.

K has really grown quite fond of swiss meringue buttercream,  so I walked him through his first batch, meaning he got to add the butter and the flavour at the end. I wasn't about to risk messing up a batch of the good stuff. 

Our time together in the kitchen is always fun, we like to pretend we are on a cooking show with lots of drama and over the top antics. Sometimes the disagreements become real and one of us has to leave the set... um, kitchen.

I found a cake over on the TLB Blog and fell in love with the look of it. I absolutely love all of Erin's creations. I used a different cake recipe and flavored my buttercream differently, but kept close to the overall look of the cake. I really like the borders she piped around the top and bottom of her cake, but K felt we had already added too much buttercream, so he added pecans at the base instead. It was missing something though, something that symbolized Valentine. We agreed on a little piped heart. Perfect!!

K went off to do yoga and I got down to snapping a few shots. In my rush to use as much of the natural evening light as nature would allow, I wasn't careful in securing the tray that I used as a backdrop. A few shots in, the tray came crashing down on the cake - see photo above on left. Sob.

For the cake, I adapted a recipe I found on the Ontario Foodland website. The pecans were browned in butter and brown sugar and then drizzled with maple syrup. I made a batch of swiss meringue buttercream and flavored it with crushed vanilla beans, maple syrup and Amarula cream liqueur.

Oh, and look! A little red made it into this post after all.

Wishing you a love-filled day, today and always. Happy Valentine's Day!

Butter Maple Pecan Cake w/ Amarula Maple Buttercream
(Yield 3-6" cakes)


Love baked into three layers of moist maple syrup cake, sprinkled with buttered pecans and wrapped in a perfectly smooth, silky sheet of amarula swiss meringue buttercream.

Ingredients:

Cake
115g unsalted butter (one stick)
100g brown sugar
2 eggs
280g all purpose flour
11g baking powder
2g salt
1g cinnamon
230g pure Maple Syrup
52g milk

Frosting
300 g liquid egg whites
500 g sugar
680g unsalted butter
1 tbsp Tahitian crushed vanilla beans
pinch of salt
115g Amarula Cream Liqueur
42g pure maple syrup

Buttered Pecans
250g coarsely chopped pecans
115g unsalted butter
21g pure maple syrup

Directions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well.

In a clean bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Combine maple syrup and milk in a separate bowl.

Alternating the flour and milk mixtures, add each to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.

Pour batter into three greased and floured 7-inch (23 cm) round pans. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in centre of cake comes out clean.  Let cake cool completely before icing.

To make the frosting: Using a clean towel and some lemon juice or vinegar, clean your mixing bowl, whisk attachment to remove any traces of grease.

Fill a heavy duty pot about a quarter of the way with water and place on the stove over medium heat to simmer.

Add egg whites, sugar and salt to the mixing bowl and whisk together lightly with a hand whisk, just until combined. Fit the bowl onto the pot, ensuring the bottom of the bowl is not in contact with the water in the pot. Whisk the sugar egg white mixture constantly, but gently, until temperature reaches 160°F.

Once at the correct temperature, remove carefully from heat, wipe the moisture away from the bottom of the bowl and transfer mixing bowl to the stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, begin to whip the meringue until it is thick, glossy, and the bottom of the bowl is no longer warm to the touch. Do not begin adding butter while the bowl is still warm.

Switch from your whisk to paddle attachment and with mixer on low speed, add butter cubes, one at a time, until incorporated.  Continue to mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture.

Add vanilla beans, syrup and Amarula liqueur, continuing to beat on low speed until well combined.

To prepare the pecans: If required, chop the pecans coarsely. Place the butter in a heated saucepan and melt over medium heat. Add the pecans and cook until butter is brown and bubbly. Remove from heat and strain off extra butter. Toss pecans in a bowl with syrup. Divide into three.

To assemble: Level cakes, cover with a generous amount of frosting, top with a third of the pecans. Repeat for the next level. Once stacked, cover with frosting, add the remaining pecans to the center top and drizzle with a little maple syrup. Leave as is, or decorate to your liking. I used the Wilton 1M tip to create the ruffles and heart.