Make the perfect cake with nutty flavor with this Pecan Cream Cake that can easily be made gluten-free too!
This delicious Pecan Cream Cake is a depression-era recipe that has been passed down in our family over the years. It uses pantry-style ingredients to make the cake from scratch along with a cream cheese frosting and it’s full of fresh pecans.
This recipe can easily be made gluten-free with a simple swap of flour as well if that is a need.
Try these Mini Egg Cookie Bars for a festive cookie bar for Easter. These go well with your Pecan Cream Cake on the dessert table!
How do you make a Gluten-Free Pecan Cream Cake?
The only swap needed to make this gluten-free is to use a gluten-free all-purpose flour. This needs to be a 1:1 swap of flour using the same ratios.
Our preferred flour is King Arthur Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour or Better Batter. Cup 4 Cup and Bob’s Red Mill are also good alternatives.
This gluten-free flour will already have ingredients like Xanthan Gum, so no additional ingredients are needed.
These flours are available at your local grocery store. All other ingredients are naturally gluten-free, but always check them all to be sure you avoid any cross-contamination.
Tips for Making Pecan Cream Cake:
The first step before beginning to prepare the cake is to place the cream cheese on the counter so that it comes to room temperature. This will be needed to make the cream cheese frosting.
For best results, use room-temperature eggs as well.
We prefer to make this in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or electric mixer; however, you can also use a large bowl and Danish dough whisk if you prefer to mix it by hand.
The butter and granulated sugar will be creamed together first, then the flour and baking soda will be added in.
Once those are added, continue to add in the buttermilk and vanilla extract. The eggs should be added one at a time as well, room temperature eggs work the best.
This will become well mixed into a batter and then stir or fold in the pecans and shaved shredded coconut.
The cake batter will then be spread into round cake pans, we use 9-inch round cake pans. These cake pans need to be sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Two cake pans will be needed for this recipe.
Once this is complete, the cakes will be baked in an oven at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes of cooking time.
While the cake is baking, proceed with the creamy frosting recipe. The frosting can be made in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment or with a medium bowl and an electric mixer.
This recipe will combine room-temperature cream cheese with butter and powdered sugar.
Then, vanilla and chopped pecans can be mixed in.
The chopped pecans will be pecan pieces or crushed pecans, small enough to be easily eaten.
Once the cakes are baked and fully cooled, they can be released and prepared for frosting. When we make these cakes, we frost the top of one cake and add another cake, then frost the top of that cake, basically frosting each cake layer. We do not frost around the cake.
If you prefer to do this, then you may need additional frosting. We have found that the frosting is rich enough that simply frosting the tops of the cakes works better than the entire thing.
How do you store this gluten-free cake recipe?
Pecan Cream Cake can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
It can be eaten cold or left to come to room temperature for about 15 minutes on the counter.
More Gluten-Free Cake Recipes:
This yummy cake has a coffee cake consistency, so it pairs well with a cup of coffee.
It’s a great addition to your special occasion dinner such as Easter Dinner, or simply a wonderful dessert throughout the week.
Pecan Cream Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 Cup Butter Softened
- 2 Cups Granulated Sugar
- 2 Cups All Purpose Flour or Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 Cup Buttermilk
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 5 Eggs (Room Temperature)
- 1/4 Cup Shaved Coconut
- 1 Cup Chopped Pecans
Frosting
- 8 oz Package Cream Cheese (Room Temperature)
- 1/2 Cup Butter Softened
- 2 Cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Cup Chopped Pecans
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Cream together the butter and sugar, beating well.
- Add in the flour and baking soda, continue mixing.
- Add buttermilk and vanilla, continue mixing.
- Add each egg one at a time.
- Stir in the coconut and pecans.
- Pour into 2 greased 9 inch cake pans.
- Bake in the oven at 350°F for 30 minutes or until when poked with a toothpick in the deepest part of the cake, the toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool for 5 minutes before carefully releasing from the pan.
- Fully cool on a wire rack before frosting.
Frosting:
- Cream the cream cheese and butter then add in the powdered sugar. Beat this well adding in the vanilla extract, mixing in the nuts.
- It should have a similar consistency to butter cream, slightly thinner. Carefully frost the cake when fully cooled.
Notes
Nutrition
did you make this recipe?
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Comments & Reviews
Pat in Miss. says
This looks delicious. I noticed that the frosting doesn’t call for coconut but the picture looks like there’s coconut on the top. Did you add some?
Kristy says
Thank you so much for pointing that out, I’m going to add a note about that too. I did sprinkle the top with additional shaved coconut.
Teresa says
Can’t wait to try.. Looks yummy but I don’t have butter flavoring. Can I substitute it with butter & if so, how much? Thanks for sharing 🙂
Kristy says
I would use vanilla extract as a substitute, it should work just as well.
Lisa says
I used maple extract instead. Yum!
Kristy says
Oh I bet that is good!!!
Estelle Forrest says
This is such a pretty cake with great flavor. Thanks for sharing on SSPS, I hope to see you again next week. I will be featuring your recipe.
Barbara Chapman says
Man this looks delicious, Kristy!!! I am so glad you linked up at Share Your Style a couple of weeks ago so I could feature your cake for you. <3 Sooo yummy! I will be baking this soon. 🙂 Anyway, SYS #421 is still open if you'd like to link up again. I know some folks have a person who does it for them. I held the party open since it went up late on Friday last week instead of Wednesday.
Hope you had a lovely Easter and have a lovely upcoming weekend,
Hugs,
Barb 🙂