Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Cake – chocolatey cake with brown sugar buttercream infused with bourbon and pecans. A new layer cake recipe by our contributor, Tessa Huff.
Deep into fall and stormy weather season, I find myself searching for foods of comfort and decadence. And with the holidays approaching at lightening speed, traditional flavors float up to the top of my baking “to-do” list. This cake started out as a pecan pie. After a few unexpected twists and turns, it evolved into this nearly sinful Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Cake.
Don’t you just love a happy accident? You know, when project you are developing transforms itself into something even better than what you started with? Well that’s kind of what happened with this cake. Like I mentioned, I started with the idea of keeping holiday traditions close in the form of a pecan pie cake. Then chocolate happened and a splash of bourbon decided to tag along. Blanket it all in a Bourbon Brown Sugar and Chocolate Marble Buttercream, and I think I’ve found that comfort and decadence that I’ve been craving.
If you are a bourbon fan or not, this chocolatey cake is both familiar in its flavor pairing but special enough for any upcoming holiday celebration. This deeply fudgey cake comes together easily on the stovetop before being baked and drowned in a boozy simple syrup. Finely chopped toasted pecans get folded into the filling for a bit of texture and nuttiness. But the buttercream – now that’s the star here. Using brown sugar immediately elevates this meringue-based buttercream and brings about an almost caramel flavour that is perfect for this time of year. A big glug of bourbon and real vanilla bean seeds takes it to the next level. For the marbled effect, simply reserve a bit of the buttercream and mix with a teaspoon or so of cocoa powder then randomly swipe it around a nearly smooth buttercream cake just before finishing it off. A couple final spins on the cake turntable at the very end, and the colors will marble and swirl before your eyes!
Not into bourbon or looking for a non-alcoholic version? The brown sugar buttercream will be just as tasty sans booze, as does the simple syrup.
CHOCOLATE BOURBON PECAN CAKE
a layer cake recipe by Tessa Huff
For the Chocolate Cake:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 tablespoons (6 ounces) unsalted butter
¼ cup canola oil
1 ½ cups coffee or water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup granulated sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8-inch round cake pans and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon (if using). Set aside.
- In a separate bowl or glass measuring cup, whisk together the sour cream, eggs, yolk, and vanilla. Set aside.
- In a medium-large saucepan, place the butter, oil, and coffee. Heat over medium-high until the butter has melted. Lower the heat and whisk in the cocoa and sugars until dissolved.
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Whisk in the sour cream mixture until combined. Finally, stir in the dry ingredients, in two bathes, until the batter is smooth.
- Evenly distribute the batter between the prepared pans and bake for 23 to 26 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 to 20 minutes before removing the cakes from their pans. Wrap well in until ready to assemble. The cake is best served at room temperature.
For the Bourbon Simple Syrup:
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup water
3 to 4 tablespoons bourbon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Heat the sugar and water together over high heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce the temperature and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the bourbon and vanilla.
For the Bourbon Buttercream
6 large eggs whites
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 cups unsalted butter, softened
4 to 6 tablespoons bourbon
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the egg whites and sugar. Whisk briefly by hand until combined.
- Fill a saucepan with a few inches of water and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Place the mixer bowl on top of the saucepan to create a double-boiler. Stirring intermittently, heat the egg mixture until it reaches 160 on a candy thermometer.
- Once hot, carefully return the mixer bowl to the stand mixer. Fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg white mixture on high until stiff peaks, about 8 minutes. When done, the outside of the mixer bowl should return to room temperature.
- Stop the mixer and swap the paddle for the whisk. With the mixer on low, add in the vanilla bean seeds and butter, a couple tablespoons at a time. Once all of the butter has been added, turn the mixer up to medium-high and mix until smooth. If the mixture looks curdled, just keep mixing until it is smooth (this could take up to about 5 minutes). If it appears soupy, place the mixer bowl in the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes, then mix until smooth.
- Turn the mixer back down to low and very slowly add the bourbon a tablespoon at a time until completely incorporated. A lot of liquid will be trying to force its way into a buttery mixture, so only add a little bit at a time to allow the mixture to emulsify and combine.
NOTE: Omit the bourbon completely for a non-alcoholic version. The brown sugar meringue buttercream is tasty on its own, too!
For the Assembly:
¾ to 1 cup toasted pecans, finely chopped
2 to 3 teaspoons cocoa powder
- Once the cakes have cooled, trim the top so that they are level. Generously brush the cakes with the simple syrup.
- Removed two cups of the buttercream and place in a separate bowl, Mix in the pecans until combined.
- Place the bottom layer of cake on a cake board or serving dish. Spread on half of the pecan buttercream. Top with the next layer of cake and repeat.
- Frost the cake with the bourbon buttercream until nearly smooth.
- Mix in a couple of teaspoons of cocoa powder with about ½ cup buttercream. To create the marbled effect, randomly swipe on spots of the cocoa buttercream on top of the bourbon buttercream. Continue to smooth until the colors swirl. Learn more about this frosting technique here. Note – if you smooth and fuss too much, the colors will blend together and you may lose the marbled effect. Add in more bourbon buttercream as needed. Pipe dollops of buttercream around the top, as desired.
Serve at room temperature. Refrigerate leftovers in a cake box or loosely covered in plastic wrap.
YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY:
Chocolate Honeycomb Cake
Chocolate Turtle Cupcakes
Chocolate Turtle Cake
Banana Choco Hazelnut Cake
London Fog Cake
Tessa — This looks like my dream cake!! All of my favorite things!! xoxo
Tessa, I made this recipe yesterday scaled down into mini cupcakes. I skipped the syrup because of their size and sprinkled the toasted pecans on top of buttercream. This is an absolutely perfect recipe in textures and combination of flavors! The cake has (as I would describe it) a brownie-like density, almost velvety and the perfect level of chocolate to allow the bourbon to shine. The bourbon in divine in the buttercream and then the toasty pecans…congratulations! Elizabeth
So beautiful x I adore that watercolor effect in the buttercream.
This looks wonderful (actually ALL your cakes do)! Thank you for sharing your talent with us.
Absolutely stunning, Tessa! And the pictures are sooo beautiful!
This cake looks gorgeous, love the clean lines inside as you slice into it. Its the perfect cake for a grown up birthday party!
Is it okay to use 9″ pans vs 8″? Would anything have to be altered? Looks amazing and would like to try but only have 9″ pans.
If you want to bake this in three 9″ round pans, you’ll need more batter than this recipe creates. Doubling the recipe will give you a little too much though.
Here is a chart to help you play around with batter volumes and cake pan sizes:
https://www.wilton.com/cms-wedding-cake-data.html
Whatever size you go with, be sure not to overfill your pans and adjust your baking time accordingly. Good luck and enjoy!
So I REALLY want to make this for my friend’s whisky tasting birthday party (woo!), but I am just curious, the frosting seems like it has a lot of butter. Which I know buttercream usually has, but that’s about three times my regular buttercream recipe…
Is three cups really how much it takes? Is this just enough frosting for the one cake, or does it make extra?
Yes, three cups is correct. This is a fairly large buttercream recipe since you’ll need enough to fill and frost a three layer cake. Hope the whisky tasting party goes well – now that’s a birthday party! Enjoy!
Love this recipe. Since you know the taste of this cake, what do you think of substituting Frangelico for the Bourbon? Not much of a bourbon fan, but I use Frangelico in my simple syrup for chocolate cakes and it is delicious but have not added it to buttercream. Thanks so much. I look forward to your answer.
You could certainly swap Frangelico for the Bourbon if that’s more your thing. Enjoy!
Can you freeze the cake and buttercream (separately)to make ahead?
If you want to get a head start, you could certainly bake the cake layers in advance and freeze them. Wrap them individually with several layers of plastic wrap and then store inside a ziplock bag. Thaw before making your frosting and assembling.
Thank you for a fantastic recipe, Tessa! It was lots of work to make, but turned out so good that I made it for the second time today. This time, I took creative license with decorating and tried to do something different on the top. I covered the top of the cake with about a million dots of pale & dark buttercream before deciding it was ugly. To rid the dots, I smeared sections at a time from outside-in. It ended up creating a neat flower petal pattern around the perimeter!
I took a pic of the edge of the cake so I would remember this “technique,” if you can even call it that :).
https://www.jenspinky.com/food/chocolate-bourbon-pecan-cake-from-the-cake-blog
Thank you, Tessa!! I can’t wait to own your cookbook!
-jen
Thanks for your feedback Jennifer! And your petal technique looks beautiful – gotta love a happy accident, right? Cheers!
Thanks, Carrie! Here is a video I posted of making the cake. Thanks again for the amazing recipe, The Cake Blog!
https://youtu.be/c2vUixGUOlI
I made this cake and all I can say is…..OH MY WHAT THE HECK!!!! This cake is so fantastic!!!!! I will say that it was awesome the day I made it, but the next day…..holy cow!!! It was AMAZING!!! Getting ready to make it for New Year’s Eve dinner party!!!! Thank you for this gorgeous cake!
This is a dream cake .. love the shading on top , and such beautiful layering u have done …I can’t wait for ur new blog posting .
can you please tell me how long the cake is good for if I maks a couple of days ahead for my mum but dont really want to freeze it.
It will keep several days just fine in the refrigerator. Enjoy!
I love all of your recipes!! Would love if you would include the gram measurements too.
Thanks!! Nom Nom
Planning to make this tomorrow. Does it matter if it’s Dutch dutch processed cocoa or regular? Thank you.
I belive Tessa used regular cocoa since the recipe did not specifically state dutch processed cocoa. Hope you enjoy!
OMG this sounds like my dream cake! Do you think I could 1/2 the recipe and make it in two 6 inch cake pans?
Generally speaking, this recipe should fill three 6″ round cake pans as written.
Which part do u add brown sugar for making the buttercream? I am making this for a big event today and I will let u know the outcome:)
The brown sugar added in step one of the buttercream, along with the egg whites and granulated sugar. Hope you enjoy!
The steps 3 to 4 for the cake say to change out the mixer blades but it doesn’t make sense to me. Could you please clarify that part of the recipe? I’m planning to make this cake forThanksgiving. Thanks in advance.
Hi Deb – the steps you’re referring to are for the frosting. In step 3 we’re using the whisk attachment (for a stand mixer) and then in step 4 we remove the whisk attachment and start using the paddle attachment instead. Hope that clears it up for you. Enjoy!
Can you taste the coffee in the cake?
No – many chocolate cake recipes include coffee because it adds a depth to the flavor of the chocolate, but you won’t taste the coffee in the finished product. If you’re concerned you could use plain water instead but I recommend the coffee. 🙂
Coffee makes chocolate cakes taste so much better. I made this for a get together at my moms and only about 8 ppl and they devoured over 1/2 the cake.
Cannot wait to make this cake! I found some pecan bourbon I will be using as well. How many people will this serve?
Hi Tessa!
I love your recipes. It’s my first time making his cake.
Can you please let me know how many people this cake serves?
Thanks!!