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Southern Pecan Pound Cake (+Video)

Homemade Southern Pecan Pound Cake is the most moist and tastiest pound cake ever! It has so much flavor and comes out perfect every time!

A MOIST HOMEMADE POUND CAKE

If there is one classic dessert recipe that I go back to time and time again, it’s pound cake. It has stood the test of time for a reason. Every southern cook has a favorite pound cake recipe. You can put so many little twists on the basic recipe!

slice of pound cake being removed from the whole cake that is on a white platter with a striped kitchen towel on the side

CAN I USE WALNUTS INSTEAD OF PECANS?

Of course. Pecans are the traditional southern nut of choice. Pecan trees are in abundance here and they just so happen to be my favorite! But you could certainly use walnuts or even macadamia nuts. I added just a bit of sour cream to this recipe to make it a bit more moist. For an even more decadent dessert, try serving with a little drizzle of caramel sauce!

Southern Pecan Pound Cake recipe from The Country Cook, slice shown on a small round white plate.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (FULL RECIPE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST)

  • chopped pecans
  • all-purpose flour
  • baking powder
  • salted butter
  • sugar
  • eggs
  • vanilla extract
  • sour cream
chopped pecans, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, sour cream.

HOW TO MAKE SOUTHERN PECAN POUND CAKE:

Preheat oven to 325F degrees. Spray a 12-cup Angel Food Cake Pan with nonstick cooking spray. I like to use the nonstick spray that has flour in it. This is made especially for baking and really makes it a breeze to pop the cake out after it is done cooling. It’s super important that you spray the entire inside of the cake pan.

bundt pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.

 In a small bowl, combine 1 cup chopped pecans with 1 tablespoon of flour. Stir well then set aside.

chopped pecans and flour mixed together in a bowl.

In a medium bowl, combine 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Set aside.

all purpose flour and baking soda mixed together in a bowl.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. If you are using a stand mixer, be sure to occasionally scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl.

butter and sugar mixed together in an electric stand mixer.

Slowly add in eggs (one at a time) mixing after each addition. Then stir in two teaspoons of vanilla extract.

adding vanilla extract to butter sugar mixture.

Once combined, slowly add in flour mixture. You want to add it in slowly so that it incorporates fully and also so that it doesn’t fly everywhere when you turn on your mixer.

flour mixture combined with a butter and sugar mixture.

Then stir in sour cream. Finally, stir in (by hand) floured pecans. Batter will be thick.

flour coated pecans added to pound cake batter in a large bowl.

Pour batter into prepared angel food cake pan. Using the back of a spoon, spread out batter as evenly as possible. Top batter with 1/4 cup chopped pecans and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar.

homemade pecan pound cake batter in a bundt pan sprinkled with pecans.

Bake for about 55-65 minutes (until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.) Allow to cool for an hour, then turn out onto a serving dish.

slice of pound cake on a white plate with a milk bottle in the background.

CRAVING MORE RECIPES?

Southern Pecan Pound Cake recipe

Southern Pecan Pound Cake (+Video)

Homemade Southern Pecan Pound Cake is the most moist and tastiest pound cake ever! It has so much flavor and comes out perfect every time!
4.84 from 50 votes
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings: 10

Ingredients

For the topping:

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 325F degrees. Spray a 12-cup Angel Food Cake Pan with nonstick cooking spray.
  • In a small bowl, combine 1 cup chopped pecans with 1 tbsp. flour. Stir well then set aside.
  • In a medium bowl, combine 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1 tsp. baking powder. Set aside.
  • In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
  • Slowly add in eggs (one at a time.)
  • Then stir in two teaspoons of vanilla extract.
  • Once combined, slowly add in flour mixture.
  • Then stir in sour cream.
  • Finally, stir in (by hand) floured pecans. Batter will be thick.
  • Pour batter into prepared angel food cake pan.
  • Using the back of a spoon, spread out batter as evenly as possible.
  • Top batter with 1/4 cup chopped pecans and sprinkle with 1 tbsp. sugar.
  • Bake for about 55-65 minutes (until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.)
  • Allow to cool for an hour, then turn out onto a serving dish.

Video

YouTube video
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American

Nutrition

Calories: 526kcal | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 32g | Sodium: 203mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 28g

Nutritional Disclaimer

“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

Did you make this recipe?Share it on Instagram @thecountrycook and mention us #thecountrycook!

Originally published: March 2016
Updated & republished: July 2019

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Recipe Rating




65 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Does this cake need to be refrigerated? I just made mine and it is delicious but not sure if its safe to set out.

  2. 5 stars
    Fabulous recipe! Here in greece is not easy to find pecans so i used almonds instead and its not easy to find sour cream so i used greek yoghurt. Anyways it came up perfect! Congrats!

  3. This pecan pound looks delicious. Can’t wait to try cooking it. For some reason my printer will not print it. Looks like I will just have to copy the recipe by hand—by I feel it will be worth the trouble!

  4. Has this been tried in a 9×13 or 8×11 tray pan with a couple of inches of height? Think it should be ready in 40 minutes, just wanted to check if anyone had anything to add.

  5. I was really excited to make this Southern Pecan Pound Cake! However, I was a little disappointed. The cake looks beautiful and it has a nice texture but I would not call this a pound cake. It is more like a coffee cake. It is not as sweet as I was expecting either. I feel like it’s missing something, either a confection sugar drizzle or some cinnamon/sugar combination.
    It was good but I’m not sure I will make it again.

  6. 5 stars
    The cake was very tasty, not overly sweet, but I found it to be not as moist as I expected. Next time I will use less flour, maybe a little more sour cream. I did bake it in a bundt pan instead of an angel food pan but don’t think this would make a difference.

  7. 5 stars
    I made this in a bundt pan and cooked it for 60 minutes. When cooled, I added a vanilla glaze (powdered sugar, vanilla, & a little milk). I topped it with pecan halves and it was very good and looked very nice for the retirement party that I took it to. Very moist, nice texture. I would definitely bake again.

  8. I was wondering if it would be ok to substitute brown sugar for the sugar sprinkled on top. Has anyone tried it before?

  9. 5 stars
    Such a beautiful cake ~ I used unsalted butter and added 1/4 tsp of salt to 1 stick of butter. Turned out perfect! Thank you Brandie for the post.

    1. I was wondering the same thing so googled it and it says to add 1/4 tsp.salt to 1 stick of butter.

      1. Hi, CORRECTION!!! If using unsalted butter, you add 1/4 teaspoon of salt too the whole recipe, NOT per stick of butter!!!

  10. 5 stars
    This looks so good I am planning to make this for our church dinner and for our son Joshua’s fund raiser for Kidney disease, which he is battling. I will let you know how it goes.

  11. 5 stars
    The cake was absolutely delicious! Great idea to toast the pecans as well – makes such a difference! I just put them on a pizza tin & toasted them in the oven as it was preheating – about 10 mins. Also appreciated the toss with flour after crisping — truly prevented them from sinking to the bottom of the baking pan. BTW, I used a Bundt pan. This will be a great holiday hostess gift as well…..if we can part with it! Thank you!

  12. 5 stars
    This cake looks so good, pecans are my fav nut. I have a question; Could you recommend a good Angel Food Cake pan and where to get it?

    1. 5 stars
      I just saw one that looks like hers on Walmart’s site. The angel food cake pan. The brand is Nordic Ware. There are about 4 different ones on the site. We are going to an early Thanksgiving dinner this Sunday and hubby is wanting to take this cake as our dessert contribution.

  13. 5 stars
    This was a very delicious cake! I made it today for the 4th of July and I have about half a cake left. It’s moist, but not overly sweet. And the pecans give it a nice crunch. Will definitely be making this cake again!