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!
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!
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
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.
In a small bowl, combine 1 cup chopped pecans with 1 tablespoon of flour. Stir well then set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Set aside.
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.
Slowly add in eggs (one at a time) mixing after each addition. Then stir in two teaspoons of vanilla extract.
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.
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 tablespoon of 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.
CRAVING MORE RECIPES?
Southern Pecan Pound Cake (+Video)
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup salted butter (2 sticks) (softened to room temperature)
- 1 ⅓ cups sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup sour cream
For the topping:
- ¼ cup chopped pecans
- 1 tablespoon sugar
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
Nutrition
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.
Originally published: March 2016
Updated & republished: July 2019
Can I bake in loaf pans instead of angelfood pan?
I don’t see why not. I have not personally tested it so I can’t give you bake times but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. 🙂
Does this cake need to be refrigerated? I just made mine and it is delicious but not sure if its safe to set out.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
Great cake!!
How many days ahead can this be made?
Hi Sandy, I wouldn’t make it more than a day ahead.
What should the baking time and temperature be if I were to bake this in two 1.4 QT loaf bakers?
I am sorry – I haven’t tested it using those sizes so I honestly couldn’t say. I am sorry!
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.
Love it! So glad it turned out good for you Lee! And thank you for mentioning that you made it in a bundt cake and whipped up a glaze for the top!
I was wondering if it would be ok to substitute brown sugar for the sugar sprinkled on top. Has anyone tried it before?
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.
So happy this one turned out so good for you! Thank you Stephanie!
If I use unsalted butter, then how much salt should I add to the recipe? Thanks
I was wondering the same thing so googled it and it says to add 1/4 tsp.salt to 1 stick of butter.
Hi Rosemary – thanks so much for commenting and helping out! 🙂
Hi, CORRECTION!!! If using unsalted butter, you add 1/4 teaspoon of salt too the whole recipe, NOT per stick of butter!!!
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.
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!
In using a bundt pan, did you sprinkle the pecans and sugar on the bottom (top) of the pan?
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?
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.
My favorite creamer is Southern Butter Pecan. This looks amazing. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Does anybody know can I add more sugar in southern pecan pound cake recipe
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!