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Southern Pecan Cake Bars (+Video)

Southern Pecan Cake Bars are one of the easiest desserts with the most buttery flavor! Simple and homemade with everyday ingredients!

AN EASY BUT SUPER FLAVORFUL DESSERT

This original recipe was originally called southern pecan bread. I decided it really wasn’t fair to call it a bread. These are definitely pecan cake bars. They are perfectly sweet and don’t need any additional frosting. They are delicious served warm or room temperature!

Southern Pecan Cake Bars, stacked on a white plate with a jar of caramel sauce in the background.

TIPS FOR MAKING THESE DELICIOUS BARS:

  • You can use whatever nut you like in this. Pecans and walnuts work the best.
  • You could also make a drizzle sauce for it if you’d like. I have a super simple recipe over on my SOUTHERN PECAN PRALINE CAKE. It’s such a versatile sauce and is absolutely perfection over ice cream too or you could even try SALTED CARAMEL.
  • Don’t have self-rising flour? You can make it! For each cup of flour, whisk together with 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Make sure to whisk all of these ingredients together well so that the baking powder and salt are both evenly distributed within the flour.
  • Try adding cinnamon chips or chocolate chips to this. It really changes up the flavor!
Southern Pecan Cake Bars recipe from The Country Cook. Three bars shown stacked on a small round white plate.

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

  • sugar
  • brown sugar
  • eggs
  • vegetable oil
  • self-rising flour
  • vanilla extract
  • chopped pecans
brown sugar, self-rising flour, vanilla extract, chopped pecans.

HOW TO MAKE SWEET SOUTHERN PECAN CAKE:

Preheat oven to 350f degrees. Spray the bottom only of a  9×13 glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, mix together sugar, brown sugar, eggs and oil until smooth. Gently stir in flour and vanilla. Finally, mix in 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans. Pour into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle top with remaining (1/2 cup) chopped pecans

pecan cake batter in a 9X13 baking pan.

Bake for 40-50 minutes (until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.) If your cake starts to get too brown while baking, take it out and cover with aluminum foil until done.

finished, Pecan Cake fully baked in a glass baking dish

Allow to cool slightly before slicing and serving. Optional: drizzle a little caramel sauce on top!

pecan cake bars stacked three on a small white plate with caramel sauce drizzling on top

CRAVING MORE?

Sweet Southern Pecan Cake Bars recipe

Southern Pecan Cake Bars (+Video)

Southern Pecan Cake Bars are one of the easiest desserts with the most buttery flavor! Simple and homemade made with everyday ingredients!
4.86 from 21 votes
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 12

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray the bottom only of a 9×13 glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.   
  • In a medium bowl, mix together sugar, brown sugar, eggs and oil until smooth. Gently stir in flour and vanilla. Finally, mix in 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans.
  • Pour into prepared baking dish.
  • Sprinkle top evenly with remaining (1/2 cup) chopped pecans
  • Bake for 40-50 minutes until an insterted toothpick in the middle comes out clean. Oven times may vary (If it starts to get too brown on top, cover with aluminum foil until it is finished baking.)

Video

YouTube video

Notes

  • You can use whatever nut you like in this. Pecans and walnuts work the best in this. 
  • You could also make a drizzle sauce for it if you’d like. I have a super simple recipe for it over on my SOUTHERN PECAN PRALINE CAKE. It’s such a versatile sauce and is absolutely perfection over ice cream too or try SALTED CARAMEL.
  • Don’t have self-rising flour? You can make it! For each cup of flour, whisk together with 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Make sure to whisk all of these ingredients together well so that the baking powder and salt are both evenly distributed within the flour.
  • Try adding cinnamon chips or chocolate chips to this. It really changes up the flavor!
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American

Nutrition

Calories: 353kcal | Carbohydrates: 48g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 16g | Sodium: 26mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 35g

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: June 2017
Updated & republished: November 2020

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Recipe Rating




29 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    I’ve been making these for over 20 years but my recipe calls it “Georgia Cornbread”. A sweet little old lady gave me recipe when I bought pecans from her trees. It is the most requested dessert I make for ANY party!

  2. My daughter is gluten free and loves pecans. Has anyone tried it with gluten free flour. I use King Arthur’s and was wondering if I used it with their cake enhancer if that would work for the self rising flour.
    I have made the southern pecan praline cake and love it.
    Thank you,

  3. 5 stars
    Made this and it is really good and so easy. I mistakenly put the flour and vanilla in with the other ingredients and mixed….it still turned out great. Definitely a keeper for baking in the future.

  4. 5 stars
    Like many others, we have a surplus of pecans, I tried your recipe for the first time today, promise it will be far from the last. In fact, hereafter anyone that I give pecans to will be taking home the recipe for SOUTHER PECAN CAKE BARS”, and yes I am Southern to the core lower Alabama ROLL TIDE. Thank you for the keeper recipe.

  5. 5 stars
    This cake/bread is absolutely delicious. Although I cooked it for 40/45 it still didn’t cook throughly. Next time I think I will put it in a larger pan to see if that helps. It is so good just like it is. We are going to try ice cream or whipped cream. Yummy.

    1. Hi Judy! I appreciate the additional feedback. I have a gas oven now and I notice it seems to take slightly longer to cook than my other electric oven. I don’t know what the big difference is but I definitely have noticed the longer baking/cooking times.

  6. 5 stars
    I loved how easy this desert was to make. I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil and it was fabulous. This is definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing.

  7. Per cup regular flour add 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt in place of 1 cup self rising flour

  8. Can all purpose flour be used instead with baking powder? If so, how much baking powder? Thank you.

  9. 5 stars
    My 4 yr old daughter and I made this today and the whole family loved it! We substituted the veg oil for coconut oil and dusted it with powdered sugar. Thanks for the recipe, we will make it again!

      1. 5 stars
        Hi Brandie! I have made this cake sooo many times, and like the other lady said, it looked so good while cooking, rises up nicely looks and smells perfect, cook just like it calls for, increased cooking time to see if that helps, and EVERYTIME I take out of the oven, with clean toothpick inserted, it falls almost flat except around the edges. What can I do differently to make it stay up? Also, no slamming doors or running through the house like in the old days. Thank you for your help! P.S we call it Sweet Georgia Cornbread Cake!

  10. Can this be made with all purpose flour by adding baking powder and/or baking soda? What would be the ratio?

  11. 5 stars
    Love this recipe! It is originally Miss Carol’s Corn Bread Cake – from Crossroads Cafe, Goldsboro, North Carolina ….the owner’s mother. She was generous enough to share it years ago……yummy!!

  12. 5 stars
    I copied this recipe down and i made a batch with pecans , then another with almonds chopped up. Took it to camp with my daughter and some of her husbands family was there and it was all gone in 20 minutes, So I would say this is a 5 star recipe. thank You so much for sharing this. <3 <3

  13. Oh I’d love to make this! I wonder if it would work if I doubled the recipe and baked it in a 11×15 jelly roll pan?

  14. 5 stars
    This one is a keeper, I enjoyed it without the sauce. This may also make some awesome muffins 🙂

    1. 5 stars
      I made it just like they said to do but for some reason the inside was gooey and I cooked it 35 minutes is there something different I could do so it looks more like it does on the picture

      1. 5 stars
        Any time you are baking a cake or sweet bread, test doneness by inserting a knife into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, it is done. If there is gooey, moist batter on the knife – it needs more time. Also, get yourself an oven thermometer. Your oven may not be calibrated correctly. I know my oven is off by about 20 degrees.

  15. 5 stars
    I can’t wait to try your Pecan Praline Cake with Butter Sauce recipe! Sounds yummy, and seems so easy!