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Fruit Salad
Ali Slagle
381 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
381
20 minutes
Updated Oct. 12, 2023
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Place a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl.
In a small bowl, toss together the pecans, brown sugar and cinnamon.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, about 5 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the granulated sugar and mix until light and fluffy, another 2 minutes, scraping down the sides. Add eggs, one at a time, waiting until each is fully mixed in before adding the next. Add the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with half the sour cream, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
Generously spray a 12-cup Bundt cake pan with nonstick cooking spray and coat lightly with some cake flour, tapping out any excess over the sink.
Scoop half of the cake batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out, and spread the pecan mixture evenly over the top. Top with the remaining cake batter, spreading it in an even layer, and tap the pan on the counter to release air.
Bake until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 50 minutes to 1 hour.
Remove the cake from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a butter knife along the edges of the cake to make sure it isn’t sticking to the pan. The cake should naturally start pulling away within a few minutes of being out of the oven. Unmold onto a rack set over a baking sheet, and let cool to room temperature.
Make the glaze: To a medium bowl, add confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and milk, and stir until smooth. If the glaze is too thick, add more milk. You want it to be thin enough to coat the back of the spoon. Pour over the cooled cake and serve.
A cake with all-purpose flour substituted for cake flour is more likely to have a slightly coarser crumb, while a cake made with cake flour will have a finer, more even crumb and enhanced tenderness.
Instead of cake flour, try using 2 ½ c AP flour and ½ c corn starch (flour). It reduces the relative amount of gluten in the cake, and lightens the batter for a good rise. Also, to assist with the cake release, microwave 1 T butter until melted. Mix in 1 T neutral oil (like canola) and 1 T flour. Apply to the pan with a pastry brush.
This is a dessert cake. It's supposed to be sweet. In addition to imparting flavor, sugar helps make a cake tender and "moist." The amount of sugar called for here is "necessary" only for this recipe, which one assumes has been tested and found to be worth publishing. But there are thousands of recipes for American-style butter cakes with different proportions of the basic ingredients -- flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. If you don't like this recipe, try another one.
@Cynthia Make your own cake flour. Use AP/plain flour: Remove 2 T flour per cup, replace with 2T cornstarch
For those with sugar concerns regarding desserts, may I suggest a cheese board.
Is it important to use cake flour? Could I use regular all purpose flour??
Cute name! It's the same recipe as I've been using for 40 years - my mother's Sour Cream Coffee Cake. Delicious!!
In response to Hope, you use all the sour cream: 1/3 of the flour mixture, half the sour cream, 1/3 of the flour, half the sour cream, 1/3 of the flour, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
Yes. There are many generations of us who were making these recipes without a stand mixer and certainly no paddle.
Can't have too many cat free cakes!
I make my own cake flour. All you need is flour and corn starch. Whisk together 3/4 cup 2 tablespoons (105g) all-purpose flour and 2 tablespoons (14g) cornstarch. Then sift it with other dry ingredients.
Sylvia, I don't own a bundt pan. Any time there's a bundt recipe I want to make, I use my tube pan (i.e.: angel food cake pan). It works perfectly fine.
Made this to recipe and it's fantastic. Only change is the Glaze quantities were very off. Needed 4 Tb of milk, not 2 tsp.
Yes! I’ve made it with walnuts and cinnamon for at least 10 years. With this newer recipe, you can also sprinkle chopped pecans on the bottom and top of the pa, mixed with some brown sugar, so the top and bottom of the cake are sweet and crunchy. It’s not clear from this recipe that you use all the sour cream, alternating with the flour. It seems like you only use half. Not sure why. But if you alternate flour with all the sour cream, you get a nice crumb texture.
I make every cake GF with my own cup-for-cup blend (look for it on Charm City Edibles), but you could try it with another GF flour blend (except a blend with garbanzo flour.
Loved this cake it's perfect! I followed some readers suggestions by reducing sugar to 2 cups (I don't usually reduce sugar but there seemed like a lot in this recipe) I subbed walnuts for pecans and put some of the walnut sugar mix on the bottom and top of the cake. Would recommend these changes. My family loved this recipe I will make it again. Next time but try using yoghurt instead of sour cream.
Do you use roasted or raw pecans?
To Dimmerswitch - I routinely cut these big Bundt cake recipes in half and use either a loaf pan OR a 6 cup Bundt pan (I have 2). With the loaf pan you have to bake it longer because the loaf pan is 4.5 inches wide and the 12 cup bundt is less than that, from one thick metal (heat transferring) side to the other. Use a digital thermometer to check doneness (195 -205) and if the cake is browning too fast before then, lower the heat to 325.
Toni - Thank you for this reply with answer to my question! Exactly what I needed to know. We will "clink forks" and toast to you as we eat the cake!
Always enjoy using M. Peartree recipes and this one tickles my tastebuds and memories as it reads much like one I made in early baking years when baking bundt cakes for enough eager eaters to devour them. But these days 12 C. bundt cakes are too big so I'm going to scale back by half and try w/ a 8.5 x 4.5 (6C capacity) loaf pan. If by some miracle someone who has done that reads this before I start to bake to know it will or won't work, please add a note.
I highly recommend this recipe. Everyone loves this cake. Even months after I made it people still remember and ask about it. I think it's memorable due to its deliatabilty and its wonderful name!
I tried making this cake and followed the directions to a T. Unfortunately, it completely overflowed the pan and then sunk inside was not cooked even after an hour.
Toast the pecans! Also, I wavered on the sugar a few times but ultimately took the 300g approach. It was still fantastic! Actually, the slightly less sweet crumb offset the seam of cinnamon and brown sugar (and *toasted* pecans) beautifully. I also made about a tenth the amount of glaze, and it was just right.
This recipe is a delight!! Going into snack/tea/brunch cake rotation. Modified for celiac using 2.5cups of Krusteaz GF flour (terrible name, but my fave for baking) 1/2 cup cornstarch. Also used 1.5 cups of flour (vs 2.5 cups) in the cake. Made a full recipe of glaze which needed a full 4 TBS of milk. Only ended up using half as I liked the way it looked better.
A big crowd-pleaser for our New Year's brunch. It turned out very moist and tender, and the nut layer adds a nice complexity.
I made this while the flavor was pretty good, the notes to dust cake flour bake fired. I use a non stick bundt, but I still have to grease it. Bundts pop out no problems, but this one was very difficult to empty and in the end, it was too messy to gift due to the sticking. If you make this, consider the use of flour. I could be wrong, but I am fairly positive that's what caused the sticking.
I faithfully followed the recipe except for using regular salt instead of sea salt. I was pleased with how it came out and will make it again. Yes it is quite sweet but on the other hand, it’s a special treat and not something I’m going to serve my family every day. I took this cake to a group meeting where I was in charge of bringing snacks. It was a big hit and I got lots of compliments on it.
I would never make a cake for my family that contained 2.5 cups of sugar. So unhealthy
The crumb of this cake is fabulous, BUT. It is much too sweet, especially with 2C of confectioners on top, too. I found the nut/sugar mixture solidified during cooking and couldn't cut it. Vanilla turns it brown for a less than pleasing look (or is there another kind of vanilla?). 500 calories a slice!!!
For mini Bundt cakes, we made a half-recipe--two eggs plus a yolk-- and this generously filled a six-cavity (each 4") cake pan. Baking time was 27 minutes at 350. We had made this cake previously (and realized that we, too, had a slightly too-small Bundt pan!) and really enjoyed it. The long-legged dog enjoyed it more, having eaten 3/4 of the entire cake when we, well I, foolishly left it in a dog friendly location on the counter. Lesson learned (again).
Used 450g of granulated sugar. It was still sweet and moist, although perhaps could use a bit more to keep it moist longer. Slightly overfilled a Wilton Bundt pan, and rose quite high but didn’t spill out. Fully beating the butter until fluffy with and without the sugar is critical.
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