Butter Pecan Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (Vegan)
This cake is soft, fluffy, loaded with toasted pecans, and topped with a delicious cream cheese frosting. A tasty, simple snack cake that is dairy and egg-free.
Ingredients
Butter Pecan Cake
- 305 grams / 2½ cups all purpose flour
- 2¼ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 225 grams / 1 cup + 2 tbsp cane sugar
- 63 grams / 4½ tbsp plant based butter with salt (room temperature)
- 4½ tbsp oil - I used olive oil
- 1½ tbsp vanilla extract
- 2¼ tsp butter extract - I used OliveNation Vegan Butter Flavor Extract
- 1¼ cups plant based milk (room temperature)
- 150 grams / ½ cup + 2 tbsp plant based yogurt (room temperature)
- 2¼ tsp apple cider vinegar
- ¾ cup / 84 grams toasted and finely chopped pecans + extra for the top of the cake
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 90 grams / 6 tbsp plant based cream cheese - I use Violife (cold out of the refrigerator)
- 84 grams / 6 tbsp plant based butter with salt (only slightly warmed)
- 540 grams / 4.5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Butter Pecan Cake
- Pre-heat the oven to 350F and prepare and 8x8 pan by lining it with parchment paper. Toast and finely chop the pecans; set them aside for later.
- In a small bowl; add the flour, baking powder and baking soda; whisk to combine and set the bowl aside.In a large measuring cup, add the milk, yogurt, vinegar, vanilla extract and butter extract; whisk to combine and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, add the butter, oil and sugar. With a hand mixer, blend the ingredients together for 2 to 3 minutes. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk mixture, adding 1/3 at a time; blending 20 to 30 seconds with each addition. Fold in the pecans.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 43 to 45 minutes. The cake should be pulling away from the sides and a toothpick inserted should come out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before transferring it to a cooling rack. Allow the cake to completely cool before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Add the cold cream cheese and the slightly warmed butter to the bowl of a stand mixer. Blend at medium-high speed with a balloon whisk attachment just until they come together -about 1 to 2 minutes. Do not over blend. Add the powdered sugar about a half cup at a time and blend at medium speed for 30 seconds between additions. Once all of the powdered sugar has been added, blend until the frosting becomes fluffy and creamy - about a minute. Add the vanilla extract and blend for 30 seconds. Frost the cake or store the frosting in the refrigerator until you are ready to frost the cake. Make sure the cake is room temperature before frosting it.This frosting will loosen as it warms. I suggest frosting the cake right before serving or frosting the cake ahead of time and storing the cake in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve it. Sprinkling some toasted pecans over the top of the frosted cake is a nice final look.Store the cake in the refrigerator.