It’s Monday, time to get PUMPED for the work week! Are you pumped? Come on put your hands in the air and raise the roof! It’s MONDAY!
Ok, ok that is a little too much energy and pep for a Monday morning. Grab a cup of coffee instead and have a slice of cake.
I made this cake for the family while I was in Florida. Everyone was getting together for a big family meal and I was asked to make something for everyone’s sweet tooth. I was in a foreign kitchen in a foreign land so I poked around to see what I could come up with. My mother-in-law mentioned that she had a can of pumpkin purree and maybe I could make a pie with that, but I wasn’t feeling pie, I wanted cake. Then I remembered some pecans that we picked up while we were driving through Georgia. BAM! It hit me, a praline upside down pumpkin cake. Say that five times fast.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees, place pecans on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven for 5 minutes or until you start to smell a toasted nutty aroma.
In a pot melt 2 sticks of butter. You see a lot of butter here because I was melting a little extra for something esle.
Pour 3/4 cup of brown sugar into a 9 inch round pan.
Pour the 1/2 cup of butter directly into the pan.
Whisk the butter and brown sugar together until well combined.
Chop up the pecans, sprinkle in the prepared pan and press the pecans into the sugar mixture, set aside.
In a separate bowl combine all the dry ingrediants and whisk until well combined.
In a another bowl combine eggs and pumpkin puree.
Add 1/2 a cup of warm milk, vanilla extract and melted butter to the pumpkin mixture.
Beat with and electric mixer until well combined.
Add flour mixture; stir with spoon until just combined.
A few lumps in the batter is ok, don’t panic.
Pour the batter into prepared round pans. Lick the spatula and bowl, don’t share.
Place the cake on a rimmed baking sheet and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until a knife test comes out clean. You want to place it on a sheet in case the caramel bubbles over.
Remove from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes, don’t let the cake cool completely because it will be harder to unmold, place a plate on top of the cake and invert.
Give it a few taps until the cake falls out of the pan, let cool.
Wow what a cake! A moist and fluffy cake topped with a crunchy nutty topping, how can you go wrong? Everyone loved it and even thougt some didn’t have room to finish there dessert they took their slice home.
I cut the sugar in the cake from the original recipe because it was being covered is gooey brown sugar goodness and it turned out to be just the right about of sweet. Does cutting the sugar make this cake less sinful? Absolutly not! What fun would that be? This cake has sinful guilt in every bite, I recommend it with a glass of milk, cup of coffee or maybe some ice cream.
Excuse me while I go run the guilt away.
Praline Upside Down Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
- 3/4 cup of brown sugar
- 3/4 cup pecan halves
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup homemade Pumpkin Puree Pumpkin Puree, or canned
- 1/2 cup warm (110 degrees) milk
Instructions
Notes
(adapted from Martha Stewart Living)
Hi. It would be most helpful if you updated your recipe with the correct version. Had I known about the butter division, the cake would have turned out better. Also, the batter was too much for one round pan. I had to put the rest of the batter in muffin tins. Still, the cake in the original pan overflowed and caused a mess in my oven. I’m not happy with this. I love pumpkin and pecans, thats why I chose to make this recipe. Next time, I would greatly appreciate it if you could proofread your recipe before you submitted it. Thanks!
Agree with this comment. This recipe did not work well at all. I served it to guests and felt embarrassed because it was not nearly as good as my usual desserts.
I followed the procedures listed in the recipe at the end of the post, and I’m realizing now that they don’t actually match what you’ve done at all. In the pictures you use melted butter, but in the procedure you call for softened butter. It also looks like you’ve used brown sugar in the cake, but in the procedures it only says ‘sugar’.
I should have followed my instincts once I realized your instructions seemed off – this was one of the worst cakes I’ve made. Despite a toothpick coming out clean, and my oven thermometer verifying it was baking at 350, it was not fully cooked after 50 minutes. The texture overall was sort of thick and unpleasant, probably because of the way the butter was incorporated. It would have been way better if I had creamed the softened butter with the sugar, the way that Martha does. The topping also didn’t work for me. When I turned the cake out, the butter/sugar were still a discrete layer that mostly fell off, but there was definitely no gooey topping. The pecans were embedded in the cake, and not part of the topping. I would advise everyone to avoid making this recipe.
What a stunning cake!
Going to try this this weekend. It said pour in prepared baking pans, should they be sprayed or floured to prevent sticking? And if so should it go under the praline on the bottom or just along the sides.
You should not have to spray the pan, just use a non-stick pan. But, if you want to be sure you can spray the pan before putting in the toppings.
Hi. This looks lush. A couple of questions though: how much is a stick of butter? And what is rimped? Thanks!
1 stick of butter is 1/2 a cup and rimped was just a misspelling. It’s suppose to say rimmed. 😀
Wait! What? Divided butter? How much butter at first with pecans & brown sugar? and then how much with the eggs, pumpkin and milk?
Shoot! I’m in the middle of this! HEEELLLLPPPP!!!!!!
Sorry this is an old recipe that could be better written. It’s 1 stick with the brown sugar and 1 stick in the batter.
This looks great- I love your recipes!! Great job, and thank you for sharing 🙂 Do you have any for flan?
Thanks for the recipe. I made some modifications and reposted it on my blog. Delicious!
http://donachyblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/upside-down-pecan-pumpkin-cake/
Are you certain you mean 2 sticks of butter for one 9 inch cake? Why would be need to divide it? 1/2 cup of butter is one stick, right? This looks awesone, I’m going to try it tomorrow! 🙂
Qué divino! Qué delicioso! Qué dilema….cuando se acaba.
This is the taste of fall in my mouth and I’m loving it.
Gracias!
I make this recipe all the time – thank you so much! It’s my boyfriend’s favourite.
I just made a batch with fresh pumpkin and found it to be quite sweet so I took a quarter cup of sugar out of the second cake (one 5lb pumpkin makes enough to make four cakes!!). Super, duper delicious!
Andddddd this looks like the PERFECT fall dessert! I’ll definitely be making it this weekend.
Love your site! Glad to see a fellow Tulsan out there in blogland. =)
Lijkt me heerlijk!!!
Ga ik binnenkort uitproberen!
I made this for my book group. It was amazing! I had printed the recipe and was working from that and noticed a couple of areas that confused me. Ingredients called for milk, but not listed in directions when to add (clear when you look at the pics, but I didn’t have that when baking). Also, no vanilla called for in ingredients, but it IS listed in directions. Had to guess on amount.
Turned out pretty well at the end (read amazing flavor!), but my pan totally overflowed. I think I might have been using an 8in rather than 9in which could have done it. Also, most of my topping stayed in the pan rather than on the cake. I had to scoop it out and plop it on. Any idea what I did wrong? Thanks so much! I love this blog and the picture directions. 🙂
I’ve been following this blog for a while, and this is the first recipe I’ve tried. It turned out so well I made another, but I understand the comment about not sharing the spoon. The first cake my boyfriend consumed almost by himself (I helped a bit), the second was inhaled by his aunt and sister. Best cake recipe ever!
I have made this twice, Great and Delicious!!! Looking forward to more…so is my husband who loves everything that I have made from your blog. THANKS.
“Do let the cake cool completely because it will be harder to unmold.”
Im guessing you want us to invert, remove pan, and cool the cake, correct? The wording there is making me unsure, but I am dying to make this cake so I want to know 100%! Thanks, love the blog!
From your photos, it looks like it makes 2 cakes. It looks really good. I’d like to make it this weekend.
I was making two cakes for the family but the recipe is only for one cake.
I don’t read The Noshery for the recipes. Nope. I read it for the commentary. Case in point: “Lick the spatula and bowl, don’t share.” I learn valuable life lessons from The Noshery. =)
Sounds yummy! Dad said to tell you he doesn’t believe you are doing all this unless it is here 🙂
I guess he has to taste it to believe it. 😀