High Altitude Pecan Upside Down Cake
A high altitude recipe for a moist, one layer pecan cake made with ground pecans, topped with sweet and crunchy caramelized pecans.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Ingredients
Topping
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup light or dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- ¼ cup light corn syrup
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ cups pecans, roughly chopped
Cake
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup whole milk, room temperature
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup pecans, very finely chopped
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
Instructions
Getting Ready
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Spray the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round cake pan with non-stick baking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment paper, and spray the paper as well.
Topping
- In a saucepan, warm the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and salt over medium heat, stirring just until the butter is melted, the brown sugar is dissolved, and the mixture is just beginning to bubble. Remove from the heat.
- Stir in the pecans until they're evenly coated in the syrup, then pour the pecan topping into the prepared cake pan.
- Set the pan in the freezer to let the syrup firm up while you make the cake batter. The reason you need to do this is so that the cake batter doesn't displace the pecans and syrup when you spread it into the pan.
Cake
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter until nutty, golden brown milk solids form at the bottom of the pan. This process might take about 5-10 minutes. First the butter will hiss and splatter as the water evaporates, then as it quiets down, a layer of foam will form on top of the butter. This means the butter is done. Immediately remove from the heat, and scrape the butter, including the brown milk solids, into a large bowl. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- In a bowl, whisk together the cooled brown butter with the granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, milk and sour cream, until combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, chopped pecans, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, whisking just until moistened.
- Pour the batter into the cake pan, over the pecan topping. Bake for about 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it. The syrup at the bottom of the pan will have bubbled up around the edges, so the edges of the cake may look a little different from what you're used to seeing.
- Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes, then run a sharp knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Invert the cake onto a plate or cake pedestal, and peel the parchment paper off. If any pecans fall off, just place them back onto the cake.
- If you like, decorate the top of the cake with a few more pecan halves, and serve the cake warm.
- Baker's Note: The pecan layer is sticky, crunchy and caramelized, and makes it difficult to cut clean, neat slices of cake that don't crumble apart. Don't let this worry you. Just scoop it into a bowl and serve with ice cream. You can also see the recipe variations section for other methods to making this cake that are easier to cut.
Notes
Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
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