Butterscotch Pecan Bundt Cake with a Salted Caramelized White Chocolate Glaze: #BundtBakers

A Butterscotch Pecan Bundt Cake is indulgently draped with a Salted Caramelized White Chocolate Glaze for Bundt Bakers this month. The theme is, you guessed it, Caramel! Affiliate links were used in this post to link to items I am discussing.

This cake had a rocky path on its way to my site–and hopefully your bellies. It broke in half and stuck in the pan. And it stuck in a way that made me think maybe user error… but I am not sure and if so I have no idea what the error was. And guys, it is delicious. Like scrumdeeliocious-delicious (what? you don’t have that word in your house?). But I did not have time to remake it before posting today. So… despite the problems I am sharing the cake. And I really hope you make it, and I really hope if you make it, you come back and let us know how it was!

Anyway, the cake and glaze are both adapted from Carole Bloom’s absolutely gorgeous and inspiring Caramel

, but Bloom did not actually put caramelized white chocolate onto the cake. She suggested a caramel glaze, but honestly that sounds first of all a little too sweet for me and second of all I have been dying for an excuse to try making caramelized white chocolate. And that part of the recipe, the glaze, came out perfectly, so if nothing else take that away from this post. It is a run don’t walk recipe, that is for sure, as in get this into thy belly pronto! It is amazing, kind of like what might happen if really good, real white chocolate and dulce de leche had a baby. An over the top indulgent baby with just enough salt to keep it interesting. I used her recipe to learn how to make the caramelized white chocolate, and then I turned it into a glaze.

As for the cake itself… first of all, I think this glaze would be fantastic on a lot of bundt cakes, so if you have a tried and true and do not feel like risking a stuck bundt cake, I get it, use that cake instead and glaze it with the white chocolate. Second, as you can see the cake browned, and the half that came out, came out quite nicely. And the bottom pieces came unstuck pretty easily. Which makes me think that really this cake should have come out and for some stupid reason this time it did not. Another option would be to make this cake in either a parchment lined tube pan or parchment lined loaf pans. Whatever the case, I personally have not given up on this cake, and I think it suited the caramelized white chocolate so perfectly that I will make it again some time.

Note regarding greasing your pan: Bloom calls for a nonstick baking spray–because flour was not mentioned I used a nonstick spray, but I do wonder now if the grease/flour combo, like Baker’s Joy, might have been a better choice. Whichever you use, please come back and tell us how it went!

If caramel is your thing, I strongly encourage you to check out all of the delectable caramel bundt cakes below, all made as part of Bundt Bakers!

Butterscotch Pecan Bundt Cake

Very closely adapted from Carole Bloom.

Author: TheSpicedLife

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Cakes

Ingredients

• 5 oz (scant 1½ cups) coarsely chopped toasted pecans
• 1 cup (8 oz, 2 sticks) butter (I actually like salted butter here)
• 2 cups (12 oz) packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup (6 oz) packed dark brown sugar
• ½ cup vegetable oil–I used avocado oil
• 5 large eggs
• 2 t vanilla
• 3 cups (13½ oz) AP flour
• ½ t baking powder
• ½ t fine sea salt
• 1 cup 2% milk (whole is fine also)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Thoroughly grease your 10 inch/12 cup bundt pan (see notes above on what to grease with). Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter. Then add one cup of sugar and beat on medium high speed until fluffy. Add the next 2 cups of sugar while beating. The mixture will become almost dough-like, not at all fluffy.

With the mixer on medium speed, add the oil in a thin stream. When it is all added, increase the speed to medium high and beat until fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.

Beat in the vanilla.

Add the flour mixture and milk on low speed in 4 and 3 additions, respectively, alternating, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. When the last flour addition is about half mixed in, add the pecans. Finish with folding by hand to ensure everything is completely incorporated without over-beating.

Scrape the batter into the prepared bundt pan and smooth the top.

Bake for 70-80 minutes, or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with only a few crumbs attached.

Let the cake cool on a cooling rack in the pan for 15 minutes.

Carefully turn the cake out onto a parchment lined cooling rack. Let cool completely before glazing.

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Salted Caramelized White Chocolate Glaze

Adapted from Carole Bloom; this is an easy recipe, but it does require about a solid hour of time in the kitchen, so grab a book or turn on the tv!

Author: TheSpicedLife

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: glaze/topping

Ingredients

12 oz real white chocolate (I recommend Guittard or Green and Black’s*), finely chopped

¼ t fine sea salt

3-4 T butter (once again I like salted here)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 250 F; for convection ovens, preheat to 225 F. White chocolate is very delicate, and you do not want to risk burning the chocolate.

Be very certain that all of your equipment is dry; a few drops only of water could cause your white chocolate to seize.

Spread the white chocolate over a rimmed baking sheet, preferably nonstick. Place it in the oven for 10 minutes, and then remove and stir the chocolate with a heat proof (and dry!) spatula.

Return it to the oven. Set one timer for 40 minutes, and then set another timer for 10 minutes. Repeat the removing and stirring every ten minutes.

The chocolate will gradually take on a deeper golden color. My chocolate was somewhat on the sticky and grainy side–you want fluid, but as long as it does not seize, we will fix that at the end.

When the chocolate is a deep golden color, at the 40-50 minute mark (so a total of 50-60 minutes), remove it from the oven. At this point, if it is fluid and smooth, mix it with the sea salt and 2 tablespoons of butter.

If, like mine, it is grainy, place it in a food processor with the salt and 3 tablespoons of butter and process smooth.

At this point, you need to decide how thick you want your glaze. If you want it to cascade down further and in a thinner layer, mix in another tablespoon of butter.

Set aside until needed; long term storage should be airtight after cooling and in the fridge because of the butter (plain caramelized white chocolate can be stored much like chocolate). Reheat in a double boiler over a pot of barely simmering water, while stirring.

Pour over cooled cake.

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*These are my 2 favorite white chocolates for baking (both images link to Amazon, where you can buy them if they are not available locally):

#BundtBakers is a group of bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bundts with a common ingredient or theme. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient. This month’s theme is caramel and our creative host is Lauren of Sew You Think You Can Cook.

And don’t forget to take a peek at what other talented bakers have baked this month: