Spiced Pecan Cake w/Marscapone Cream Cheese Frosting

Pecan pie is divine. Great hot or cold, for breakfast or dessert. But every so often, it’s nice to mix it up. Do so with style this year. Get a twist on pecans. The following is outstanding, and perfect for any type of party–it can be dressed up or down, dependng on how it’s served. For feeding a crew, serve in the fla sheet. For a cocktail party, chill, then cut in to bite size squares or triangles and serve on a cool platter. Using fine ingredients, the party members will adore you.

Spiced pecan Cake
Ingredients
4/12 cupes candied pecans (recipe at bottom)
8 oz (2 sticks) soft sweet butter
2 1/4 cups cake flour
2 1/ cups all-purpose flour
3 TBS baking powder
1 1/2 tsps salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 TBS vanilla extract
4 egg whites
Three 9-inch cake pans or 1 large sheet pan (or you can mix it up and use both)

To make the cake
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Line the bottoms of the cake pans with parchment paper
Put 3 cups of the candied pencas in a food processor and finely grind.
Reserve the remainig 1 1/2 cups of pecans for decorating the top of the cake.

• Put the butter and 2 cups of the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. With paddle attachment, cream on medium high speed until light and fluffy.
• Sift together the cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
• Combine the milk and vanilla. On low speed, alternately add the milk and the dry ingredients to the butter mixtur. Fold in the ground candied pecans.
• Put the egg whites in a clean blow of the electric mixer. Using the whisk attachment, whip the whites on medium speed until frothy. Increase to high speed and whip the whites until soft peaks form. Continuing to mix, add the remaining egg whites. The batter will be quite stiff (don’t worry though. It’s supposed to be this way).
• Spread in to prepared pans.
• Bake the cakes for about 40 minutes, until a prick comes out clean. Cool the cake layers before unmoding them.
• Frost the sides, tops and center with the marscapone cream cheese frosting (recipe below). Decorate with reserved pecans.

Marscapone Cream Cheese Frosting
*Note on this–do NOT overbeat. Did this once, and the entire cake slid off in layers, right in the middle of my fridge, and right before I was going to take it out to serve at a wedding shower!!! I later learned that overbeating breaks down the composition of the marscapone. Who would have known?

Ingredients
3/4 pound cream cheese
4 ox (1 stick) soft sweet butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 pounds marscapone

Directions
To make the frosting, put the cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat on medium until smooth. Decrease to low speed and add the marscapone. Beat JUST UNTIl incorporated, about 30 seconds, or it will separate. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Candied Pecans
These are also wonderful plain, over ice cream or in cakes.
Yield-4 1/2 cups
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3 TBS ground cinnamon
1 large egg white
2 TBS vanilla extract
14 ounces pecan halves

Directions

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
• Combine brown sugare and cinnamon until frothy. Stir in vanilla extract, the pecans and then the reserved brown sugar mixture.
• Spread the pecans evenely on a baking sheet and bake them for 30 secons until they are dry.

Sorry no photos. I really to start taking more photos as I’m making dishes, but usually what happens is I don’t think about writing the blog until the food is eaten, and a guest says–hey! write a blog on this one! Will add later (I think!)