Description
This ridiculously gooey pecan butter cake features a soft, one bowl pecan sponge cake with a layer of gooey and molten maple butter cream cheese on top. It’s like pecan pie meets gooey butter cake, and you’ll never believe me when I tell you that it’s all vegan! No eggs, no dairy, and you’d absolutely never know!
Ingredients
Scale
- 4 cups (920 mL) unsweetened pea milk or soy milk
- 1/3 cup (67 mL) rice vinegar or lemon juice
- 1/2 cup (112 g) Chosen Foods Avocado Oil Shortening
- ½ tsp sea salt
Cream Cheese Topping:
- 8 ounces vegan cream cheese (from above recipe)
- 1/4 cup (57 g) maple butter or maple syrup
- 4 tbsp (40 g) cornstarch or arrowroot starch
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cups (130 g) powdered sugar, sifted
Pecan Cake:
- 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (56 g) vegan butter, melted
- ¼ cup (56 g) Chosen Foods 100% Pure Avocado Oil
- 1/2 cup (120 g) dairy free yogurt, room temperature
- 1 1/8 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cups (97 g) roasted pecans, ground to a crumbly flour
- 1 1/2 cups (180 g) all-purpose flour (or gluten free 1:1 baking flour + 1 tbsp arrowroot or cornstarch)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Toppings:
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped pecans
- ½ batch vegan caramel
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350F, and line a 9″ springform pan with parchment paper. Grease the edges. Measure out all ingredients. Make sure the pecans are ground into a flour.
- Make the cream cheese:
- Heat: In a large saucepan, add in the pea milk and lemon juice. Stir to combine. Then place the saucepan on medium high heat, and let the pea milk mixture heat and boil until the curdles have bubbled to the top and puffed up. This will take about 5-7 minutes.
- Strain: Grab a large bowl and place a sieve over the top of it. Place your cheesecloth in the sieve (see blog post photos). Make sure you have enough cheesecloth to twist the ends together and squeeze the cream cheese mixture liquid out. Once the pea milk mixture has boiled, remove the saucepan from heat, and pour the mixture into your cheesecloth lined sieve over the bowl. Allow the liquid to drain from the clumps of pea milk, and let the mixture cool off for 10 minutes before squeezing out more liquid. The pea milk curds will be really hot, so allow it to cool first for 10 minutes before straining anymore.
- Squeeze the remaining liquid from the cheese curds: Once the mixture is cool enough to handle, clump the top of the cheesecloth together with the curds inside and gently squeeze any remaining liquid from the curds into the bowl. Remove the cheesecloth from the bowl. You’ll see that the curds inside should almost resemble a cottage cheese appearance, but a little drier.
- Blend: Add the pea milk curds to a food processor or high speed blender, along with the avocado oil shortening and sea salt. Blend until creamy, about 1-2 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed. It should be super silky smooth. Taste the mixture to see if you need a touch more lemon juice or if it’s just right for your taste preference.
- Chill: Scrape the mixture into a glass storage container and seal with the lid. Place the vegan cream cheese into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
- Make the maple gooey butter topping: In a large bowl with a hand mixer or a whisk, cream together the vegan cream cheese, and maple butter. Add in the cornstarch, vanilla extract, and almond extract, and whisk together until combined. Then add in the powdered sugar in two intervals of 1 cup, whisking to combine between each interval. Once you reach a consistent gooey texture, set the bowl aside.
- Make the pecan cake batter: In a large bowl with a whisk, whisk together the sugar, avocado oil, dairy free yogurt, and vanilla extract. Add in the ground pecans, the flour, baking powder, and baking soda, and whisk just until combined.
- Assemble the butter cake: Pour the cake batter into the springform pan, and spread the batter to the edges of the pan. Then pour the maple gooey butter topping on top and gently push the cream cheese mixture to the edges of the pan.
- Bake: Place the springform pan into the oven to bake for 42-45 minutes. Bake until a golden crust forms on top of the cream cheese mixture, and the edges of the mixture are golden brown. The middle will still be wiggly.
- Cool: Allow the cake to cool and set at room temperature for 3-4 hours, or cover overnight at room temperature.
- When ready to serve: Carefully and GENTLY run a butter knife along the edges of the cake to release it from the pan. Then remove the walls of the pan, and plate your pecan butter cake. Top with more sliced pecans and caramel, slice, and serve!
Notes
See blog post for tips and tricks!
