Toffee Pecan Caramel Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
This Toffee Pecan Caramel Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting is every bit as delicious as it sounds. It has become an instant family favorite!
With fall just around the corner, we are already dreaming of all of the wonderful flavors that come with the season, from pumpkin cake to spice cake, sweet potato cake, and more.
Today's fall cake is a delicious twist on our favorite caramel cake, incorporating toffee bits and pecans for a wonderful crunch.
Our Caramel Cream Cheese frosting is the perfect complement to this flavorful layer cake, and we love how easy it is to make!
It has all of the tangy deliciousness that we love in a cream cheese frosting, but the addition of caramel sauce takes it to a new level.
I would definitely file this recipe under our fall favorites, although caramel lovers are going to request it year round. It's just that good! We hope that you enjoy it!
Table of Contents
How to make Toffee Pecan Caramel Cake
You can find the full, printable Toffee Cake recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, if using dark colored pans reduce heat to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three 8x2 inch round pans.
- In a separate bowl combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk at least 30 seconds to blend. Set aside.
- In another bowl combine the sour cream, vanilla, oil and milk. Stir and set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and beat on low to medium speed until smooth. Slowly add the white and brown sugar beating on medium speed until the mixture is lighter in color and fluffy, approximately 3 to 5 minutes ( a bit longer if using a hand mixer).
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg until the yellow of the yolk is blended in.
- Add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Scraping the bowl at least twice.
- Once the batter is mixed, using a spatula fold in the toffee bits and the chopped pecans. The cake batter is thick, this will help to keep the nuts and toffee bits from sinking to the bottom of the pan.
- Pour batter into 3 prepared cake pans and bake for 22 to 25 minutes. The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the center pulls out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let the cakes cool 5 to 10 minutes then turn out.
Assembling the Toffee Pecan Caramel Cake
Once the cake layers have completely cooled and caramel cream cheese frosting is prepared, it is time to assemble the cake!
First, place the bottom layer of cake onto the cake base or cake pedestal and glaze with a thin layer of caramel. (We used store bought but you could also use homemade if you prefer!)
It is best not to take it close, but not all the way to the edge.
Follow with a layer of Caramel Cream Cheese frosting.
Repeat the steps for the second layer. Then, top with with the third toffee cake layer.
Fill in any gaps between the cake layers with frosting. Apply a thin "crumb coat" of frosting on top and around the sides fo the cake. This thinly applied layer of frosting traps the crumbs.
At this point, I like to chill the crumb coated toffee cake in the freezer for 15 minutes (or in the refrigerator for a bit longer) to firm everything up for the second layer of frosting. This keeps the layers from shifting as you work.
Decorating the Cake
Finally, we frosted the chilled, crumb coated cake with a layer of our caramel cream cheese frosting, and decorated the top with a spiral of caramel applied using a piping bag with the tip snipped away.
My border is a mixture of crushed pecans and toffee bits, and the top piping was created with a french piping tip and more pecans!
We love the look of this cake, but even more, the flavor is SO good! We hope that you enjoy it.
Recipe FAQs
More Fall Cakes
In addition to our Toffee Pecan Bundt Cake, which is based on today's layer cake recipe, we have several more cakes that are perfect for fall celebrations, from fall birthdays to the Thanksgiving dessert table!
You just cannot go wrong with any of these cakes. A few of our most popular are our Carrot Cake Recipe, Maple Pound Cake, Pumpkin Spice Cake, and Sweet Potato Cake.
*Don't miss our full roundup of favorite fall cake recipe and cake decorating ideas: Favorite Cake Design and Recipe Ideas for Fall!
Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this Toffee Pecan Cake.
Make sure to scroll through our collection of favorite scratch cake recipes as well as the best cake mix recipes! You can find them all in our Cake Recipes section.
We also have a great collection of free cake decorating tutorials! In this section you will find basics like How to Make a Cake, elegant cakes, baby shower cakes, and birthday cake ideas!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Toffee Pecan Caramel Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened (170g) Butter should hold its shape but dent when pressed.
- 3 large eggs, room temperature (to warm quickly — put into a bowl with very warm water for 5-10 minutes.)
- 1 cup 200g white sugar (200g)
- 1 cup light brown sugar (packed into measuring cup) (217g)
- 3 cups cake flour (342g)(If you do not have a scale, spoon into a measuring cup and level off with back of a knife) See Notes below for substitution if needed.
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder (12g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
- 1 cup sour cream (242g)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8g)
- ½ cup whole milk ( we used whole milk) (121g)
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (canola oil) (54g)
- ½ cup toffee bits ( we used Heath Bits O' Brickle toffee bits) (72g)
- ½ cup chopped pecans (49g)
For the Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (226g total)
- 8 oz package full fat cream cheese, softened (226g)
- ½ teaspoon 3g salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8g)
- 6 cups powdered sugar (½ cup more if needed) (690g)
- 3 Tablespoons caramel sauce ( we used Smucker's Caramel Topping) (42g)
For Decoration/Decorative Accents on Cake
- Optional: Additional crushed pecans and toffee bits for border and whole pecans for accents on top.
Instructions
For the Cake Layers
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, if using dark colored pans reduce heat to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three 8x2 inch round pans.
- In a separate bowl combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk at least 30 seconds to blend. Set aside.
- In another bowl combine the sour cream, vanilla, oil and milk. Stir and set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and beat on low to medium speed until smooth. Slowly add the white and brown sugar beating on MEDIUM speed until the mixture is lighter in color and fluffy, approximately 3 to 5 minutes ( a bit longer if using a hand mixer).
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg until the yellow of the yolk is blended in.
- Add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Scraping the bowl at least twice.
- Once the batter is mixed, using a spatula fold in the toffee bits and the chopped pecans. The cake batter is thick, this will help to keep the nuts and toffee bits from sinking to the bottom of the pan.
- Pour batter into 3 prepared cake pans and bake for 22 to 25 minutes. The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the center pulls out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let the cakes cool 5 to 10 minutes then turn out.
- Makes 8 cups of batter
- Works well for cupcakes - bake cupcakes at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes
For the Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and cream cheese, mix until smooth. Do not mix above medium speed.
- Slowly add the powdered sugar along with the caramel topping, salt and vanilla. Mix until the mixture is creamy and smooth.
- Don't over mix or it may become too soft. If it does become too soft, refrigerate for 10 minutes or so to firm it up to a consistency you like. If you plan to do any piping, you may need to chill the piping bag occasionally, as warm hands soften the frosting.
To Assemble the Cake
- Place the first cake layer onto your cake base or pedestal. Spread a thin layer of caramel. Follow with the Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting. Add the other layer and repeat. Top with the last layer and frost the cake as desired .
- *We used additional crushed pecans mixed with toffee bits to press around the base of the cake. We also piped a spiral of caramel on top using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away. We used a french piping tip for the decorative stars around the top, and used pecan halves for additional decoration.
Hi Sondra, I am sorry that we do not have a gluten free cake. If you have a white or yellow gluten free cake that you like, you could use our recipe as a guide to make changes. Such as - adding light brown sugar to replace some of the sugar in your recipe. Also, adding toffee bits and pecans and frosting with the Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting. It would be your gluten free version of our cake. If you give it a try, let us know what you think. Hope all goes well.
I was planning to make this toffee cake for a birthday and I just realized my pans are 9 inch instead of 8. Have you ever tried this with 9 inch pans is it still enough batter? I’d still like to have the three layers I’m not sure if I tried to adjust the recipe for more batter I would get it right :(
Hi Melanie, This recipe makes 8 cups of batter. If your pans are 9 inches round by 2 inches deep, you could could use up to 5 1/2 cups of batter per pan. You could divide the batter between your 3 pans knowing that the layers will not be very high. Another option is to bake in two 9x2 inch pans, 4 cups in each pan. Once baked and cooled you could cut the 2 layers in half giving you a 4 layer cake. Bakers often like to do this, giving them more frosting per bite. If you go this route, I would increase the ingredients in the frosting recipe by 1/2. Let me know if you need help with increasing the measurements.
Hi! If I halved the recipe could I make cupcakes?
Hi Amanda, Yes, you can divide the recipe in half. For standard size cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes. This recipe has 3 eggs, so you need 1 and 1/2 eggs......to get 1/2 egg, break an egg into a bowl, whisk to throughly blend the white and yolk. Two tablespoons will be 1/2 egg. Cupcakes using a scratch recipe will bake with only a slight dome.
Just made this tonight for my husband's birthday cake! I jiggled the flour around a little bit to make it gluten free, but it is by far the best tasting cake I've ever made! Thanks for this delicious recipe!
@Canadian_Sadie- Yay! I'm so glad to hear it. Thanks so much for your feedback, I hope your husband has a great birthday!
Hi Donna, Your completed cake will need to be refrigerated if you frosted with cream cheese frosting because it is perishable. It should be fine refrigerated for up to 5 days. It will not dry out if kept under a cake dome or in an airtight container.
Hi.
In the recipe is 226 gr of cream cheese or 453 gr as the others cream cheese recipe please for?
Because the others recipe ( vanilla etc) have the same portion with 226 gr of butter and 690 g of powdered sugar but 453 gr for cream cheese.
Thank you
Hi Sandrine- This is sort of a cross between buttercream and cream cheese frosting- it has a bit more sugar also than the other cream cheese frostings- this allows us to add the caramel sauce and vanilla without making it too soft.
I’ve been watching a bit too many baking shows during quarantine lol... I searched for a cake recipe of my favorite flavors and so glad I found this! This was my first time ever baking a cake from scratch and I’m so proud! I followed the directions to the letter. It came out very dense, but I like it! And this could be beginner baker error still lol but I think it still works well, the toffee and pecans were perfectly spread out! I also made my own caramel sauce since I had the time, I def recommend that also if you can! I also only used 4 cups of powdered sugar for my frosting because that’s all I had and I actually liked that personally to make it a little less sweet. Thank you for this recipe, guess who’s having cake for breakfast lol
Hi Sara, Your first scratch cake, it looks divine, I'm so glad you gave the recipe a try! If it was dense it could be because the butter and sugar was not mixed long enough. If the butter and sugar have not lightened in color and taken on a look of fluffiness, mix a little longer. Butter can hold air and this happens when creaming it with sugar. During baking the trapped air expands giving you a less dense cake. Thanks so much for posting and giving your review.
Looks AMAZING! Trying TODAY! Sara thats impressive!
Thank you kindly for the recipe.