• Preheat oven to 325 ℉. Grease and flour a large bundt pan (This recipe makes 8.5 cups of batter)
• Sprinkle ½ cup of chopped pecans into the prepared bundt pan.
• In a separate bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices to combine. Set aside for later.
• Cream the butter with the paddle attachment in your mixer until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and mix on medium speed until light and fluffy 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add the eggs one at a time blending after each to incorporate.
• In another bowl, stir together the sweet potato puree, ¼ cup milk, and vanilla extract.
• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the Sweet Potato Mixture to the butter, sugar, & egg mixture. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. We add the dry mixture three times and the sweet potato mixture twice.
• Mix until just blended after the last addition.
• Scoop the batter into the pan, on top of the chopped pecans.
• Bake at 325 degrees F for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted and removed with with no crumbs or just a few moist crumbs attached. Baking times may vary! Peek in as the end time approaches and adjust time as needed.
• This makes approximately 8.5 cups of batter.
• Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before turning the cake out.

For the Caramel Glaze

• Using a medium size saucepan (deep enough to prevent boil over) melt the butter over medium heat.
• Add the brown sugar and the remaining ingredients and heat on medium high heat.Stir to blend, try to keep mixture off the sides of the pan. Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat to low.
• Simmer for 6 minutes, checking often to make sure that it is not going to boil over. It should still be bubbling. After 6 minutes, remove from heat.
• Keep in mind that the caramel with thicken up a bit as it cools. You can pour it into a long glass casserole dish if you want it to cool more quickly. We often refrigerate to cool it off as well. Makes about 1 cup caramel sauce. It can be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.

Decorating the Cake

• We applied the caramel drip to the cooled cake using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away. You could also use a ziplock bag with a small bit of the corner snipped away, or you can spoon the caramel over the cake.