This Gluten Free Brown Sugar and Pecan Caramel Bundt Cake is packed full of pecans and toffee bits, with a moist and tender crumb, smothered in thick, gooey caramel, topped with butter toasted pecans! It’s a gluten free adaptation of my amazing Brown Sugar and Pecan Caramel Cake – and it’s perhaps even more delicious in gluten free form!
This cake, y’all. You need it in your life, trust me! I first made this over two years ago and it’s still one of my all time favourite cakes, it’s just so full of flavour, so easy to make and that thick, gooey caramel topping is just heavenly. It’s really easy to make too, which means this Gluten Free Brown Sugar and Pecan Caramel Bundt Cake basically perfect! You can see the original recipe here, it’s not gluten free of course and the photos, well, they leave a lot to be desired! I was still a baby blogger back then, so you’ll have to cut me some slack. I do hope to update those photos too one day, but for now just know this is how beautiful this delicious cake can be!
This month’s Yum of the Month theme was bundt cakes, chosen by our newest member Marsha from Marsha’s Baking Addiction. So it was the perfect time to adapt one of my favourite bundt cakes and make it gluten free! Making my favourite Brown Sugar and Pecan Caramel Bundt Cake recipe gluten free was really easy. I used a mixture of pecan flour and a gluten free plain (all purpose) flour blend. It was a really easy sub in meaning the rest of the recipe could stay the same, so you can easily swap between these two recipes depending on whether you want it to be gluten free or not. I absolutely love working with nut flours, they add so much flavour and moisture to cakes so you definitely don’t miss that gluten! You can buy ready ground pecan flour, but I much prefer to buy raw nuts, toast them and grind them myself, the flavour is just so much better. My Vitamix* makes really quick and easy work of it, so buying ready ground just makes zero sense for me!
The original recipe for this made two small five cup bundt cakes, which is a lot of cake! Even though I’m using the same amount of batter, I made this as one 8 cup bundt cake – somehow that makes it seem like less cake! I much prefer it this way, but you do you, just remember to reduce the baking time if you’re making smaller cakes.
The cake itself is stuffed with chopped pecans and Heath toffee bits, meaning there’s crazy amounts of flavour in every single bite. But, perhaps the most indulgently delicious part of this cake is that thick, gooey caramel! You have never seen caramel this thick before, it’s like a lava flow of sweet heaven slowly dripping down your cake. It’s really simple to make as well, it’s just a mixture of condensed milk and brown sugar cooked together, no need for melting sugar or using a candy thermometer. As this caramel is so thick, you need to pour it on your cake while it’s still nice and hot! Just be very careful, as it’s VERY hot and caramel is VERY sticky, not a good combination for your skin!
That amazing caramel is then topped with buttered toasted pecans, a bit of bite that really takes this cake over the top! I used raw pecans on the original cake, so this is another variation, but it’s totally worth the extra couple minutes to toast them in butter. I totally recommend toasting a few extra too, to have as a snack, so good!
Have I convinced you to make this amazing Gluten Free Brown Sugar and Pecan Caramel Bundt Cake yet? Is the moist, tender crumb full of pecans and toffee making you wish you had a slice? Is that thick, sweet, gooey caramel dripping down the sides making you run to the kitchen and turn on your oven? Are those buttered toasted pecans scattered over the top making you want to put this on your Thanksgiving menu? Well, your wait is over. Here’s the amazing Gluten Free Brown Sugar and Pecan Caramel Bundt Cake Recipe!
Brown Sugar and Pecan Caramel Bundt Cake {Gluten Free}
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 10 Servings
A moist and tender gluten free bundt cake packed full of pecans and toffee bits, smothered in thick caramel and sprinkled with buttered toasted pecans
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 150g (1 1/4 cup) pecan flour*
- 300g (1 3/4 cup) gluten free plain/all purpose flour blend
- 1/3 tsp Xanthan gum ONLY IF your gluten free flour blend does not already have it
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 345g (1.5 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 400g (2 cups, packed) light brown sugar
- 200g (1 cup) caster sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 240ml (1 cup) buttermilk**
- 1 packet (8oz/226g) Heath Toffee Bits
- 150g (1 cup) pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
For the caramel:
- 1 can (14oz/397g) sweetened condensed milk
- 200g (1 cup,packed) light brown sugar
- 30g (2 tbsp) unsalted butter
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
For the buttered toasted pecans:
- 15g (1 tbsp) unsalted butter
- 50g pecans
- 1 tsp honey or golden syrup
- pinch of salt
Instructions
To make the cake:
- Preheat oven to 160C/325F. Grease an 8 cup (2 litre) bundt tin well, set aside.
- Put the flours, xanthan gum if using, baking powder and salt in a bowl and whisk together to combine, set side.
- Put the butter in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or use a hand held electric mixer) and beat on high until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the sugars and beat on high until fluffy, about two minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time, and beat on medium until combined.
- Add the flour mix and buttermilk alternatively, starting and ending with the flour, mixing on low between each addition.
- Add the toffee bits and chopped pecans, stir in by hand.
- Spoon into your greased bundt tin and bake for 70-80 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
- Cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes, then carefully turn out on to a wire rack to cool.
To make the caramel:
- Put the condensed milk and brown sugar in a medium saucepan, stir to combine. Bring to a boil on a medium heat, stirring constantly so it does not burn.
- Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla until all the butter is melted.
- Put the cake on your serving stand/plate and carefully pour the caramel all over while it's still hot.
To make the buttered toasted pecans:
- Heat a small frying pan on a medium heat, add the butter and heat until melted
- Stir in the pecans, honey/golden syrup and salt.
- Toast for 2 minutes, keeping the pecans moving so as not to burn them.
- Let cool enough to handle, then sprinkle over the top of the cake
Notes
*use ready ground pecan flour, or buy raw pecans, toast them on the stove top and finely grind **you can make buttermilk at home by putting 1 tbsp of white wine vinegar of lemon juice in your measuring jug, then topping up with regular milk to 240ml/1 cup. Let sit for 5 mins. Store in an airtight container for 3 days.
The treats aren’t over, you have to check out the other Bundt cakes from my fellow Yum of the Monthers!
Amy from Accidental Happy Baker has made this adorable and totally drool worthy Mini Banana Bundt Cakes!
Shadi from Unicorns in the Kitchen has made these totally gorgeous and aromatic Persian Love Bundt Cake
Marsha from Marsha’s Baking Addiction is indulging us with this decadent Cheesecake Swirl Chocolate Bundt Cake
Wajeeha from I Knead To Eat has got us all drooling with this amazing Reese’s Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake
* Disclaimer – I received my Vitamix as a free gift, with no obligation to include it in this post. As always, any opinions expressed in my posts are mine alone.
Sharing with… Foodie FriDIY, Saucy Saturdays
Oh my! This looks seriously good, that caramel topping is to die for 🙂
Thank you Hannah!
This cake looks absolutely heavenly, and that caramel is everything! 🙂
Thank you Marsha!
This looks too pretty and too delicious. Looks perfect for breakfast OR dessert! Cannot wait to try!
Thank you Karly! I would totally love to eat this cake for breakfast!
What a stunning cake. I would love to have this on my holiday table this year.
Thank you so much Sibel! It would definitely make a good holiday dessert centre piece!
This cake looks amazing…I’m loving the caramel!!!
Thank you Wajeeha!
Is there a dairy free way of doing buttermilk? Thank you
Definitely! You can use your favourite dairy free alternative the same way I tell you how to make your own dairy buttermilk in the recipe notes!
Thank you
Look forward to making it!!
I’ve found it difficult to find gluten free cake recipes which are still moist and soft!
I hope you like it, nut flours definitely make up for the lack of moisture you usually find in GF cakes! Please do let me know how yours came out!
Hey michelle!
This looks awesome! <3
Thank you!
When do you add the golden syrup to the pecans? The recipe doesn’t say. Thank you. Also do you add the salt with the butter or pecans? It says salted next to the butter, so I wasn’t sure.
Hi Elvina, really sorry about the confusion there – I don’t know what was going on with my brain when I wrote and proof read that part!
I’ve corrected the wording now. You add the golden syrup at the same time as pecans and salt. You add the salt with the pecans, not the butter! Major brain fail!!
Thanks and happy baking!
Wow, this was so yummy! I really appreciate you converting your original recipe to gluten free. I wasn’t up for making my own pecan flour so I used all GF flour (King Arthur’s GF Measure for Measure). It worked like a dream. It was still plenty moist. I was able to share this with many folks and everyone loved it!!
So glad to hear it Michelle!