Browned Butter Praline Poke Cake

4.40 from 33 votes

Browned Butter Praline Poke Cake

This recipe starts with tender, homemade yellow cake with roasted pecans, cinnamon, and nutmeg baked in. Several holes are poked into the cake and it is topped off with a sweet browned butter praline sauce. This cake is moist, flavorful, and easy to prepare, making it the perfect year-round dessert!

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time45 mins

Total Time55 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: slices

Calories: 533kcal

Author: Ashley Boyd

Ingredients

For the Cake

¾ cup unsalted butter softened*
¼ cup light flavored oil such as vegetable or canola**
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs room temperature
2 large egg yolks room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder***
1 teaspoon salt
2 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk**** room temperature
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup roasted pecans chopped

For the Praline Sauce

4 tablespoons butter unsalted
1 cup roasted pecans chopped
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

Instructions

For the Cake

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with baking spray and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream the butter, oil, and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 4-7 minutes.
Add the eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating on medium-low (a setting of 3-4 on your stand mixer) after each addition. Add vanilla and beat on medium until combined.
In a separate medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Add cinnamon and nutmeg and whisk ingredients to combine.
Alternate adding some of the flour mixture and some of the buttermilk into the bowl with the butter and sugar mixture, starting and ending with the flour. Mix batter on medium speed (4-5 on stand mixer) after each addition.
Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give everything one more mix on medium (a setting of 4-5 on your stand mixer) until you see no more flour in the batter. Be careful not to overmix your batter.
Fold in pecans with a silicone spatula until evenly mixed into the batter. Pour batter into your prepared baking pan and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs.

For the Praline Sauce

About 5 minutes before you remove the cake from the oven, melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add pecans and cook until butter is frothy and begins to brown, stirring constantly. Continue to cook until the butter is a golden brown and the foam begins to subside a bit. This process should take about 6-8 minutes.
Remove the pan from heat and stir in the sweetened condensed milk. Continue to stir until the condensed milk is completely mixed in with the butter and the sauce is smooth and coats the back of a wooden spoon.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for about 5 minutes in the pan. Poke several holes into the warm cake with the back of a wooden spoon and pour warm praline sauce over top. Smooth sauce out over cake with a silicone spatula, getting it into all of the holes.
Slice and serve the cake warm. Enjoy!

Notes

*soften butter by leaving it out on the counter for a few hours or overnight if baking the next morning. You may use salted butter, just eliminate additional salt in batter if doing so.

**you may also use olive oil if you like, just note that it may impart a bit of flavor into the cake.

***make sure your baking powder is no more than six months old. Old baking powder could result in a dense cake.

****you can also use regular whole milk if you prefer.

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