Butterscotch Pecan Pound Cake

Caleb is seven weeks old and CJ sent a video. Seven seconds of Caleb on his back on a blanket, making a series of sounds that CJ is interpreting as a conversation and that are probably just a baby discovering his voice. But they might be a conversation. I watched the video eleven times and I am choosing to believe it is a conversation. Grandmothers are allowed to choose this.

Second anniversary of Destiny and Travis's wedding. They went to New Orleans again, as established, and Travis texted me a photograph of beignets again, as established, and I called Destiny from the kitchen on Saturday afternoon while I was making the beignets I have now perfected and she pretended to be surprised that I was making them on her anniversary weekend and I pretended I was making them for an unrelated reason. We are both bad at pretending. The beignets were ready when she called and she could hear the oil and said: you're making them right now aren't you. I said no. She said, I can hear the frying. I said, that's background noise. She said, Mama. I said, yes, I'm making beignets, and I'll have them in a box when you come home Sunday. She said, you really need to stop being wonderful. I said I'd get right on that.

The fall kitchen is fully underway: the slow long things, the soups, the root vegetables, the bread that takes all morning. I made a boule of sourdough this week using the starter I've been maintaining since the early pandemic, which means the starter is three years old now and each loaf carries the whole history of it. That is a good thought. A loaf of bread that holds three years of tending inside it.

The fall kitchen asks for the slow things, and this week it asked for pound cake. With the sourdough proving on the counter and Destiny’s anniversary beignets still a happy memory in the house, I wanted something that could bake long and low and fill every room with something golden — and a Butterscotch Pecan Pound Cake is exactly that kind of recipe. It is the kind of cake you make when you are already in the kitchen anyway, already tending things, already grateful for the ordinary good fortune of a Saturday afternoon.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed
5 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Instructions

Prepare your oven and pan. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan or Bundt pan thoroughly, making sure to coat all the crevices.
Whisk the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Cream the fats and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and shortening together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Gradually add the brown sugar, beating well after each addition, until the mixture is pale and creamy, about 4 minutes more.
Add the eggs. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition to ensure everything is fully incorporated.
Alternate the dry ingredients and milk. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions (beginning and ending with flour). Mix just until combined — do not overmix.
Fold in the pecans and butterscotch chips. Stir in the vanilla extract, then gently fold in the toasted pecans and butterscotch chips by hand with a rubber spatula.
Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake at 325°F for 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is deep golden brown.
Cool. Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes before inverting onto the rack to cool completely. Do not rush this step — the cake needs time to set before it is turned out.

Nutrition (per serving)

Butterscotch Pecan Pound Cake — For the Fall Kitchen and the Long, Slow Things