This chef-tested gluten-free Pecan Cake is enhanced with warm chai spices and crowned with roasted pears for an elegant touch. It’s a stunning fall dessert that works beautifully for holiday gatherings, brunch, or afternoon tea. Includes expert tips!
Let yourself float in the beauty of your own heart into the ocean of love that fills all space, that always is…that only is.
Krishna Das
Why You’ll Love This Pecan Cake Recipe!
This Pecan Cake with roasted pears sings of fall-homey and comforting, yet elegant enough for your holiday table. As a chef who has tested and shared dozens of dessert recipes on the blog, I love how approachable this one is. The ingredients list is simple, the method straightforward, and the results are always impressive.
Best of all, because it’s naturally gluten-free, it’s a dessert that can please a wide variety of diets. Whether you’re baking for family, friends, or a festive gathering or birthday, this pecan cake is proof that something wholesome and rustic can also feel special and celebratory. Guests will love it! And honestly? It’s so easy, you might find yourself making it on repeat-like I do! 😉
Gluten-Free pecan Cake Ingredients
- Chai spice: Ground cinnamon, ginger powder, ground cardamom, ground allspice, ground cloves, and ground black pepper.
- Raw pecans: Or sub almond meal or ground hazelnuts. Use nut meal, not nut flour. Nut flours will be too dense.
- Large eggs: For binding and moist layers.
- Sugar: For just the right amount of sweetness!
- Molasses: Or sub brown sugar for the white sugar and leave this out.
- Sea salt: The secret ingredient to beautifully enhance each flavor in the cake.
- Roasted pears: Pears, butter, sugar, and chai spice.
Variations
- Nuts: Instead of a pecan cake, try an almond cake or hazelnut cake, use whole nuts or almond or hazelnut meal.
- Fruit: Apples can be substituted for the pears if desired!
- Vanilla: If you’d like to incorporate a vanilla flavor, a teaspoon or two of vanilla extract is nice.
How to make pecan cake
1. Prep. Start by separating the egg yolks from the whites. Preheat the oven to 350°F, then line a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper on the bottom of the pan. Oil the paper and sides of the pan.
2. Mix the chai spice. In a small bowl, mix cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, clove, and black pepper. Reserve 1 teaspoon to use for the roasted pears.
3. Pulse the pecans. Add the raw pecans, chai spice mix, and salt to a food processor and pulse until fine. Be careful not to turn this into pecan butter! The dry ingredients should be the texture of moist crumbs, like coarse sand.
4. Beat the egg yolks, sugar, and molasses. Add the egg yolks, sugar, and molasses to the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a large mixing bowl and hand mixer). Beat until the mixture becomes emulsified and lighter in color.
5. Add the pecans. To the large bowl, add the pecans and mix. The texture will be quite thick.
6. Whip egg whites. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites into soft peaks.
Tips for whipping egg whites
I don't know about you, but I can be a bit intimidated by the separating of yolks and whites and folding in the whites, without deflating the batter.
It can be a moment of stress in the kitchen, which is not what we are aiming for! I encourage you to breathe deeply throughout the process, know that this cake is so yummy it is worth it, and keep in mind that it’s actually not very difficult after all. With a few tips, you'll have it down pat in no time.
- The trick is to make sure there are zero yolks in the whites and start with an impeccably clean bowl. Wipe the bowl out with a bit of vinegar on a cloth to ensure there is no oil residue. If there is any oil in the bowl, you’ll have issues!
- Start whipping whites on medium-low speed. This helps form smaller air bubbles, giving them structure and stability, and they will be less likely to deflate while incorporating into the batter. When they start to get frothy, turn the mixer to high.
- Be careful not to over-whip. You may need to turn the mixer off a few times to check the consistency.
7. Fold in the egg whites. Place a third of the whipped egg whites into the center of the pecan mixture. With a rubber spatula or large metal spoon, slice down the middle through the egg whites, gently folding them and the pecan meal toward the center. Give the bowl a 1/8 turn toward you and repeat the process, slicing down the middle and gently folding 2 or 3 times per turn. Once you make it all the way around, scrape down the sides and gently fold that in. Add half of the remaining egg white mixture and repeat the process. Then add the remaining whites and repeat again. Do a few extra turns if needed to fully incorporate the batter.
8. Bake. Pour the cake batter into the parchment-lined springform pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cake is firm to the touch in the center. The toothpick test works well here!
9. Cool. Let the pecan cake cool on a cooling rack before releasing it from the pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if you’d like! Top with roasted pears and toasted, chopped pecans. Use a sharp knife to cut even slices.
How to Make Roasted Pears
- Preheat the oven to 450F.
- Core and slice the pears, peeling if desired.
- Spread the pears out on a parchment-lined sheet pan.
- Cut butter into a few slices and disperse evenly.
- Sprinkle 1 tsp chai spice and sugar over top.
- Roast 15 minutes, or until tender, to melt butter and caramelize the pears.
Chef’s Tips
- Use raw pecans. Roasted nuts release more oil and can turn the nuts to nut butter while grinding in the food processor.
- Start by separating the eggs. Start by separating the eggs so that they come to room temperature while you gather your ingredients and supplies. Cold eggs separate more easily, and room-temperature whites whip better. Separated eggs warm up faster than if left on the counter in the shell, about 20-30 minutes.
- If using store-bought meal, substitute hazelnut meal or almond meal. Stick to nut meal, not nut flour. Nut flour is too dense.
- Prep the pears while the cake is baking. When the cake is removed from the oven, turn the temperature up to 450F. Once preheated, roast the pears while the cake cools.
- Don’t bother peeling the pears! They tend to hold their shape better if the peel is left on.
- For a richer batter, increase the eggs to six.
Storing your pecan Cake
Store leftover pecan cake for 3-4 days at room temperature, covered, or store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week. The cake freezes well! Wrap tightly and store for up to 3 months. Freeze without the roasted pears. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
Serving Suggestions
- Serve with a scoop of homemade ice cream or dairy free ice cream
- Serve alongside herbal tea, chai tea, or a London Fog latte
- Serve with a pat of pumpkin butter or top with our cream cheese frosting
- For breakfast, with a bowl of Greek yogurt
- Enjoy with a cocktail, like our Orange Blossom Cocktail, Pomegranate Martini, Pear Tree Cocktail, or Old Fashioned
FAQs
Our pecan cake is made using whole raw pecans ground in a food processor. You’ll need eggs, sugar, molasses, and chai spice mix.
Pecans have the best flavor for baking. For an alternative to pecans, use hazelnuts or almonds. I don’t suggest using walnuts for this cake.
Ice cream, whipped cream, tea, coffee, or a cozy cocktail!
Warm spices like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, allspice, and clove-these make up our chai spice mix!
More Favorite Fall Desserts
After you try this pecan cake recipe, let us know how it turns out in the comments below. Your review will help other readers, too! Sign up here to join our community and receive our latest recipes and weekly newsletter! xoxo Tonia
Pecan Cake Recipe
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
- Category: Dessert, Fall Dessert, cake
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Chai-Spiced Pecan Cake with roasted pears – a subtly sweet, chai-spiced flourless cake using pecans as the base. Perfect for fall gatherings, holiday dinners, brunch or afternoon tea.
Ingredients
Chai Spice:
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Torte:
- 3 cups raw pecans (340 grams) or sub almond meal (see notes), or ground hazelnuts.
- 4 eggs, separated
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 1 teaspoon molasses (or sub brown sugar for the white sugar and leave this out)
- 1 teaspoon of sea salt
Roasted Pears:
- 2 pears
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon chai spice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Line a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper on the bottom. Oil the paper and sides of the pan.
- Make the chai spice mix. Mix cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, clove and black pepper in a bowl. Set aside 1 teaspoon of mix to use on pears later.
- Pulse raw pecans, chai spice mix and salt in a food processor until nuts are fine, being cautious to not turn them into butter. They should be the texture of coarse sand.
- In a shallow bowl beat the separated egg yolks with the sugar and molasses until the mixture becomes emulsified and lighter in color.
- Add the pecans and mix to combine. The mixture will be quite thick.
- Whip the egg whites to soft peaks.
- Place 1/3 of the whipped egg whites in the center of the pecan mixture. Using a rubber spatula or large metal spoon slice down the middle through the egg whites gently folding the whites and pecan meal towards the center, give the bowl about an 1/8 of a turn toward you and repeat the process, slice down the middle and gently fold 2 or 3 times per turn. Once you make it around the entire bowl, slicing, turning and folding, scrape down the sides of the bowl and gently fold that in. Then add ½ of the egg white mixture remaining and repeat the slicing, folding, turning process and then add the remaining whites and repeat process giving a few extra turns if needed to fully incorporate batter.
- Pour into the parchment-lined springform pan.
- Bake @ 350 in a preheated oven 25-30 minutes, or until cake is firm to the touch in the center.
Roasted Pears ( 450F oven)
- Core and slice pears (peel if desired).
- Place on a sheet pan with parchment.
- Cut butter into a few slices and disperse evenly.
- Sprinkle spices and sugar on top.
- Roast in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for 15 minutes or until tender.
Notes
- Using raw pecans is important as roasted nuts release more oil and can turn the nuts to nut butter while grinding in the processor.
- Almond Meal is ground almonds, not almond flour.
- For a speedy way to bring eggs to room temperature, separate your refrigerated eggs and then leave them out about 20-30 minutes while you gather the remaining ingredients. They will warm up faster this way then if just left on the counter in the shell.
- For an even lighter and richer batter you can increase the eggs to 6.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: With the roasted pears
- Calories: 353
- Sugar: 20.9 g
- Sodium: 262.6 mg
- Fat: 26.7 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 27.1 g
- Fiber: 4.7 g
- Protein: 5.8 g
- Cholesterol: 77.5 mg
I made this at least four times and it’s been a hit every time! So so Yummy!
Great to hear Monika!
Made the torte for company and everyone enjoyed the chai spice and the delicious warm pear topping
Happy to hear this Juliane!
Any advise on freezing as a prep for the holiday baking?
It will freeze great! Just wrap it well. The pears are best made when serving from an appearance standpoint- but can freeze and have them more like a sauce on top.
The recipe calls for 3 cups raw pecans but says ground almonds or hazelnuts can be substituted. What amount of already ground nuts should be used? Thank you.
The same amount. 3 cups.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. 3 cups of raw pecans. But the recipe doesn’t say how much this becomes when the nuts are ground. Presumably less than 3 cups. So wondering how much ground nuts to use (ground almonds or hazelnuts) vs whole nuts. Thank you!
Oh I see! I would guess about 2 2/3 cups of ground. Next time I make it I will measure/ weigh this.
Excellent!
What size pan did you use? Thanks.
9″ springform.
The torte came out incredibly dense. It was edible but barely. I substituted almond meal. Now I see it says 340 grams for almond meal and using a converter, it comes out to 2.75 cups. I added 3 cups assuming it was the same at the pecans. So that was one error I made. Still, I’m not sure 1/4 cup of almond meal explains the failure. I used 5 eggs and sliced/folded the whipped egg whites in as instructed, at least best I could. When it said “pour” into the cake pan, I almost laughed. I added some water and even then could only spatula it into the pan. It’d be nice if you’re going to use “cups” for the pecans, to also use “cups” for the almond meal so there’s no confusion.
Hi Renee, sorry this didn’t work out for you.🫤 Did you use almond flour? That may have been the problem, this recipe is for nut meal- ground nuts.
Could I make this 2 days ahead? I want to bring it to Thanksgiving but won’t be able to bake where I’m going. Thanks-it sounds delicious!
It should be fine sealed in an airtight container!
I’ve made this cake twice now and it was fantastic both with the pears and without (served with vanilla ice cream). Definitely a fall favorite dessert – thanks!
Nice to hear! So perfect for this time of year.
This was a delicious dessert after a Thanksgiving meal. I was concerned with the amount of spices, but it was perfect! Thank you.
So glad you enjoyed this- a perfect dessert for Thanksgiving!
I want to make this for Thanksgiving. Do you think I could make the cake and freeze, and then thaw/warm and add pears before serving?
I used Monkfruit Sweetener instead of sugar to make it Keto-friendly and it turned out to be delicious!
that’s cool! yay!
Hii:-) this looks stunning, a question, can I sub the sugar with maple syrup or agave ? Basically wet sugar over dry ?
I’m not sure how the portions would hold up. Hasn’t been tested for this but if you try it, let us know!
sounds like a good one to try. maple would taste amazing. I wonder about using 1/2 cup of liquid sweetner and adding an egg??
Hallo again, this is one of those easy peasy cakes that can be whipped up in half an hour kind of 😉 Although it is very unassuming to make, it is pretty addictive. The chai spices are especially great for autumn vibes. We have a very similar torte in Croatia, the recipe for the cake is the same, but we use almonds instead of pecans and orange zest instead of chai spices. Once baked, it is glazed with chocolate. Anyway, I really enjoyed it so thanks!
Glad you liked it!
Sylvia what an amazing recipe! can’t wait to try it 🙂
Have you ever thought of linking the ingredients to Whole Foods? I am buying them and would love to give you the ad dollars lol
Have a great week!
So lovely! Love the idea of grinding pecans and using it as the flour base of this cake!
PS: I made it with a generous pinch of salt, not a teaspoon of salt, doubled the number of pears, because caramelized pears are one of my favourite flavours. The cake turned out well, love the combination with the pears and how the whole house is filled with chai spice aroma. I did not have enough pecans and had to substitute 60 grams with almonds. Would decrease the amount of sugar slightly next time. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the helpful feedback Pia! It does seem like a lot of salt for a cake but the large amount of raw nuts can really soak it up. Glad it you adapted for your taste.
This looks amazing! I wonder if there is a way to make an eggless version…maybe whip aquafaba and use Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer?
I wonder! If you try, let us know!
Looks amazing, is there a substitute for molasses here ?🙈
You can use brown sugar instead of white sugar and leave the molasses out.
This looks delicious, but do you really add 1 teaspoon of salt to the egg yolk-pecan-sugar-mix?
Yes. 😉
This looks delicious–thinking of making it for my mom’s birthday! Do you think it could be made with (pre-ground) almond meal instead of grinding from fresh pecans? If so, what volume would you suggest? Thanks so much!
I think that should work. If it is almond meal you should be able to use the same weight/ measurement. Using a kitchen scale will give you the best results. Let us know how it turns out!
My husband isn’t a fan of pecans. What other nut could I do this with? Hazelnuts? Almonds?
It should work fine with most other nuts. Hazelnuts sound yummy. Let us know what you try and how it turns out!