Secret Recipe Club-Maple Pecan Brown Sugar Cake

My assignment for Secret Recipe Club this month was the blog, A Dusting of Sugar.   What a great find this was for this Great Big Sweet Tooth Dessert Lovin’ grandma.  The blog is filled with wonderful dessert and baking recipes from Rebecca, a college student who does most of her cooking in a dorm kitchen.  She is getting a bit better kitchen to cook in this year, I understand.

Looking through the blog, I found recipe after recipe that I wanted to try, but when I came across the post for Brown Sugar Cake I knew that was what I was going to make.  I also totally agree with sentiments she expresses in the post about eating sweets.  Just a couple of the other recipes that I want to try are Milk Muffins and Nutella Nanaimo Bars.

With fall coming I have had the flavor of maple on my mind so decided that I would add maple flavor to the recipe and also some chopped, toasted pecans. 

The cake is topped by a penuche type frosting to which I also added a bit of maple flavor.  This made the frosting taste similar to what is on bakery maple bars.  The cake is a sturdy cake which I actually cut into small enough  pieces to serve as a bar cookie.  No matter if you cut it into larges pieces to serve as cake or smaller ones to serve like bar cookies, it is  a delicious dessert well worth making.  Thanks for sharing a great recipe, Rebecca.

Maple Pecan Brown Sugar
based on a recipe found at A Dusting of Sugar

1/2 lb. butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1/2 c. shortening
2 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
5 eggs at room temperature
1 t. maple flavoring
1 T. vanilla extract
3 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 c. milk
1 c. chopped toasted pecans

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter, shortening, and brown sugar and beat until light and creamy.  Add eggs and mix until well blended.  Blend in maple flavoring and vanilla extract.  Combine flour and baking powder and stir well.  Add flour to creamed mixture and mix until well blended.  Add milk, mixing until batter is smooth.  Stir in pecans.  Pour batter into a well-greased 10x15-inch jelly roll pan.  Batter will fill pan very full.  Bake at 350 degrees 30-35 minutes or until top springs back when touched with a finger.  Let cool to room temperature.

Maple Frosting
1/2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar, tightly packed
1/4 c. milk
1/2 t. maple flavoring
2 1/2 c. sifted powdered sugar

Melt butter in a medium sized saucepan on the stove.  Add brown sugar, bring to a boil and boil over low heat for 2 minutes.  Add milk, cook and stir until mixture boils.  Remove from heat.  Stir in maple flavoring.  Add powdered sugar and mix in well.  Pour frosting over cake spread out quickly and evenly over the top.  Frosting will set up quickly.  Cool and cut as desired.  Makes 60 or more bar cookies or 15 servings as a cake.

 If you would like to join in the fun, just click on over to The Secret Recipe Club information page to find out all the details.