Maple-pecan snack cake

I'm not one to buy pure maple syrup because it's so expensive, but for this recipe I made the exception. Or maybe hubby did since he was the one to buy the syrup on his way home from work. Thanks honey for saving me a trip to the store!

This recipe comes from Cooking Light, which means its lighter on the calories. It's also a quick and easy cake to make. Which happens to be my favorite kind of cake to make.





Whisk the maple syrup, sour cream, butter, vanilla and egg until smooth.

In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, toasted pecans, and salt.



Add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture.


Mix it all together.



and pour it into a pan. Or as I had to do, scrape into a pan. I always laugh when a recipe says to pour a thick mixture when you really have a thick mixture that needs to be coaxed into a pan. It does sound better to say pour mixture rather than say scrape the mixture.


After the cake has baked and is cooling, whip up the frosting.



Slap the frosting on that sweet cake, sit back with a tall glass of cold milk and enjoy this yummy tasting maple cake. But don't forget to make a huge mess in the kitchen(like I always seem to do) and dust yourself with flour so your family will think it was a long and hard job to make this cake.




Maple-Pecan Snack Cake
Adapted from Cooking Light March 2008

Cake

1 cup maple syrup

1 cup reduced -fat sour cream

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 11 1/4 ounces)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted

1/2 teaspoon salt

cooking spray


Frosting


For the frosting I just added my pecans into the frosting before I mixed it. But I had to thin it out a bit with some milk.

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 tablespoon whipping cream

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted


Preheat oven to 350 degrees

To prepare cake, combine first 5 ingredients, stirring well with a whisk.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, pecans, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add syrup mixture to flour mixture; stir until well blended. Pour batter into a 9-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center come out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.

To prepare frosting, combine sugar, maple syrup, whipping cream and salt. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Spread frosting evenly over cooled cake; sprinkle with 1/4 cup pecans.

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)
Calories 261
Fat 8.4g