A few days ago, my pastry buddy aka MD’Rékréation invited me to a barbecue at his new house. Generally, when I’m invited somewhere, the question of what I’m bringing doesn’t even come up 😉 But when you’re going for lunch at a pastry expert’s, that’s another story! So we both decided to make a cake around vanilla and pecan: in the form of a dessert for him and in the form of an afternoon treat for me.
Maamar made a delicious vanilla, caramel and pecan millefeuille (it was so good!!!) and I made a vanilla pecan loaf cake (it’s filled with pecan praline, topped with a pecan gianduja, the whole thing coated in a rocher glaze).
This vanilla pecan loaf cake was also an opportunity for me to use the mould Maamar had lent me, Michalak’s MK loaf mould (from the Silikomart brand). I love this calisson shape. The mould is rather small but there are 2 cavities. You can of course make this recipe in a traditional loaf tin. I also borrowed the idea from Claire Damon’s chocolate and gianduja loaf cake by piping gianduja onto the cake and covering it with a chocolate glaze.
And speaking of gianduja, here I made a pecan version by replacing the hazelnuts with pecans. It makes a change from the traditional gianduja I’m used to eating and it’s really very good. Gianduja can be bought ready-made (although, it seems to me you can only find the hazelnut kind) but it’s so simple and quick to make that it would be silly to miss out.
As for the vanilla loaf cake, I’ve been faithful for years to François Perret’s marble cake recipe (which can be found in several recipes on the blog, like here with the checkerboard vanilla and chocolate cake rose cake style). A real success every time! Here, I simply took the vanilla version (I strongly advise you to use a real vanilla pod and not vanilla flavouring, it makes all the difference). To fill it with pecan praline, I cut the top of the cake along its whole length, created a little groove and then piped in my praline. There are metal loaf tins with a tube-shaped insert, which would be ideal for this recipe, but I made do with what I had 😉
One thing is for sure, this vanilla pecan loaf cake will delight young and old alike at snack time.
Ingredients & Method
4 components · Full recipe
Vanilla Loaf Cake
Ingredients
- 75 g (2.6 oz) butter
- 165 g (5.8 oz) caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 vanilla pod
- 2 g (0.1 oz) fine salt
- 110 g (3.9 oz) whipping cream
- 140 g (4.9 oz) flour
- 3 g (0.1 oz) baking powder
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 160°C / 325°F.
2
In a food processor (or blender), mix together the butter cut into small pieces, the sugar, the vanilla seeds and the salt.
3
Mix in the beaten eggs (without stopping the food processor), then the sifted flour with the baking powder, and finally the cream.
4
Pour into the loaf tin.
5
Bake for approximately 50 minutes. Check for doneness with a knife — the blade should come out clean.
Pecan Gianduja (can be made ahead)
Ingredients
- 100 g (3.5 oz) pecan nuts
- 100 g (3.5 oz) icing sugar
- 100 g (3.5 oz) milk chocolate
Method
1
Toast the pecan nuts in an oven preheated to 150°C / 300°F for about 10 minutes.
2
Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
3
Place the milk chocolate in a bowl and melt in the microwave.
4
Blend the pecan nuts with the icing sugar until you obtain a paste.
5
Add the melted milk chocolate and blend again until you obtain a supple paste.
Assembling the Vanilla Pecan Loaf Cake
Ingredients
- the pecan praline
- the pecan gianduja
Method
1
Once the vanilla cake is completely cold, cut the top off lengthways using a serrated knife.
2
Using a small knife, cut a groove lengthways into the frozen cake, then pipe pecan praline along the full length. Be more generous than I was 😉
3
Replace the cap on the cake.
Rocher Glaze
Ingredients
- 200 g (7.1 oz) dark chocolate
- 35 g (1.2 oz) grapeseed oil
- 50 g (1.8 oz) crushed pecan nuts
Method
1
Place the chocolate in a bowl and melt in the microwave.
2
Add the grape seed oil and mix with a spatula, working from the centre outwards.
3
Add the pre-toasted crushed pecan nuts and stir.
4
Remove the cake from the freezer and place it on a wire rack set over a dish or large plate (to catch any excess glaze), then pour the glaze over when it has reached a temperature of 30–35°C / 95°F.
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