Pumpkin Pecan Cake with Bourbon Brown Sugar Glaze

For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Prepare a bundt pan or a tube pan by greasing it with butter and sprinkling with flour.

In a medium-sized bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients (flour through ground cloves).

In a small bowl mix the buttermilk, vanilla extract and bourbon.

In the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium high until light and fluffy, 5 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the oil, mix until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well in between. Mix in the pumpkin. Reduce mixer speed to low, and mix in the buttermilk mixture.

Pour in the dry ingredients and mix until just barely combined. Stir in the pecan pieces by hand.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and wiggle it to get the batter even. Bake at 350ºF for 45-55 minutes. Mine took 50.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack to cool completely, about 3 hours.

For the candied pecans:
Heat all of the ingredient except the nuts in a saucepan over medium heat, and stir unti. the sugar dissolves. Stir in the nuts and make sure to coat them well.

Pour the nuts onto an oiled baking sheet, bake in the preheated oven for 8 minutes. Remove the nuts to a piece of parchment to cool. Try to separate the nuts as much as possible.

For the glaze:
In a saucepan combine the brown sugar, bourbon, butter, agave and salt. Cook over medium heat until the mixture is a smooth liquid. Add the cream, raise the heat to high, and boil for 1 minute. Stir constantly. After 1 minute remove the pan from the stove and whisk in the vanilla and then the powdered sugar. Once whisked in, switch to a rubber spatula and stir vigorously to make the mixture as smooth as possible.

Pour the mixture into a measuring cup (there are 2 cups of glaze) for easier glazing of the cake. Let the glaze rest for 5 minutes.

Place the cake on a wire cooling rack above a sheet pan, so the sheet pan catches the over-spill. Pour the glaze slowly and evenly down the cake, from the center, so that it pools over both sides.

Decorate the top of the cake with the candies pecans.

Let the glaze set up for 20 minutes, then pull the cake from the rack and place it on a serving dish.

Store at room temperature and serve the same day.

Recipe adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine September/October 2012