Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking tray with parchment paper
Chop pecans into various sized chunks and place in a bowl. (Keep a handful of them whole to decorate the cake with).
2 cups Chopped Pecans
Melt the butter and add to the bowl along with the pecans and golden sugar, stir until the pecans are evenly coated
3 tablespoon Salted Butter, 3 tablespoon Golden Sugar
Bake for 7 minutes until toasted, then remove from the oven and set aside while you prepare your cake batter. Leave the oven on as the cake will be going in shortly.
Make the Cake
Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy
1 cup Unsalted Butter, 1 cup White Sugar, 1 cup Golden Sugar
Add eggs, one at a time and incorporate
2 Eggs
Stir in the maple syrup and vanilla extract
⅔ cup Maple Syrup, 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Sift flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl and add a third of it to the batter, stir in completely
3 cups All-purpose Flour, 2 teaspoon Baking Powder, ½ teaspoon Salt, ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
Add half the milk, followed by another third of flour, the remainder of the milk and then the remainder of the flour, making sure to incorporate completely in between each addition
1 cup Milk
Fold in your chopped pecans (except the ones reserved for decorating)
Pour into a well greased bundt pan and bake for 45 - 55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean
Remove the bundt cake from the oven and allow to sit on the worktop for 10 minutes, then flip it upside down onto a cooling rack and remove from the pan. Let cool completely before decorating
Make the Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
Put all the ingredients into a mixer and beat until smooth and slightly runny
½ cup Cream Cheese, ¼ cup Butter, 1 cup Icing Sugar, ¼ cup Maple Syrup, 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
Pour over the bundt cake as you like and decorate with toasted pecans
Notes
You can also make candied pecans on the stovetop if you prefer. Just put the pecans in an ungreased pan and add 2 tablespoons of butter and ⅓ cup brown sugar for each cup of pecans in the pan. Let them toast, stirring occasionally, while the sugar and butter melt around them and coat them. Once the sugar is dissolved and has coated the pecans, they are ready!