Priester’s Whipped Cream and Pecan Cake

Ingredients

Start-to-finish: 1 hour (35 minutes active)

6 room temperature eggs, separated

1½ cups granulated sugar, divided

2½ tablespoons all-purpose flour (yes, tablespoons)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

2½  cups Priester’s pecan meal (see note) 

1 pint whipping cream

Extra powdered sugar for cream

Sweet wine to flavor cream (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 F. With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until very stiff; then add ¼ cup of sugar. In a separate mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining 1¼ cups of sugar for 5 minutes on medium speed. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt; add to egg yolks. Beat in vanilla; slowly add pecan meal until well blended. 

By hand, gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites until all ingredients are barely mixed. Prepare two 9-inch cake layer pans with cooking spray. Pour the batter evenly between the two pans. Batter will be clumpy; use a rubber spatula to evenly spread pecans in pans.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of cakes comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool for 15 minutes; then turn out of pans onto wire racks to cool completely. When cakes are thoroughly cooled, whip the cream with an electric mixer until stiff. Flavor with sugar and a small amount of sweet wine to taste. Spread the sweetened whipped cream on the tops of both cake layers and stack. Sprinkle the top layer with chopped pecans or more pecan meal. Refrigerate cake. 

Note: Priester’s Pecans sells ready-to-use pecan meal, but if you need to make your own, place 2½ cups of pecans into a food processor and add 1 tablespoon of the flour from the recipe. Pulse until pecans reach a fine, crumbly consistency.