Toasted Pecan Spice Cake

I made this for my mother in laws birthday cake. I usually make the birthday cakes since making cakes makes me happy...or the thought of eating the frosting makes me happy...anyways, This is a flavorful cake, and the toasted pecans really make the cake! 

I found this recipe on epicurious, and changed a few things to my liking. If you like lemon zest (which I do, but wasn't sure the MIL would) then go for it!

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces and softened

2 3/4 c cake flour (not self-rising)

2 tea baking powder

1 teas baking soda

3/4 tea salt

1 tabl ground cinnamon

1 1/4 tea freshly grated nutmeg

1 tea ground ginger

1/2 tea ground allspice

1/4 tea ground cloves

1 1/2 c packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs at room temperature 30 minutes

1 1/2 tea pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 c sour cream

3/4 c pecans toasted, cooled, and finely chopped

For frosting
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
3 3/4 c confectioners sugar 
1 1/3 c pecans, toasted, cooled, and finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2, 9" round cake pans.

Mix together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices into a large bowl.

Beat together butter (1 1/2 sticks) and brown sugar in another bowl, 3-5 min. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then beat in vanilla. Then add flour mixture and sour cream alternately in batches Mix in pecans until just combined.

Spoon batter evenly into pans, smoothing tops .Bake 30-35 min, until a tooth pick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes , then run a butter knife around edges of cake, and invert on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Make frosting:

Beat together cream cheese, butter until fluffy-1 to 2 minutes. slowly add in powdered sugar until well blended. stir in 1/2 of the toasted pecans.

*If you plan on making the flowers on top of the cake, put some frosting aside.
Frost the top of one of the cake layers, set the second on top, and frost the top and sides. Then grab a handful of the remaining pecans, and gently pat the sides of the cake so they stick...This is where it can get tricky, if your not wanting to be "fancy" just sprinkle them on top. Since I made this for my MIL, I wanted it to look special. I then used a large star cake decorating tip for the flowers...again you don't have to make the flowers, they just make it look pretty:) I used a one time use cake bag, and followed the directions on the box on how to place the tip inside...Starting in the middle, squeeze continually in a close spiral shape, until you reach the desired flower size. (mine are about 2-2 1/2")