Perfect for Fall: warm drinks, soft sweaters and my caramel apple spice cake! This cake is so simple to make and decorate but incredibly delicious.
If you find cake decorating to be a bit intimidating then check out my How to Decorate a Cake post, it has lots of helpful tips and a full how to video.
Pro Tips for an AMAZING Apple Spice Cake
- Measure your flour correctly! Adding too much flour to the recipe is the most common mistake. The best, and easiest way to measure flour is by using a scale. If you don’t have one then fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle it into your measuring cup, and use a knife to level it off.
- You can save some time and skip browning the butter. You’ll still love the cake BUT definitely try that brown butter sometime!
- If you’re not using 6-inch pans, double the recipe for 8-inch pans or triple the recipe for 9-inch pans.
- You can substitute sour cream for the yogurt if desired, I do it all the time and can’t really tell the difference.
- To get FLAT layers that are moist inside and out try using cake strips! You can buy a set or make your own from foil and paper towels at home. I made a whole blog post on it so check it out if you’re interested!
PRO TIPS FOR MAKING CARAMEL
- Don’t stir! After the sugar has dissolved you don’t need to stir as it can cause crystals to form and ruin that silky consistency.
- DO brush the side of the pot down with a wet pastry brush. This will help prevent those pesky crystals from forming.
- Watch the color carefully taking the sugar to a deep amber color gives a wonderful flavor but going too dark will make a bitter caramel and that sugar will go from perfect to burnt in an instant!
- Use room temperature butter and cream.
- Caramel keeps for a while in the fridge so you can make this part ahead of time or make a big batch and save some for ice cream, coffee drinks and snacking!
- When adding salt dip your a spoon in, let the caramel cool a bit then taste and add more salt if needed. Be careful that sugar is HOT. You can also sprinkle more salt on at the end for a finishing touch!
How to Make Apple Spice Cake
1. Add 3/4 cup of butter to a pot and cook over medium low heat stirring occasionally until the milk solids in the butter caramelize and darken. Be careful of splatters! Once the butter has darkened transfer to a bowl and chill until almost solid. The brown butter will be slow to cool and thicken back up so make sure to do this step in advance. Follow the tips above for perfect caramel that won’t crystalize.
2. To make the caramel add brown sugar, cream, butter and salt to a small pot over medium-low heat and whisk until the mixture almost dissolves, leave it alone until it bubbles and thickens, although you can wash the side down with a wet pastry brush. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, transfer so a bowl and set aside to cool completely.
3. Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and spices into a large bowl. Whisk together and set aside.
4. Add the yogurt, eggs, melted coconut oil, vegetable oil, and vanilla into a medium bowl and whisk together.
5. Peel, core and chop enough apples to have about 2 cups. Set aside and if desired squeeze the juice of half a lemon onto the apple pieces. It won’t matter if the apples brown while exposed to the air but I like the acid from the lemon juice for some contrast.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix to combine using a spatula to fold the very thick mixture together.
7. Add the apples into the batter and fold to incorporate. Your batter will seem quite thick but don’t worry!
8. Distribute the batter between 3 six inch pans and Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes. I’ve also made this same recipe with 4 six inch pans and it works nicely as well.
9. While the cake bakes it’s time to make the buttercream. Add the room temp (partially solidified) brown butter you made in step 1 to a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add salt and half the confectioners’ sugar and mix on low for about a minute.
10. Add the remaining powdered sugar, and vanilla then mix on low. Drizzle in cream until desired consistency is reached. Transfer buttercream and caramel from step 2 to piping bags and snip the tips off.
11. Pipe buttercream onto the first layer. Drizzle caramel, then add the second layer on top.
12. Pipe buttercream and caramel onto the second layer, add the third and cover in a thin layer of buttercream.
13. Smooth the buttercream out using a bench scraper, and or an offset spatula. I scraped away most of the buttercream for a semi-naked look but you can leave more on if you’re a frosting person.
14. Pipe caramel onto the top and give a quick smooth with a knife or offset spatula. Don’t pipe to much as the caramel drips will slowly descend down the cake for a while.
If you love this recipe try these out!
If you’ve tried this cake then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!
Apple Spice Cake
Video
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour 360g
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon 4.6g
- 1/2 tsp ginger 0.9g
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1g
- 1/2 tsp allspice 1g
- 1 Pinch ground cloves
- 1 tsp vanilla 4.9mL
- 1 tsp baking soda 4.6g
- 1 tsp salt 6.3g
- 1/2 cup coconut oil 118.2mL melted
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil 59mL
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt 59mL
- 1.5 cups sugar 192g
- 3 large eggs
- 3 to 4 apples about 2 cups cored and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (3 cups) I prefer honey crisp but many varieties are great.
For the Buttercream:
- 1 pound confectioner's sugar 453.5g
- 3/4 cup room temperature Butter 170g
- 1/3 cup cream 79mL
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 14.7g
For the Caramel:
- 1 cup brown sugar 200g
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter 71g
- 1/2 cup cream or half and half 118.2mL
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 14.7mL
- 1 Pinch of salt
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Sift and whisk together the dry ingredients
- Mix together the wet ingredients until well combined in a large bowl or stand mixer
- Gradually mix in the dry ingredients until just combined
- Fold in the apples
- Divide the mixture evenly into four 6" pans, which have been buttered and floured. (I always use cake strips too)
- Bake at 350F for approximately 40 minutes or until centers are done.
For the Buttercream:
- Add 3/4 cup of butter to a pot and cook over medium low heat stirring occasionally until the milk solids in the butter caramelize and darken. Be careful of splatters! Once the butter has darkened transfer to a bowl and chill until almost solid. The brown butter will be slow to cool and thicken back up so make sure to do this step in advance.
- Cream the butter in a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
- Add in the salt and powdered sugar gradually and beat together.
- Add vanilla and cream until desired consistency is achieved.
For the Caramel:
- Combine ingredients in small pot and stir together so they're mostly dissolved.
- Place over medium-low heat and cook for 7-8 minutes leaving it alone until it bubbles and thickens, although you can wash the side down with a wet pastry brush.
- Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla then transfer to a bowl to cool.
Notes
- If you’re not using 6-inch pans, double the recipe for 8-inch pans or triple the recipe for 9-inch pans.
- You can substitute sour cream for the yogurt if desired, I do it all the time and can’t really tell the difference.
- To get FLAT layers that are moist inside and out try using cake strips! You can buy a set or make your own from foil and paper towels at home. I made a whole blog post on it so check it out if you’re interested!
Nutrition
Vanessa says
I did this cake three times so far. The first time exactly following the recipe, and the combination of the spicy, moist, aple-explosionist layers with the caramel was heaven! But, as you can imagine, for my german tongue the american buttercream was way (WAY!) too sweet. For me, personally, the more sugar you add the less of you can taste the wonderfull browned butter in the cream. Which more than awesome itself – The second bake I actually ended up doing three small plain cakes with just a sweep of browned buttercream and caramel on top, because without that much sugar it was not able to sustain layers. So bottom line: wonderfull cake, very balanced and strong flavours, but not yet the right cream for my taste.
Now I tried the mascarpone whipping cream frosting from your Berry Cake (https://financepost.live/berry-cake/%3C/a%3E%29 with just an idea of cinemon added so the cream conects to the spicy cake, and I salted the caramel just a little bit more that I used too…and this is just right for me! It is less sweet, but the cream is able to stand up against the very strong spicy flavors, the sweetness/salted of the caramel. Only whipped cream would have been too weak, but the mascarpone just gives enough body to it.
Thank you very much for the inspiriation!
A happy german Bäckerin.
Joanne says
Great idea! I’m going to try the mascarpone whipping cream frosting too. Thanks for that suggestion. I’m not a fan of sweet buttercream either.
Matthias says
Hi Vanessa, I´m from Austria so I´m also not the biggest fan of american buttercream but the cake seems to be very delicious (i love apple and cinnamon). Do you think that a french butter cream with the browned butter would work? Thanks in advance! 🙂
jkanell says
That sounds delicious but I think a Swiss or Italian buttercream with browned butter would hold up better 🙂
Ros says
Will this recipe work in 3 8″ pans given you can use 4 6″ pans?
thanks!
Ros
Roslyn says
If I am just using 3 8″ pans (instead of 4), do I still need to double the recipe? Thanks!
Ros
John K. says
Hi Roslyn,
If you are only using three 8″ pans, you should be fine keeping the original measurements! I hope you enjoy the cake!!
Best,
John
Isuru Wikum says
Hi John,
I’m making this cake today. So for 3 x 9 inch pans should I double or triple the recipe? I will be fully covering my cake will be fully covered with butter cream.
jkanell says
triple 🙂
Tara says
I made this cake for a family gathering. Everyone loved it. It is sooooo good! Take the time to brown the butter. It’s a game changer. I will definitely make this again and again.
John K. says
Hello Tara,
I’m glad to hear you made this cake and everyone loved it! Browned butter is totally a game changer!
Happy baking!
John
Debra says
Fantastic recipe! The brown butter and the caramel turned out great following your instructions. It was my first time making both, so I was really pleased. Thank you!
John K. says
Hi Debra,
That is so great to hear!! Browned butter and caramel are SO good, especially when used together!! I’m happy you enjoyed the cake!
Best,
John
Kristin A. says
Second cake recipe of yours that I made for my office, and second amazing cake that my colleagues all died for! Autumn is my absolute favorite season, and this cake captures all the quintessential flavors and warmth I love in a good fall recipe. The recipe is extremely easy to follow and the results are divine. Thanks again!!
John K. says
Hello Kristin,
I’m so happy to hear you made this cake and everyone loved it!! I hope that scored you some major points at the office! 😉
I 100% feel the same way about Autumn!! Its a season sent from bakers heaven!
What will you bake next??
Best,
John
Aries says
John,
Your Apple Spice Cake was amazing!! I was feeling down and baking is usually always therapeutic for me. I made your Apple Spice Cake and took it to my class the following day. Everyone loved it! But I just had one question, is there anyway I can make this into cupcakes? Would the baking time/temp change? Would the batter itself have to be changed?
John K. says
Hi Aries,
That is very good to hear! I find baking to be very therapeutic as well but i’m so glad this apple spice cake was able to turn your day around!!
You could make these into cupcakes, I would bake them for about 15-20 minutes and keep an eye on them.
Best,
John
Eleanor Tembo says
This sounds delicious! But does it make 3 six inch layers or 4 six inch layers. The video says 3 and the recipe says 4. Some of the pictures have 3 and some have 4: Please help!
John K. says
Hi Eleanor,
You can make three thicker layers or four thinner layers! It is totally up to you!!
Best,
John
Kristen says
I made this cake for Canadian Thanksgiving and it was fantastic. Thank you so much for the recipe.
John K. says
Hey Kristen,
Thanks for your feedback, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!! That’s a good choice for Thanksgiving!
Best,
John
Taylor says
I made this cake over the weekend and took it to a gathering with friends and family. Everyone loved it! It was simple to make and looked beautiful!
John K. says
Hi Taylor,
I love this cake! Taking it to a gathering was a great idea, i’m happy everyone loved it!! What will you bring to the next gathering?? 🙂
Best,
John