Caramel Apple Cake

Kaylie
Oct 5, 2020
3 min read

Caramels apples are a fall favourite, why not make a cake inspired by this sweet treat.

This cake was for a friends birthday and was a great chance to try out a new recipe! Fall harvest gives us some of the best baking ingredients of the year; pears, pumpkins and of course apples. This cake recipe may quickly become a staple in my recipe repertoire, it’s so moist and jammed packed with apples.

Cooking with apples you have so many kinds to choose from but not all apples are created equal when it comes baking. I always use Granny Smith apples or Macintosh apples. These apples maintain their shape after baking and have great flavour.

This cake is iced with a salted caramel buttercream and then has some of that same caramel dripping down the sides. You can also use this salted caramel recipe to dip your apple topper in.

There are four different recipes in this one post; cake, caramel sauce, apple filling and buttercream.

Caramel Apple Cake

Makes three 6 inch cake rounds to make one cake

Apple Cake

Ingredients:

- 3 Granny Smith apples, diced (2 1/2 cups)

- 1 tablespoon brown sugar

- 1 teaspoon cinnamon

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 2 teaspoons baking powder

- 1 teaspoon sea salt

- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

- 1 cup vegetable oil

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 1 cup white sugar

- 3 large eggs

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Salted Caramel:

- 1 cup white sugar

- 6 tablespoons butter, cubed

- 1/3 cup heavy cream

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1 teaspoon sea salt

Apple Filling:

- 1 large apple, diced

- 1 tablespoon brown sugar

- 1 tablespoon lemon juice

- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

- dash of nutmeg

Salted Caramel Buttercream:

- 2 cups salted butter, softened

- 4 cups powdered sugar

- 1/2 cup salted caramel sauce

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions:

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray and flour three 6 inch cake pans.
Toss apples in a small bowl with 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.
In a medium size bowl combine all dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, spices and salt, set aside.
In a large bowl fitted to a stand mixer combine sugar, eggs and oil. beat for about 2 minutes until we’ll combined. Then mix in vanilla.
Add dry ingredients to wet in two additions, only mixing until dry ingredients are just incorporated. Fold in apples.
Pour batter evenly between pans and bake for 40-50 minutes. Or until a toothpick inserted into the centee comes out clean or a few crumbs.
Let cakes cool in pans for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

For Salted Caramel Sauce:

In a medium pot place sugar and cook over medium high heat, stir very infrequently while the sugar melts to prevent clumps. Cook until sugar has melted and has reached the desired caramel colour (amber).
Remove from heat and add heavy cream, while whisking. The caramel will bubble up. Add the cubed butter and return it to the heat, bring it back up to a boil and cook for about 1 minute.
Remove from heat and stir in sea salt and vanilla. Let cool to room temperature before using in buttercream and drizzle on cake.

For Apple Filling:

In a small pot combine all ingredients and cook on medium heat until apples are softened. About 6-8 minute.

For Salted Caramel Buttercream:

In a large bowl fitted to a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, mix softened butter on medium high speed until butter is creamy and white in colour. About 4-5 minutes.
Add icing sugar in two additions until smooth. Add in caramel sauce, sea salt and vanilla and mix until well combined.

Assembly:

Level each cake top so they are easy to stack.
Start with a bottom layer placed on a cake plate. Swirl buttercream along the outside of the cake round to create a border. Lightly ice the inside of the round and then fill with apple filling.
Place second cake round on top and repeat step 2. Then top with the third round.
Crumb coat the entire cake with a very thin layer of buttercream. Place in fridge for 15 minutes until buttercream is firm. Now your cake is ready for its top coat. I use a cake scraper to make the sides smooth. The ones I own is from the Wilton brand, brought off amazon I will attach a link below.
Using room temperature caramel sauce and a squeeze bottle create drips all along the top of cake and then fill the top in with caramel to create a thin top layer. Dip an apple into salted caramel and let the caramel firm up on parchment paper, then place on top of cake.