Apple spice cake with salted caramel cream cheese frosting

If I had to epitomize fall in a cake—this would be it!

Forget pumpkin cake and carrot cake. I've got your NEW fall-inspired cake right here. And it might just be one of the best cakes I've made. It's made with applesauce, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and frosted with a salted caramel cream cheese frosting. It's tender and flavorful and all-around amazing!

I've been making a lot of cakes this year since I started doing regular birthday celebrations at work. Each month a few people will say that month's cake was their favorite, and this apple spice cake was no exception.

To recap the year so far, we've had:

• Orange Dream Cake (Jan)
• Lemon and Chocolate Cheesecakes (Feb; not made by me as it's my b-day month)
• Verry Berry Cake (March)
• Triple Chocolate Cake (April)
• German Chocolate Cake (June)
• Lemon chiffon cake with fruit and lavender pastry cream (July; I'd made this recipe years before, so here is my old post. I simply doubled the cake and filling recipe this time, baking the cake in 3 layers)

For the month of October I really didn't want to make another chocolate cake, and I'm not the biggest pumpkin fan. But I wanted something that was unapologetically *fall* in nature. So when I saw this apple cake recipe with salted caramel I was 100% in. 

I mean how could I not make the cake that just reading the description reminds me of Affy Tapple, my favorite fall treat as a kid. A just check out that caramel driiiiiip.

This year o' cakes at work has also been interesting for me from a cake decorating perspective. While I love making beautiful fondant-decorated cakes, they're so time consuming and can only be made for super special occasions. I've loved playing around with buttercream this year and making really pretty cakes highlighting the ingredients inside. 

And I couldn't be happier with how the apple rosettes came out! So elegant and beautiful. 

Making these apple rosettes was not necessarily difficult, but I won't lie—they were time consuming. Slicing them ohhhhh so thin took for-e-ver, especially since I couldn't use my mandolin (the 1/16" setting wasn't thick enough but the 1/8" setting was too thick). Then I had to hand assemble each flower, one apple slice at a time. I put together a tutorial below if it's helpful to see how I put them together.

 

Luckily the cake wasn't just pretty on the outside. The layers were tender, moist, and packed with fall-spiced flavor. I don't want to describe the cake as dense, because that has such a negative connotation, but it had the perfect crumb and some heft to it in the best way possible. And of course I have to give a shout out to that cream cheese frosting, which was a perfect partner to the spiced cake.

So if you're looking for a cake to make for Thanksgiving or any time this season, may I recommend this beaut?!

Yours in delivering cakes with both style and substance (GBBO style!),

Jacqueline

Apple spice cake with salted caramel cream cheese frosting

Cake recipe from Brown Eyed Baker, adapted from the cookbook Baked Explorations

Salted caramel recipe from my previous post, but with more salt

Salted caramel cream cheese frosting mine (using inspiration from various online recipes)

Apple decoration technique from Cooks Country

Note: The cake recipe is going to sound like it has a lot of allspice and cloves. Like almost tooo much spice. I questioned it as well but then decided to just go with it after reading all the positive comments on the cake. And let me tell you—GO WITH IT. It's definitely spiced, but not overly so.

As always my cream cheese frosting has less powdered sugar than any other recipe you'll see out there. I think it's perfect given the addition of the caramel and the cake, which has a nice amount of sweetness on its own. But feel free to add ½ to 1 cup extra if that floats your boat.

Finally, I always put together my cakes over 2 days. On the first day I bake the cake (store at room temperature) and make the salted caramel (refrigerate). On the next day I make the frosting, assemble the cake, and decorate. The caramel needs only ~7-10 seconds in the microwave to soften enough to use.

Ingredients

Cake

4 cups all-purpose flour (I used 500 g)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1½ cups unsalted butter (3 sticks; 24 TBSP), just cooler than room temp (60 degrees), cut into small cubes
2½ cups granulated sugar (500 g)
2 eggs
4 cups unsweetened applesauce

Salted caramel cream cheese frosting

1 cup butter (2 sticks; 16 TBSP), at room temperature 

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

½ cup salted caramel sauce
1 tsp vanilla

2½ cups powdered sugar (300 g), you could even go down to 250 g 

Salted caramel sauce (enough for the frosting + decoration)

1 cup granulated sugar
6 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
½ cup heavy cream, at room temperature
½ TBSP fleur de sel or flaky sea salt (I used Maldon)

Apple decorations (rosettes + bottom) 

2 apples, quartered, cores cut out, and sliced as thin as you can (Fuji, Gala, or Pink Lady apples are best)

2 TBSP granulated sugar

2 TBSP lemon juice

Directions

1. FOR THE CAKE: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease three 8-inch round cake pans (or use a baking spray with flour), line bottoms with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pans, making sure to get the sides (again, I just use my Baker's Joy baking spray).
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice and cloves. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, around 4-6 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed. (Read this post to learn more about creaming butter and sugar.) Add the eggs and beat until combined, about 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Reduce the mixer speed to low and alternate adding in the flour mixture and applesauce, starting and ending with the flour, mixing until incorporated after each addition (ie, add one third of your flour mixture, half the applesauce, one third of flour, remaining applesauce, and remaining flour). Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix on low for an additional 30 seconds to combine.
5. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and cool for 20 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto the rack, remove the parchment, and allow to cool completely.
6. FOR THE FROSTING: Beat butter on medium speed until creamy (you can use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a handheld mixer). Add cream cheese and beat until combined. Add caramel sauce and vanilla, mix, and beat until smooth and fluffy. On low speed add in the powdered sugar until combined, scraping the side of the bowl as needed. Increase speed to medium high and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. 
7. FOR THE SALTED CARAMEL: Tips: Make sure you have everything ready to go and on hand. Making caramel is a fast process that cannot wait for hunting around for ingredients. If you don't work fast, the sugar will burn. A larger saucepan is needed because the butter and cream will splatter and bubble up quite a bit. Also, while you don't need a thermometer, if you're interested the caramel will be done when the sugar is around 350 degrees. 
8. Heat sugar on moderately high heat in a heavy-bottomed 3-quart saucepan. As the sugar begins to melt, gently stir with a wooden spoon or silicon spatula, but do not overstir (you don't want to create sugar crystals as it melts). Once it's mostly melted, simply swirl the saucepan to mix. 
9. As soon as all of the sugar crystals have melted and the liquid sugar is medium to dark amber in color (around 350 degrees), immediately add in the butter all at once (it will bubble)! Whisk until the butter has melted. 
10. Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat. Count to three, then slowly add the cream to the pan while stirring to incorporate the cream. The mixture will bubble and foam up considerably at this stage, so be aware. 
11. Whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then pour into a glass container and let sit to cool to room temperature. (Remember to use pot holders when handling the jar filled with hot caramel sauce.) Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Warm before serving.

To Make Rosettes (see video above)

1. Mix together granulated sugar and lemon juice in a medium bowl. As you slice your apples add them to this bowl, periodically mixing.
2. To slice your apples: cut in half lengthwise, then in half lengthwise again. Cut the core out of each quartered piece. Placing the apples cut-core side down, slice lengthwise to get "half-circle" shapes. They'll be more oblong than circular, but you want a flat bottom and nice thin red color along the top edge. (Around one fourth of my slices were barely or totally un-usable, but just keep at it, trying to get as many complete pieces as you can without them being too thick.)
3. Once all your apples have been sliced and added to the bowl, toss well to combine with the lemon sugar mixture and let sit until the apple slices are pliable, about 5 minutes. You can also microwave the mixture for about 20-30 seconds to help soften the apple slices. 
4. Reserve about 25 slices for the bottom of your cake. (The slightly thicker ones will be perfect for the bottom part!)
5. Roll up your apple slices in rosettes of different sizes. (You can try to shingle 5 apple slices and roll them up into a rose, but I found that rolling one apple slice at a time worked best for me.) Using one of your thinner apple slices, roll it tightly. Continue to wrap apple slices one at a time (as petals on the rose), overlapping the new petal slightly with the one on your rosette.

 To Assemble

1. If any of the cake layers have domed on top, trim the top off to create flat surfaces. 
2. Place one cake layer on a serving platter. Spread 1¼ cups of the frosting on top and spread to the edges. Add the next layer and top with 1¼ cups of the frosting. 
3. Add the third layer on top (upside down, with the top of the cake touching the frosting) and spread a very thin layer of frosting over the sides and top of the cake. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, until firmed. 
4. Frost the sides and top of the cake with the remaining frosting. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, and longer if possible (you want the frosting to be cold before putting on the caramel, but cream cheese frosting never gets super firm).
5. Spread some additional salted caramel sauce on top, making sure it's neither too cold/thick nor too hot/liquidy. Use a spoon or squeeze bottle to get the perfect caramel drip down the sides. (ChelSweets is my go to for tips on cake drips).
6. Add the reserved apple slices to the bottom of your cake, overlapping them.
7. Add rosettes to the top of your cake.
8. Marvel at your masterpiece!