Spiced Apple Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting
Caramel apple in a cake form? Yes! This soft and fluffy Spiced Apple Cake is paired with salted caramel frosting and topped with smoky salted caramel sauce!!
Have you been looking for a new way to enjoy the traditional caramel apple of the fall? Well you don’t have to look any further. I’ve combined the two flavors in a cake for you! This spiced apple cake with salted caramel frosting is your caramel apple in a slice. Seriously, I kid you not. A spiced apple cake, soft and packed with apple chunks, is frosted with a fluffy salted caramel swiss meringue buttercream and topped with a flood of salted caramel. It’s glorious!
But how can something oozing with salted caramel not be glorious? Impossible, right? I love caramel, especially salted caramel. I’ve been told I abuse it from time to time as I always have a jar in the fridge. Making salted caramel is pretty easy and one of my favorite things to stock up on for the holidays! Just melt some sugar in a heavy saucepan, whisk in butter and some heavy cream. Tada, smoky bliss.
OK fine I shall stop obsessing about the glories of salted caramel and just let you enjoy this three layered apple packed cake! I adapted this recipe from these apple cupcakes because we enjoyed them very much. Pairing the spiced cake with my favorite swiss meringue buttercream and salted caramel was a great combination that has won my heart.
If you make only one cake this season, let it be this one. You will love it too!!
Spiced Apple Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting
Caramel apple in a cake form? Yes! This soft and fluffy Spiced Apple Cake is paired with salted caramel frosting and topped with smoky salted caramel sauce!!
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cup whole milk
- 4 cups chopped apples
For Caramel Sauce:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (cut up into cubes)
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
For Frosting:
- 5 large egg whites, room temperature
- 1¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cup (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup homemade salted caramel sauce (recipe above)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
For Cakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour three 8-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment and grease parchment.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add in eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined. Add ⅓ of the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Add half of the milk and mix. Add ½ of the remaining flour, then the rest of the milk and the rest of the flour, beating well after each addition. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the apples into the batter until well combined.
- Divide the batter into the prepared baking pans. Bake cakes until the center springs back when touched and a tester comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Let cakes cool in pan for at least 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely before frosting.
To make caramel sauce:
- In a medium saucepan, melt sugar over medium high heat. When sugar starts melting, whisk until all the sugar melts. Sugar will clump in whisk but keep whisking. Once all the sugar is melted, stop whisking and let sugar get to a deep amber color. You can swirl the pan to mix. Keep your eye on the caramel, as it will easily burn at this stage. Whisk in the butter and mix until completely melted. Remove pan from heat and gradually add in the heavy cream. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in the sea salt until dissolved. Transfer caramel immediately into a glass jar and let cool.
For Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
- Whisk together sugar and egg whites in a heatproof mixing bowl set over (not in) a pan of simmering water. Whisk until warm and sugar is dissolved (mixture should feel completely smooth when rubbed between your fingers), 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
- With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk egg white mixture 5 minutes (using the whisk attachment). Increase speed to medium-high, and whisk until stiff, glossy peaks form and meringue has cooled (test by feeling bottom of bowl), about 6 minutes.
- Reduce speed to medium and switch to the paddle attachment. Add butter, one piece at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Mix the salted caramel into the buttercream.
- Use immediately or store in an airtight container in fridge for up to a week.
Assembly:
- Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving platter. Spread about ½ cup of frosting over the top using an offset spatula. Top with another layer of cake and repeat with another layer of frosting. Smooth with offset spatula. Top with final layer of cake.
- Frost cake with buttercream and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Pour about a cup of cooled salted caramel sauce over the top of cake before serving.
More Salted Caramel Recipes you will love:
Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes
This cake look just gorgeous! Apple and caramel.. yummy!
Thanks dear!!
I am obsessed with salted caramel and the combo with apple cake is just fabulous Zainab.
Thank you Chichi!!
So this is one of the most beautiful cakes I’ve ever seen. And the FLAVOR. Girl, you are speaking to my heart with this.
Uber thanks chica!!
This is a beautiful cake, Zainab! And I like this cake version better than the actual candy apple version. I am weird about textures and apple peels are a texture I’m weird about. So I can never fully enjoy a caramel apple. But this cake, oh this cake fixes all of that!
Thanks Julie! You are so right…I am weird about caramel apple too!
Absolutely gorgeous cake! That dripping caramel frosting….GAH. I can’t even. Too good to be true!
Hhahah so true!!! Thanks Liz!
I love that caramel dripping down the sides of the cake! This looks amazing!! 🙂
yes!! Thanks Renee!
This is one tall and beautiful cake, love all of that dripping salted caramel!
Thanks Meghan!!
This cake is absolutely gorgeous! And the salted caramel frosting sounds to. die. for!
It is to die for!!
This is the prettiest cake ever, Zainab! You decorated it so beautifully! How on earth did you get the frosting so perfectly smooth? #soimpressed It sounds amazing!! Thanks for sharing it!
Oh thank you so much!!! It took some time but finally got the hang of it!
Oh my, what a beautiful cake – I love your cake stand! 🙂
Thank you 🙂 I found it at HomeGoods!!
I love that store! 🙂
Zainab, this cake is beautiful and I am in love with that cake stand! I’m totally drooling over that caramel sauce too. I love the flavors and you decorated it beautifully! 🙂
Thanks Beth! Got the stand at Home Goods!
Wow Zainab this is beautiful! I love the drips of caramel down the sides of the cake. It’s so smooth and perfect looking. I could stare at this cake all day. Well maybe not, because I’d probably eat it 🙂
The caramel is my favorite part!!
Girl this cake is seriously a masterpiece! Pinned a million times over girl!
🙂
Divine! What gorgeous styling in these photos Zainab!
Thanks Melanie!!
Oooh lala! What a cake! 😀 This has my name written all over it….looks perfect, Zainab! 🙂
xo
Thanks Tammy!!
This cake is so gorgeous I could scream! Love the flavour too!
Thanks Katrina!
OH.MY.WOW!! I am still in shock and still trying to pick up my jaw from the keyboard!! This cake is beyond gorgeous and I want to marry it or you so you can make this for me 🙂 Best cake ever! Pinned!
Thanks Kelly!
You are right, how can anything with salted caramel not be glorious. However you upped the stakes with a marvelous cake and one fancy way to decorate it. Beautiful in everyway.
what a pretty cake!
Seriously gorgeous! Caramel apple is one of my FAVORITES!
Zainab, your cake is absolutely perfect! Look at those even layers, that stunning frosting job, those adorable little frosting swirls on top. No matter how much I practice, my cakes look like the opposite of this. And girl, that flavour combo. I adore apple cakes and ain’t nothing wrong with having salted caramel in the fridge at all times. That’s not abuse, it’s brilliant!
I just found your blog and I am amazed at your wonderful creations! This cake is stunning. I’m sure it tastes fantastic with those apple and caramel flavors. Swoon!
This cake is gorgeous, and I bet it tastes even better than it looks! This is perfect for me because I can never get my poor teeth around an actual caramel apple!
This spiced apple cake looks SO delicious, especially with those perfect layers and all that frosting going on. Craving a slice to devour right now!
this is simply outstanding! almost too pretty to cut and eat, but I’d mamage
Your photography is amazing! I need this cake in my life!
Thanks Meriem!
WOW! This cake is absolutely beautiful, Zainab! Love the frosting and the caramel! So good!
Oh my gosh this cake is GORGEOUS! Seriously, your icing skills are incredible. I love the flavors too, how perfect for fall!! Confession: I have not make homemade caramel! I’m kind of scared of it – but I really want to make it now!
Thanks Cate!! And what? Go make some now!!
These photos are amazing Zainab! You styled this beautifully and I want a piece right now!
Thanks Christina!
Goodness – that is just beautiful! And love how you spun this classic combination into cake form. Great job!!
Thanks Monica!!
This is a showstopper!!! Simply amazing!
Thanks!!
What a STUNNING cake! So impressed by this one!!! Also, I’d like a slice right now 😉
Thanks chica!
Holy. I can’t even get over this cake, Zainab! It’s just so beautiful in every way and the flavors are totally to-die-for!!
Thank you very much!!
Oh my, I adore salted caramel and apple cake, why have I not tried them together before. Gorgeous cake Zainab.
Right? They are great together!!
I love your shots of the caramel dripping down the sides of the cake. So cool!
Thanks girl!
Oh my goodness! Your pictures are so beautiful and I must have this cake!
Thanks Annie!! It’s great to meet you.
Zainab, oh my gawd, this cake is a stunner!!! so beautiful!!! and, like you said, glorious!!! oh my gawd. . I seriously would die for a slice right now!!
Thank you very much Alice!!
Your cake could easily be in a gourmet bakery, it looks stunning 🙂
I might make this for my aunty’s birthday, it is so beautiful!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thank you so much Uru!!
Not only does this cake looks gorgeous but the flavor combination is incredible! Another beautiful cake, Zainab! I wish I had a slice for dessert 🙂
This cake is absolutely gorgeous!!! And salted caramel frosting is one thing I could eat straight from the bowl. But it does sound heavenly paired with that apple spice cake!
Wow this is one gorgeous looking cake!!
Oh, my, you are amazing! That cake looks unbelievably sensational. I would probably eat the whole thing myself!
Did you… is this…. am I… could it be…. AH! This is CAKE PERFECTION!! You are amazing girl. Seriously amazing. Beautiful recipe and images and inspiration. BRAVO!
This cake is beautiful! I love the caramel sauce drizzled on top. Wish I had some now!
Thanks Sarah! It’s great to meet you!!
Girl, you are killing me with this cake!! I didn’t even get a chance to read the actual post cause I wanted to tell you right away how much I need this cake to my in my belly right now. Seriously. I think if I saw this, I would literally face plant right into it and not come up for air until it was finished.
Thank you very much dear!!
What a gorgeous cake! I’m so jealous of your lighting haha, and I applaud you for making a Swiss meringue buttercream. I almost always take the easy way out and make the American buttercream.
I love swiss meringue. It was the first frostong I mastered and I had some tough times with the American buttercream.
What a seriously gorgeous cake!! I can’t get enough of the caramel + apple flavor combo lately – this is going on my baking to-do list!
Thanks!
oh.my. God. This is heaven on a cake stand!!! Most definitly pinning and will attempt to make soon! We miss you over at #foodie Friday’s! Come on by tomorrow!
Yes I’ve been lazy lately. I’ll join you this weekend!
This cake is beyond gorgeous! And I love the caramel drizzle!
Thanks!!
It’s gorgeous! Seriously stunning and I’m sure equally delicious!
Thank you so much Peabody!!
Oh wow this sounds lovely. will have to give this a go. Thanks for sharing.
Simon
My cake is in the oven. Will the frosting recipe be enough to frost the cake and put the swirls on top?
Yes, it should be. Let me know how your cake turned out!
This cake is a show stopper! It turned out amazingly well. I’ve never made Swiss buttercream or caramel before, but your directions walked me through it all perfectly. Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
I am so so glad to hear 🙂 It is truly a great one!