Salted Caramel Apple Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

If you’re in the market for a dense, moist, fall-flavored dessert, look no further than my Salted Caramel Apple Spice Cake! Deeply spiced with cardamom and nutmeg, topped with a caramel cream cheese frosting, and drizzled with a homemade salted caramel sauce, this ridiculously decadent cake recipe is the perfect way to usher in sweater weather.

Jump to:

• ⭐ Why You’ll Love This Recipe 
• 🍴Ingredients 
• 🛠️ Equipment
• 📖 Step by Step Instructions
• 👩🏻‍🍳 Expert Tips
• 💭 Recipe FAQs
• More Tasty Fall Recipes
• Caramel Apple Spice Cake
• 💬 Comments

⭐ Why You’ll Love This Recipe 

Move aside, pumpkin spice! There’s a new sheriff in town. As far as I’m concerned, nothing screams autumn like apples or spice cake, so I figured I’d go all in and create a recipe to highlight them both.

A tender, moist spice cake is laced with cubes of fresh apple, then topped with a salted caramel cream cheese frosting and finished with homemade salted caramel sauce. This is THE cake that your harvest table needs.

While there are a number of steps to making this autumnal centerpiece, I can assure you that they are all quite manageable for even a novice home baker. Even better, the individual components can be made in advance for a stress-free baking experience.

I also adore the charmingly rustic appearance of this caramel apple cake; it’s one layer, dressed only on the top, and uses dried fruit and whole spices as decor. There are no piping bags or fancy tips to be seen!

🍴Ingredients 

There aren’t any crazy ingredients in this delectable apple caramel cake, but I do have a few notes for you to keep in mind:

• Apples: I generally like to use Pink Lady apples for my baking - they’re a nice balance of sweet and tart, plus they tend to hold their shape well under heat. As an added bonus, they’re also my favorite snacking apple! Other good options include granny smith, jonagold, honeycrisp or braeburn.
• Honey: I love the flavor that honey imparts on this super moist apple cake, but you could just as well use maple syrup or agave nectar instead.
• Brown Sugar: Light or dark will do just fine here; opt for dark if you enjoy a more caramelly molasses flavor. *Side Note* feel free to use brown sugar in place of white sugar when making your caramel sauce.
• Cream Cheese: Trust the old adage: “go full fat or go home!” Ok, it might not go exactly like that, but you know what I mean. Don’t be tempted to take low-fat, no-fat or Neufchâtel home. You want the real, full milk-fat deal for the best results at room temperature.
• Heavy Cream: Don’t try swapping in light cream or half and half here; making good caramel means relying on good fat. If you are dairy free, coconut cream (NOT sweetened cream of coconut) is a good substitute here.

🛠️ Equipment

• Heavy Bottomed Saucepan - Making caramel is one of the most satisfying experiences of ingredient transfiguration I’ve ever experienced, but it’s also somewhat finicky. Opting for a high quality, heavy bottomed saucepan will ensure things go well.
• 8-inch Cake Pan - This recipe is designed for an 8-inch round cake pan, but don’t feel dismayed if you don’t have the right size. This baking conversion chart is an excellent reference for getting the right results regardless of what size pan you’re working with. As a baker I never thought I’d say it, but thank goodness for math class!
• Offset Spatula - If you don’t frost cakes often, you can easily get away with using the back of a spoon to create the rustic look of this apple spice cake. However, if you have the extra $7-8 to spare, an offset spatula is a real boon come cake decorating time.
• Cake Turntable/Lazy Susan - Want to know how pastry chefs get perfectly frosted cakes every time? Aside from practice, it all comes down to tools. A cake turntable (which can double as a lazy susan) makes frosting cakes a breeze.

📖 Step by Step Instructions

Salted Caramel Sauce

1. Pour the sugar into a saucepan, and over medium heat allow the sugar to slowly melt. It should eventually shift in color to a deep amber-brown. Make sure you continue to stir the sugar every minute or so in order to prevent it from burning!
2. Add the cream and butter to the sugar – expect the ingredients to bubble and foam for about 30  seconds or so. Then, over low heat, continue to melt down any large bits of caramel. Do this until the mixture is completely fluid and smooth before removing it from heat.
3. Pour caramel into a glass container and allow to cool. Salted caramel can be made up to 10 days in advance.

Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip the butter and cream cheese on high until light and fluffy,  about 5-6 minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle every couple minutes.
2. Turn the mixer to low and add the powdered sugar, scraping down the bowl while adding the vanilla. With the mixer still on low, add the salted caramel and salt, mixing until fully combined.

Apple Spice Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease and line an 8inch cake pan with parchment paper. 
2. Combine and sift all your dry ingredients -  all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ground cardamom and salt in a medium-sized bowl; give it a whisk and set aside.
3. Add the butter and sugar into a large bowl and beat together until light in color and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes, scraping twice throughout the process with a rubber spatula.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, then the honey. Be sure to scrape the bowl after each addition, making sure ingredients are mixed well. 
5. Add the flour mixture ingredients into the wet, and mix until just combined. Finally add chopped apples into the cake batter, gently stirring to incorporate.  
6. Pour batter into the greased and lined 8-inch cake pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. If the cake starts to brown too quickly, cover the top of the cake with foil. The cake is fully baked when a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the moist cake to cool completely on a wire rack before assembling. 

Assembly

1. Add as much of your caramel cream cheese frosting as you like to the top of the cake and spread evenly - no need for a piping bag. Utilizing the back of a spoon or an offset spatula, create swirls and swoops as decoration.
2. Feel free to add the garnish of your liking on top! I added a couple different layers of toppings on the apple cinnamon cake, starting with dried sliced fruits, an extra drizzle of caramel, and whole spices for a pleasing aesthetic.

Looking to create delicious and homemade garnishes to elevate your creations? Try adding Sugared Flowers, Candied Rose Petals, Dried Orange Slices or Sugared berries!

👩🏻‍🍳 Expert Tips

• Allow the caramel to cool completely before making the cream cheese frosting. If you have ever broken a sauce or a salad dressing before, you know what a bummer it is. Don’t waste your hard work - just give the caramel time to cool to room temp before working it into the (meltable) butter and cream cheese frosting.
• Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting it. Frosting a warm cake is recipe for disaster, so make sure to give your spice cake ample time to cool before assembling. To make the process move along faster, allow the cake to cool in the cake pan for about 10 minutes before inverting it onto a cooling rack. It should be good to go in about 30-40 minutes after removing from the oven, or faster if you place the cake in the fridge to cool more rapidly.
• Feel free to break it into smaller tasks. Baking is supposed to be fun and therapeutic, not stressful! If you’re feeling overwhelmed, break the recipe down into smaller tasks ahead of time. The salted caramel can easily be made up to about 10 days in advance, and the cake can be made and frozen up to a month ahead of time.
• Add a round of parchment as extra protection. Yes, I'm sure you have already greased the cake pan. Adding parchment will add extra insurance that none of the good bits get stuck to the pan and ensure that your final product looks professional.

💭 Recipe FAQs

More Tasty Fall Recipes

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