An extra moist spice cake filled with a scrumptious baked apple filling and coated in a silky brown butter cream cheese frosting.
In Germany this apple spice cake is known as "Bratapfel Torte", and cannot be missed at the Christmas celebration table. We love this moist, dense, and rich homemade spice cake. It is generously filled with a stuffed baked apple filling that includes raisins, walnuts, and gingerbread spices.More flavor is added with the cinnamon spiced - brown butter cream cheese frosting. This is the ultimate Christmas dessert!
WHAT ARE THE BEST APPLES TO USE IN A CAKE?
Apple varieties can be roughly divided into dessert and cooking fruit. Cooking apples are best suited for baked goods because they only develop their full aroma when heated. These apples have a rather sour taste than dessert varieties. Also, It is important to select a variety that has firm flesh that does not break down much when cooked.
Suitable apple varieties for cake, pie, or muffins are the fruity and aromatic Boskop. Honey-crisp, Granny Smith, and the sweet - sour Jonagold are also great options. You do not need to peel the apples, but you should remove the core, and wash the fruit thoroughly before processing.
GLUTEN FREE SPICE CAKE OPTION
Make this spice cake gluten free by subbing out the flour with a homemade blend of Β½ cup almond flour, Β½ cup rice flour, Β½ cup tapioca starch, and 1 cup sorghum or chickpea flour.
Alternatively, you can use "Bob's Red Mill 1:1 Gluten Free Flour".
Looking for more Apple desserts?
HOW TO MAKE A APPLE SPICE CAKE FROM SCRATCH
this apple spice cake has a scrumptious brown butter cream cheese frosting, is super easy to make
Recipe
BAKED APPLE SPICE CAKE WITH CARAMEL
Ingredients
SPICE CAKE
- 2 Β½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ΒΌ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- Β½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ΒΌ teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sunflower oil (or canola oil)
- 1 cup apple sauce
- ΒΎ cup buttermilk
Baked Apple Filling
- 2 apples - tart apples work best, such as Honeycrisp, Jazz, or
- Β½ lemon (juice)
- β cup sugar (brown sugar ok)
- Β½ cup walnuts (chopped)
- β cup raisins (chopped)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ΒΌ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- β teaspoon ground clove
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
SPICED BROWN BUTTER CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- 12 oz cream cheese (1 Β½ packages Philadelphia Cream Cheese)
- ΒΎ cup unsalted butter
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla powder, or extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
CARAMEL SAUCE
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 tablespoon salted butter (cut into pieces)
- Β½ cup heavy cream (room temperature)
Instructions
SPICE CAKE
- Preheat Oven to 350 Β° F (180 Β° C)Prepare one 8 inch round cake pan by coating it with a thin layer of nonstick baking spray, then line bottom with parchment paper, and the sides with more parchment paper or cake strips. Set aside.1. In a medium sized bowl add the flour, baking powder, salt and all the spices. Set aside.2. In a large mixing bowl, either with a stand or electric hand mixer, mix together the sugar with the oil until well combined. Add the vanilla extract, and whisk in the eggs, one at a time until smooth.3. Mix in the apple sauce, and half of the flour mixture. Stir on the slowest setting to not overmix the batter! Now mix in the buttermilk, followed by the rest of the flour mixture, just to combine. 4. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpic inserted into the center of cake comes out clean. While the cake bakes make the baked apple filling, and cream cheese frosting.
BAKED APPLE FILLING
- 1. Peel and cut apples in small pieces. Add to a medium sized sauce pan and drizzle lemon juice over. Add the sugar, the chopped walnuts, chopped raisins, spices, and water to the pan and cook over medium heat until apples are soft and compotte like, about 15 minutes. Stirring occasionally. Stirr in the corn starch und mix until smooth and sauce has thickened. Set aside to cool.
SPICED BROWN BUTTER CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- 1. Add the butter to a sauce pan and melt over medium heat. Stir until it bubbles and turns into a amber color. Pour the butter into a small glass container, and allow to chill in the refrigerator until slightly firm. (the consistency of softened/spreadable butter)2. Add cream cheese and butter to a mixing bowl. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla to the mixture and slowly mix until combined. Set aside in the refrigerator until ready to use.
CARAMEL SAUCE
- 1. In a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat, stir the sugar constantly with a rubber spatula. Sugar will form clumps and then melt into a thick amber brown liquid as you continue to stir. 2. Now add the butter and stir until melted and combined. Be careful, it will splash at this point and the caramel will bubble rapidly! Take pan away from heat and keep whisking about 3-4 minutes until it is combined. It takes a little while. Bring pan back to the heat and cook for another 2 minutes without stirring.3. Very slow stir in the heavy cream. Be careful! The mixture will bubble again since the cream is cooler than the caramel. Allow to boil for 1 minute. It will rise in the pan. Take away from the heat and allow to cool before using. The caramel will thicken as it cools. Tip: If caramel was made ahead of time, it can be re-heated in the microwave or on the stove to bring back to the desired consistency.
ASSEMBLE THE CAKE
- 1. Cut the cooled cake horizontally into 3 even pices. 2. Spoon the cream cheese filling into a piping bag, or a large ziplog bag with the corner cut off about 1 inch. Pipe the cream cheese frosting onto the cake ring, spead out evenly, then pipe all around the edge to create a border for half of the apple filling to go into the middle. Cover with the second cake piece and repeat. Set the last cake piece on the top. Pipe the remaining cream cheese frosting on top and a little on the side. Spread out evenly. With a pastry cutter, or the backside of a large knife, run along the sides to slightly scraping the frosting and create that naked cake look.3. Pour the caramel sauce on the top and let it drip down the sides. Cool in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Enjoy!
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