Something about fall just calls for apples and baking and warm spices! This homemade apple spice cake with brown sugar frosting brings all three of those things together! It’s a dense, moist, and rich cake recipe our family looks forward to each year. Each bite is full of spicy apple sweetness! And the frosting brings notes of caramel to this fall treat.
The Secret Ingredient in Our Spice Cake Recipe
Most apple spice cake recipes call for all the spices in Pumpkin Spice (also called Baking Spice when it’s not fall!), but we really like using Apple Pie Spice instead. Apple Pie Spice is the sophisticated aunt of Pumpkin Pie Spice!
This under-appreciated baking spice blend includes all the warming spices found in Pumpkin Pie Spice – cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger– and then adds fenugreek and lemon peel. Fenugreek has a slightly burnt sugar or maple taste, which adds a touch of depth. Lemon peel adds a note of brightness. Both great additions to the traditional fall spice flavors.
And just to make things even better, SpiceTopia’s Apple Pie Spice is certified organic, kosher, and gluten-free.
The question often gets asked, “Is Apple Pie Spice gluten-free?” The answer is yes. Just like Pumpkin Pie Spice, this baking spice blend is free of any gluten and just includes the spices for seasoning pies.
Cake Ingredients
Spices.
Apple Pie Spice. This wonderfully aromatic blend of warm spices just sings when added to this apple spice cake.
Pacific Flake Sea Salt. Pacific Flake Sea Salt is an all-natural kosher flake salt that is our everyday go-to salt. It may seem weird to add salt to sweet recipes, but salt helps to balance sweet. Salt is also part of the science of baking, so don’t skip the salt.
Find these spices and over 100 more at SpiceTopia!
Looking for a collection of baking spice to enhance all your holiday baking recipes?
Flour. This easy cake recipe simply uses all-purpose flour. If you need to make a gluten-free spice cake, use a 1:1 gluten-free flour substitute.
Brown Sugar. Traditionally, spice cake recipes use half white sugar and half brown sugar and that combination absolutely works, but we like using all brown sugar instead. Brown sugar adds an extra depth of flavor as well as moistness to this recipe, so we use all brown sugar.
Baking Soda. As with most holiday treats, this recipe calls for baking soda. Our big tip for baking soda: Make sure it is fresh! Baking soda has a shelf life of 6 – 12 months. If your baking soda has been hanging around since this time last year, it’s time to pick up a fresh box.
Eggs. This homemade apple spice cake calls for 2 eggs. Take your eggs out of the fridge an hour or two before baking to allow them to come to room temperature.
Butter. You’ll need softened, unsalted butter for this recipe. We always use unsalted butter when baking. By using unsalted butter, we can exactly control the amount of butter in the recipe.
Apples. An apple spice cake needs apples! This recipe calls for 4 cups of finely chopped apples, which is about 3 – 4 apples. Chop your peeled or unpeeled apples into ¼ – ½ inch pieces.
So many apple spice cake recipes call for specific kinds of apples. We can honestly say that through the year, we’ve made this recipe with lots of different kinds of apples and every kind has turned out just fine! So go ahead and use the apples you have and like.
Cider. The batter of this cake needs just a bit of liquid to bring it all together. Cider or apple juice bring a little bit of added flavor, but water also works.
Walnuts. Walnuts add a beautiful texture to this cake. Of course, you can use your favorite nuts instead.
Frosting Ingredients
Apple Pie Spice. Of course, we’re amping up the flavor of this delicious blend of warm spices by adding more to this frosting!
Butter. This brown sugar frosting recipe calls for two sticks of butter. One stick will be melted, and the other stick will be whipped into the frosting. Make sure the stick that will be whipped into the frosting is room temperature soft.
Brown Sugar. The brown sugar in this frosting recipe adds hints of warm molasses flavor and really creates a frosting that’s perfectly rich and sweet.
Cream. The recipe calls for heavy cream, which adds richness to this frosting, but you really can use any cream you have on hand –even half-and-half.
Powdered Sugar. Powdered sugar thickens the frosting.
Vanilla Extract. Adding vanilla to cake will never be wrong! And that’s the case here!
Want to learn how to make your own vanilla extract? Learn How in SpiceTopia’s Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Own Vanilla Extract.
How to Make Apple Spice Cake
The method for creating the batter of this apple spice cake hearkens back to a time when most people did not have mixers and baking was done by hand. Everything except the apples, nuts, and cider are added to a bowl and stirred together. This mixture will be crumbly and not like a cake batter at all. Then you add the apples and cider. And you stir. And stir some more. And keep stirring. At this point, the apples actually start to release their juices. That is when your batter will start to look like a batter.
How to Make Brown Sugar Frosting
This brown sugar frosting is everything! One of our favorites, it’s a hybrid of a traditional cooked brown sugar icing and a buttercream frosting.
Brown sugar icing (sometimes called caramel icing) is a combination of brown sugar, butter, and cream that is cooked on the stove until everything melts together. As it cools, the ingredients thicken just a bit into an icing that can be poured over a cake.
We wanted to keep the flavor of the brown sugar icing, but have the texture more like a buttercream frosting. So, we kept the original brown sugar icing method but then whipped butter and powdered sugar into the ice, which turned this into a frosting!
Keep in mind that you will need to make sure the cooked portion of this frosting is thoroughly chilled before moving onto the next steps. We place it in the freezer for 15 minutes before adding the butter and powdered sugar.
Assembling and Serving Your Apple Spice Cake
There are many ways to serve this spice cake. This cake can be baked in a single layer in a 9” x 13” cake pan, or it can be baked in two 8” round cake pans to make a layer cake.
When baking in a single layer, we like to cut slices and then pipe a bit of frosting on each slice.
When baking as a layer cake, we spread each layer with frosting before carefully stacking and then frosting the outside of the cake.
Let’s Get Cooking!
Apple Spice Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
Frosting
Instructions
Cake Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan or two 8" round pans.
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Add all the ingredients except the apples and nuts in a large bowl. Stir until the mixture comes together in a crumbly mixture. The butter pieces should be no bigger than 1 - 2 inches.
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Add the apples and cider. Stir well until the apples start to release their juices and the crumbly mixture becomes a thick, creamy batter. This may take 3 - 5 minutes of mixing. Stir in the nuts.
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Spread the batter in the prepared pan(s), smoothing it with your wet fingers.
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Bake the cake for 45 minutes for 9" x 13" pan or for 35 minutes for two 8" round pans. A toothpick or paring knife inserted into the center should come out clean, or with just a few wet crumbs clinging to it.
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Remove the cake from the oven and place it on a rack to cool a bit while you make the frosting.
Brown Sugar Frosting Instructions
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In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt together 1 stick butter, brown sugar, and cream.
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Bring to a boil and cook for just two minutes. Add the Pacific Flake Sea Salt, Apple Pie Spice, and Vanilla Extract. Stir and remove from the heat.
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Place in the freezer for 15 minutes, or until cool to the touch.
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Remove from the freezer and beat the remaining butter and 2 cups of powdered sugar into the cooled brown sugar mixture. Add remaining powdered sugar ¼ cup at a time until the mixture is the thickness you prefer for your cake.
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Assemble the Apple Spice Cake as desired.
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Enjoy!