Spice Cake With Caramel Sauce and Sauteed Apples

​It's that time of year again when you want spice in your food, not the heat kind of spice, but the kind that fills your home with the most amazing aroma. You actually feel like you are taking a bath in a warm apple cider.

I love fall and all flavours of fall. A cake my Mom would make often when I was growing up was a spice cake. The frosting was fluffy but dense and had this amazing cinnamon flavour to it. 

I called my Mom wanting the recipe only to find out... she actually doesn't have one. My mom told me her secret was to just use certain kinds of boxed cake mixes and then add some more spices to it. She did in fact make up the icing on her own, it is her recipe that I will share for the icing.

Seeing as I normally do things from scratch I thought no differently with this recipe. I knew I had to find one. So in my very old Pillsbury cookbook I found one. I changed a few things but it tastes so good. My house smelt amazing as those two cakes were cooking.  

Spice Cake:

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups of firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 cup of buttermilk
2/3 cup of softened butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 large eggs

Directions:

Heat oven to 350F, take two round 8 or 9 inch round cake pans and grease them with butter and dust them with flour.

In a large bowl whip up the butter with an electric beater until fluffy. Add all the rest of the ingredients and beat until all combined.

Pour half of the batter into each cake pan, place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes or until when a toothpick is inserted in the center it comes out clean.

Remove the cakes, place on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before removing from the pans.

Add the toppings, directions and ingredients will follow.

​Spice Cake Icing: 
 
2/3 cup of white sugar
4 tablespoons of icing sugar
1/3 cup of white flour
1/2 cup of softened butter
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of whipping cream, or heavy cream

In a large bowl add all ingredients and whip on high until fluffy and all incorporated.

Set aside until time to assemble to cake.
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Sauteed Apples:

5 large green apples, cored and peeled
2/3 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of butter

Slice up apples into thin slices, set aside. In a large frying pan heat up butter till melted and bubbling.

Add brown sugar and stir. Add apples on top and with a spatula coat all the apples with the butter and sugar.

Cook on a medium high heat, stirring often. You want most of the moisture to cook out of the apples, it will be very watery but then it will start to thicken and look more like a sauce and the apples will be soft and tender.

​Allow to cool before placing on the cake. 
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To Assemble the Cake:

Cut the top off of one of the cakes. With the apples pour out most of the juices onto the cake with the top cut off. place most of the sauteed apples on top, leave about 1/2 cup for the top of the cake.

Place the other cake on top of the one with apple slices. With the icing evenly coat the outside with a flat spatula, its okay if some of the cake is peeking through it gives it a more rustic look.

Pour your favorite salted caramel sauce on top of the iced cake, add the rest of the apples on top in the middle and then sprinkle about 1/4 cup of pecan pieces on top of the apples.
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Spice Cake with Caramel Sauce and Sauteed Apples

​To me this cake was a great combination of the comfort of a recipe from my Mom but a nice upgrade with the spice and tartness of the apples and salted caramel sauce.

Enjoy!