Layered Apple Spice Cake

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This Layered Apple Spice Cake is going to become your favorite Fall cake recipe to make. Incredibly moist homemade spice cake topped with a cinnamon buttercream – delicious!

slice of layered apple spice cake on a white plate

Layered Spice Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream

I love apples. I love apple desserts. This recipe apple spice cake is perfect at any time of year, but it is great to make in the fall when pumpkin and apples are on everyone’s mind. This homemade cake is easy to make, but if you don’t have the time to make layers, try our apple cider donut cake made in a bundt cake pan.

Need a fall dinner that will complement this cake perfectly? Try our Pork Roast.

What You’ll Need

For the Cake: This is a basic spice cake recipe using unsalted butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil, vanilla extract, egg, all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and milk. Season the cake with all spice, ground cinnamon, and apple cider.

For the Frosting: The frosting is a basic buttercream recipe using unsalted butter, powdered sugar, heavy whipping cream, vanilla, and cinnamon.

You can also choose to use a Homemade Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe with cinnamon with this cake.

How to Make Apple Spice Cake

Make the Cake: After preheating the oven and prepping the pans, add butter, both sugars, oil, and vanilla to the stand mixer and mix on medium-high. Beat until it is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Stir the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Add the apple cider and the milk. Pour the cake batter between the prepared cake pans. Bake.

Remove the Cakes: After the cakes have cooled for 10 minutes, flip the cake pans over, one at a time, to take the cakes out of the pans and onto cooling racks. Let the cakes come to room temperature before assembling the cakes to frost.

Assembling and Frosting the Layered Apple Spice Cake: Using an electric mixer or stand mixer, combine the frosting ingredients together until smooth. Then, move the first layer of the cake to the cake stand. Frost each layer and gently stack the next layer of cake on top. Next, lightly frost the sides of the cake. Drizzle caramel sauce on the edges of the top and sides. Using the remaining frosting, add it to a pastry bag with a frosting tip, and add dollops of frosting along the edges of the cake. Decorate with thinly sliced apple pieced.

layered apple spice cake on a white plate

Can I Put Fresh Apples in this Cake?

Sure! You just want to make sure you are adding baking apples to them because not all apples are equal when it comes to baking. Some will become mushy and some will stay hard. We have a similar Apple Pie Cake recipe that has instructions for adding apple pie filling between the layers.

I have a Delicious Fresh Apple Cake Recipe that you can use as a reference when adding fresh apples to this cake.

Can I Use Apple Juice Instead of Apple Cider

Yes, you can use apple juice instead of apple cider in a cake recipe. Both have a similar apple flavor but differ in appearance and texture.

Apple cider is made from crushed apples and typically retains some of the apple pulp, giving it a cloudy appearance. It’s also usually less filtered and may contain some sediment.

Apple juice is more processed and filtered to remove the pulp and solids, resulting in a clear liquid. It often undergoes pasteurization for a longer shelf life.

How Many Days Does Apple Cake Last?

This cake will last for about 4 to 5 days at room temperature. It can also be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. Make sure it is protected from the air in an airtight container. When freezing it can be wrapped in plastic wrap as long as you freeze it first, so that the frosting does not stick to the plastic.

Tips for Icing this Layered Apple Spice Cake

With this recipe, it is extremely easy to frost the cake. Because you are not covering the cake completely, it makes it that much easier. You will be scooping icing onto each layer and smoothing it out. You will be frosting the top of the cake, but then the only frosting you need on the sides it the excess frosting from each layer. This gives the sweetness of the icing on the cake but does not take away from the taste of the apple spice cake recipe.

slice of layered apple spice cake on a white plate

More Apple Cake Recipes

Apple Spice Cake feature
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Apple Spice Cake Recipe

This Layered Apple Spice Cake is going to become your favorite Fall cake recipe to make. Incredibly moist homemade apple cinnamon cake topped with a cinnamon buttercream – delicious!
Servings: 18
Prep: 30 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes
Total: 1 hour

Ingredients
  

Cake Ingredients

Frosting Ingredients

Instructions

Cake Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Prep the round cake pans with baking spray,
  • Add the butter, both sugars, oil, and vanilla to a large mixing bowl on medium high speed. Mixing together for about 4-5 minutes. (Or until light, fluffy and combined.)
  • Add the eggs one at a time. Mix until mostly combined after each addition. Using a rubber spatula scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure all ingredients are well blended.
  • Add flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and allspice to a bowl. Whisk together to combine.
  • Reduce the mixer speed down to its lowest speed. Slowly add the dry ingredients to batter.
  • Pour in the apple cider and the milk .Mix on low speed until the batter is just combined.
  • Carefully divide batter into the three cake pans making sure they are even.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes. (Or until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean.)
  • Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
  • Flip the pans one at a time to remove the cake from the pans onto cooling racks. Allow cake layers to come to room temperature.
  • Using a cake leveling tool shave off the top of the top of each cake.

Frosting Directions

  • Using a standing mixer combine the butter, powdered sugar, heavy whipping cream, vanilla, and cinnamon. Mix on medium speed until combined and smooth. Transfer the bottom layer to a cake stand.
  • Frost each layer and gently stack them on top of each other. Lightly frost the sides of the cake. Drizzle caramel sauce on the edge of the top and sides of the cake. Insert the frosting tip into the pastry bag. Scoop the remaining frosting into frosting bag. Make large dollops of frosting on the edges around the cake. Place thinly sliced apple pieces on the frosting dollops.

Last Step:

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Equipment

  • 3 8 inch round cake pans

Nutrition

Calories: 689kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 148mg | Sodium: 158mg | Potassium: 174mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 58g | Vitamin A: 1316IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 86mg | Iron: 1mg

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