Maple Walnut Cake

This Maple Walnut Cake is so tender and delicious with a great balance of maple and walnut flavor. We are so happy to have another cake for our collection of popular fall cakes! You can never go wrong with a moist maple walnut cake- yum!

We've made several maple cakes over the years, from Maple Carrot Cake to Maple Pecan Cake, Maple Pound Cake, Maple Almond Cake, and more.

In today's recipe, moist maple walnut cake layers are glazed with maple syrup, and filled and frosted with maple cream cheese frosting. For added crunch, we added a sprinkling of crushed walnuts as well.

The buttermilk in the recipe makes for an extra tender crumb, and the hint of brown sugar is the perfect complement to the maple flavor.

Ingredients

Here are the key ingredients for the cake layers!

• Unsalted Butter- We add the salt separately
• White Sugar & Light Brown Sugar
• Pure Maple Syrup- Dark or amber is fine! Dark will give a slightly deeper flavor.
• Eggs, room temperature (if in a hurry, place them in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
• Cake Flour makes for a tender cake!
• Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Salt
• Buttermilk's acidity creates a moist, tender crumb
• Vegetable Oil
• Vanilla Extract
• Maple Extract- without it, it is still good but you'll just have a hint of maple flavor. We prefer having the extract if possible. (We used McCormick).
• Finely chopped walnuts. (This recipe would be great with chopped pecans also).

How to Make Maple Walnut Cake

You can find the full, printable Maple Walnut Cake recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans. We also like to line the bottom of our pans with a circle of parchement.
• Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
• Wet Ingredients: In another bowl, add the buttermilk, maple syrup, vegetable oil and extracts (maple and vanilla).  Set aside..
• In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Then, add the brown and white sugar and cream it for 3-5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
• Next, add the eggs one at a time mixing after each addition until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix just until incorporated.
• Fold in the chopped walnuts.
• Divide batter between the three cake pans and bake.
• Once the layers are done, (about 22 minutes or so), cool in the pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes before turning out. Cool completely before filling and frosting.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

You may have noticed that we LOVE cream cheese frosting and use it all the time. ;0) Today's recipe is based on our classic cream cheese frosting recipe, but I extended it just a bit with an additional stick of butter and more sugar.

This is because we are using the frosting as a filling, and also doing a little decorating. We also added some maple extract to give our cake an added boost of maple.

The frosting is a combination of softened butter, softened cream cheese, a pinch of salt, and flavoring. It pipes great and is easy to work with. However, it is a bit softer than most buttercream recipes. If it becomes too soft to easily work with, just pop the frosting bowl or piping bag in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm things up.

Assembly

Place the first cooled cake layer on your pedestal. Using a pastry brush, we added a thin layer of maple syrup to the top, followed with a layer of frosting. Then, a sprinkling of finely crushed walnuts.

Repeat the steps for the next layers. We frosted the cake with a thin layer of maple cream cheese frosting and chilled it for about 10-15 minutes to firm things up before adding the final layer of frosting.

Decorating the Cake

Decorate the cake however you like! We added a final layer of frosting, smoothed around the sides with a bench scraper, and then added a bit of scrollwork using a piping tip 3.

Crushed walnuts make a simple bottom border. On top, we just swirled a bit of extra frosting for texture. Here is is!

More Fall Cakes

We've made many more fall cakes that you must try! Some of our favorites are Carrot Cake, Pumpkin Spice Cake, Maple Pound Cake, Sweet Potato Cake, and Apple Dapple Cake. Make sure to keep these in mind for fall birthday cakes, Thanksgiving, and other gatherings!

Thanks so much for stopping by, we hope that you enjoy this Maple Walnut Cake recipe as much as we have! If you give it a try, we would love to know what you think.

Maple Walnut Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This moist, Maple Walnut Cake recipe is so flavorful and perfect for fall gatherings, Thanksgiving, and more!

Prep Time: 30 minutes mins

Cook Time: 25 minutes mins

Course: Cakes and Cupcakes

Servings: 15 servings

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened. (holds it shape but dents when pressed)
• ▢ 1¼ cups white sugar (250g)
• ▢ ½ cup light brown sugar (100g)
• ▢ ½ cup pure maple syrup (You can use dark or amber, the darker it is, the deeper the flavor.)
• ▢ 4 large eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
• ▢ 3 cups cake flour (342g)See notes for substitution if needed. (If not using a scale, lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off).
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder (8g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking soda (3g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
• ▢ 1 ¼ cups buttermilk (296g) See notes for substitution if needed.
• ▢ ¼ cup vegetable oil (54g) (We use canola oil.)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8g)
• ▢ 3 teaspoons maple extract (12g) (We used McCormick Brand)
• ▢ ¾ cup finely chopped walnuts

For the Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 3 sticks unsalted butter, slightly softened (339g)
• ▢ 16 oz cream cheese (total weight 452g),softened. (We use two 8 oz packages) Full fat is best.
• ▢ 2 teaspoons maple extract (8g) (adjust amount to your liking)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
• ▢ 6½-7 cups powdered sugar (adjust slightly up or down to your liking) (805g)

Maple Glaze

• ▢ We used pure Maple Syrup as a glaze for our cake layers - You won't need much- maybe ¼ cup or so in total. Enough to apply a light coating to the top of each layer.

Cake Decoration

• ▢ Decorate however you like! We used additional crushed walnuts to create a bottom border, and piped scrollwork with a round tip 3.

Instructions

Prepare Pans

• Grease and flour three 8 inch round pans, add a circle or parchment paper or waxed paper to the bottom.

For the Cake Layers

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
• In another bowl, add the buttermilk, maple syrup, vegetable oil and extracts (maple and vanilla).  Set aside..
• In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth.
• Gradually add the brown and white sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time mixing after each addition until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). Mix just until incorporated.
• Fold in the chopped walnuts.
• Divide batter between the three cake pans.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 22 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. Let cool 10 minutes and turn out. Bake times may vary- peek in as the end time approaches.

For the Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

• Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
• Cut the softened cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to soften the cream cheese a bit more.
• Add the maple extract. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended. Cover the bowl with a towel if needed to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
• Increase mixing speed slightly until well combined. Be careful not to over-mix as it will become very soft. (If this happens, chill it in the refrigerator for a bit.)
• This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and then bring out to the kitchen counter to soften up a bit. (Re-mix if needed).
• Will frost and fill a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake.

Assembling the Cake

• Place the first *cooled* cake layer on a cake base or pedestal. Brush with a thin layer of maple syrup. This is an optional step. It is not needed for moistness, but it does add an added boost of maple flavor.
• Spread a layer of maple cream cheese frosting on top of the cake layer. Add a light sprinkling of finely crushed walnuts if you'd like. Add the second layer and repeat step(s). After lightly glazing the final cake layer, I placed it glazed-side down on top. It may not make a difference but I did this just in case it would make it easier to frost.
• Next, fill in any gaps between the cake layers with frosting and apply a thin coat of frosting (or crumb coat) around the top and sides of the cake. At this point we like to chill the cake for about 15 minutes in the freezer to firm up the frosting. This firms everything up and prevents the layers from sliding as you decorate. Apply the final coat of frosting.

Decorating the Cake

• Decorate the cake however you like! We added a bottom border of crushed walnuts, and piped scrollwork around the sides using a small round tip 3.

Storing the Cake

• This cake should be refrigerated in an airtight container or under a cake dome until within 2-3 hours of serving. Bringing the cake closer to room temperature before serving will give the cake and frosting time to warm and soften.

Notes

Substitute for Buttermilk: No Buttermilk? Here is a substitution: To a measuring cup, add 1 Tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice. Add milk to the 1 ¼ mark, stir. Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use.

Substitution for Cake Flour: Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend

Recipe makes 7 ½ cups batter

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