Apple Caramel Pecan Cake
This moist Apple Caramel Pecan Cake consists of fluffy apple cake layers glazed with caramel, and filled with pecans and cream cheese frosting .
This is such a flavorful cake recipe and perfect for fall and winter celebrations!
Table of Contents
How to Make Apple Caramel Pecan Cake
You can find the full, printable cake recipe for Apple Caramel Pecan Cake further down in this post. Below is a quick rundown of our steps.
We recommend preparing the homemade caramel filling first so that it has time to cool as you prepare and bake the cake.
For the Homemade Caramel Sauce
- First, using a medium size sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat.
- Add the brown sugar and the remaining ingredients. *The light corn syrup is great for preventing grittiness in our caramel sauce.
- Stir to blend, try to keep mixture off the sides of the pan. Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat to low.
- Next, cover the pot and let the mixture simmer for 5 to 6 minutes. Check the pot now and then to make sure that it will not boil over.
- Keep in mind that the caramel thickens as it cools.
- This recipe makes 1 cup caramel.
Can You Use Store-bought Caramel Instead?
Yes you can! We love the flavor of this easy homemade caramel sauce but any favorite store-bought caramel topping is perfectly fine for glazing the cake layers.
What Kind of Apples are Best for Apple Cake?
You will only need two apples for this cake recipe. You want to choose an apple that will hold its shape when baked.
We most often use Granny Smith or Golden Delicious. Granny Smith are nice and tart, while Golden Delicious are sweeter.
Honey Crisp, Fuji, and Gala are good options also.
This recipe only calls for two apples and so we used one Granny Smith and one Golden Delicious. You could use two of the same type of apple, but using both gives us the best of both worlds- a little sweetness and a little tartness.
Grating the Apples for the Cake
We grated our apples using the large holes of our grater. This is a really fast way to prepare apples for the cake. If you don't have a grater, you will just want to chop them very finely.
You can tell by their color that I used two different varieties of apples!
For the Apple Cake Layers
We've made apple cake layers in the past for other recipes but this is a brand new apple cake that we came up with for this recipe. It is fluffy, moist, and so delicious!
The boost of acidity from the buttermilk softens the gluten for a really nice texture, and the bits of apple add wonderful flavor!
- Preheat: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour three 8x2 inch round pans. We also like to line the pans with circles of parchment paper.
- Flour Mixture: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, apple pie spice and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
- Buttermilk Mixture: In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla. Set aside.
- Butter and Sugar: In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix until smooth. Gradually add the granulated sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
- Eggs: Add the room temperature eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
- Alternate Dry and Wet Ingredients: 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). After the last addition, mix until the batter is combined and smooth.
- Apples: Fold in the grated apples. (We had a combination of grated apples and very finely chopped apples). Divide the cake batter between the three prepared pans.
- Time to Bake! Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
- Cool and Turn Out: Allow the cake layers to cool in their pans for 10 minutes on a wire rack before turning out.
Cream Cheese Frosting
If you've been following our recipes for long, you may have noticed that we love cream cheese frosting! There are so many delicious flavor variations and we love them all.
Cream cheese frosting goes so nicely with spice cakes, and that is certainly the case today! We are using our favorite cream cheese frosting recipe as both a filling and a frosting.
This cream cheese frosting is a simple combination of softened butter and cream cheese, confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt.
Alternative to Cream Cheese Frosting
Not a fan of Cream Cheese Frosting or need something that can sit out for longer? You can substitute with your favorite vanilla buttercream!
Our Classic Vanilla Buttercream is a good alternative frosting for this cake. (You can even add a little apple pie spice if you'd like).
Assembling the Apple Caramel Pecan Cake
- Once your apple cake layers and caramel sauce have cooled, it is time to assemble.
- Place the first apple cake layer on your cake base or pedestal. Spread with a thin layer of caramel sauce. If the caramel is too thick, you may need to warm it briefly in the microwave to soften.
- The caramel should not be too warm as you don't want to melt your frosting. (We don't carry the caramel all the way to the edge. You can also pipe a dam of buttercream about ¼ inch from the edge if you are worried that it may escape. )
- Top the caramel glaze with crushed pecans.
- Next, pipe a layer of cream cheese frosting on top. (We pipe on the cream cheese frosting using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away).
- Then, lightly spread the frosting with an offset spatula. It is easier to apply the cream cheese this way than to spread the frosting on top of the caramel.
- (Another option for applying the cream cheese layer is to frost the next apple cake layer with frosting and flip it frosting-side-down onto the first caramel- glazed layer but this is safest to do if the cake layers have been partially frozen and are less fragile).
- Repeat these steps for the caramel, pecans and cream cheese frosting for the second apple cake layer. Then, top with the third apple cake layer.
- Fill in any gaps between the cake layers with frosting. Then, frost the cake around the sides and top with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting. (This is the crumb coat).
- At this point, I like to chill the crumb coated cake in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes to firm everything up before applying the second coat of frosting.
Decorating the Apple Caramel Pecan Cake
Apply the second coat of frosting however you like. We frosted it with an offset spatula, and then smoothed around the sides with a bench scraper while rotating the cake on a turntable.
Then, I applied scrollwork using a small round tip 3.
On top of the cake, I piped a reverse shell buttercream border with a star tip 21, and filled the top of the cake with crushed pecans. (For details on piping buttercream reverse shell borders, see Part One of our Star Tip Basics video!)
Here is our finished cake!
Does this Apple Cake Need Refrigeration?
Yes, because of the cream cheese frosting in this recipe, the cake should be refrigerated.
However, for best flavor and texture, remove the cake from the refrigerator 2-3 hours before serving to give the cake and frosting a chance to warm closer to room temperature.
More Apple Cake Recipes
In addition to today's delicious Apple Caramel Pecan Cake, we have even more apple cake recipes to share with you!
You can also visit our Roundup of Favorite Fall Cake Recipes for more ideas and flavor combinations. Some of our favorites are Applesauce Spice Cake, Caramel Apple Spice Cake, and Apple Cinnamon Layer Cake.
We also have a delicious Apple Bundt Cake that starts with a cake mix!
Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this Apple Caramel Pecan Cake.
Don't miss our huge collection of Cake Recipes, including our favorite cake recipes from scratch and cake mix recipes!
Also, if you are interested in cake design, make sure to check out our cake decorating tutorials! We have so many fun cakes to share with you!
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Apple Caramel Pecan Cake
Ingredients
Caramel Sauce
- We like to prepare this first so that it has time to cool. *See Notes for easy alternative
- ½ stick (57g) unsalted butter (if using salted butter, do not add additional salt)
- 1 cup (217g) light brown sugar (packed into measuring cup)
- ½ cup (126g) heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon (2g) salt
- 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon (18g) light corn syrup
For the Apple Cake Layers
- 1 ½ sticks ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened (If using salted butter omit the salt in the recipe)
- 2 cups (400g) sugar
- 4 large eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, you can place the eggs into a bowl of warm water.)
- 3 cups (342g) cake flour (See substitution in Notes below)
- 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 2 teaspoons (6g) Apple Pie Spice — see substitution in Notes below
- 1 ¼ (296g) buttermilk — see substitution below
- ¼ cup (54g) vegetable oil (we use canola oil)
- 2 teaspoons (8g)Vanilla Extract
- 1 ½ cups (130g) apples, (grated or finely chopped) - We used 2 apples to get 1 ½ cups. (I used 1 Granny Smith and 1 Golden Delicious, any baking apple will be fine. We used the large holes of a grater for our apples.)
Pecans for sprinkling in between layers and on top
- 1 Cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- For Caramel Sauce
- Using a medium size sauce pan (deep enough to prevent boil over) melt the butter over medium heat.
- Add the brown sugar and the remaining ingredients.
- Stir to blend, try to keep mixture off the sides of the pan. Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat to low.
- Cover the pot and simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, check the pot making sure it will not boil over.
- Keep in mind that the caramel thickens as it cools.
For the Apple Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour three 8x2 inch round pans
- In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, apple pie spice and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix until smooth. Gradually add the 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 until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
- 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). After the last addition, mix until the batter is combined and smooth. Be careful not to over-mix or mix at a high speed.
- Fold in the apples.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes and turn out.
Assembling the Cake
- Place the first apple cake layer on the cake plate or pedestal. Spread the top of the cake with a thin layer of caramel. We did not take it all the way to the edge. (We did not use a dam of frosting for this step but if you are worried about the caramel escaping, you can pipe one about ¼ inch from the edge of the cake).
- Sprinkle the caramel-glazed layer with chopped pecans. Then pipe on the cream cheese frosting using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away. Lightly spread with an offset spatula. Repeat the steps for the second cake layer. Top with the third cake layer.
- Fill in any gaps between the cake layers with frosting and apply a crumb coat (thin coat) of frosting. At this point I like to chill the cake in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm up before applying the final layer of frosting. Decorate however you like! I used my bench scraper around the sides for a smooth finish, then piped scrollwork with a small round piping tip 3. I added a reverse shell border with a star tip 21, and topped the cake with crushed pecans.
Hi there. This looks amazing and I can't wait to make it! However I don't know what Apple pie spice is and there is nothing g about it in your notes. Please could you let me know what's in it? Thanks so much and for all the fantastic recipes.
Hi Linda, I'm sorry that was overlooked. Apple Pie Spice is mostly cinnamon so you can substitute with 2 teaspoons cinnamon, or 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon allspice.
Under ingredients for the caramel sauce, you list 1 cup of chopped pecans. In the directions, you say "add the brown sugar and the rest of the ingredients." Does this include the pecans??
Hi Donna, I'm sorry- that was confusing. I've adjusted this. It actually would be fine to have chopped pecans in the cake batter if you'd like, but we did not. We only sprinkled the chopped pecans between the cake layers and on top of the cake. We used about 1 cup chopped pecans but you can adjust the amount to your liking.