• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x13 pan.
• In a medium bowl, combine apples and sugar, stirring to combine. Set aside.
• Egg Mixture: In a medium bowl, add eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. Mix well to combine.
• Flour Mixture: In a large bowl, add the all purpose flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk to blend.
• Alternately stir in the flour mixture and egg mixture to the apple/sugar mixture. Start and end with the flour mixture. (We did three additions of the flour mixture and two additions of the egg mixture). *Stir just until combined- be careful not to overmix.
• Finally, fold in the chopped pecans. Pour the batter into the prepared 9x13" pan.
• Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes before turning out. *If the cake begins to become more brown than you'd like, lightly cover pan with aluminum foil.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• Add the softened butter to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is smooth.
• Cut the softened cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, along with the salt, mixing 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 vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar mixing on low speed until blended. Cover the bowl with a towel to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
• Increase mixing speed and beat until fluffy. Don't over beat or it will become too soft. If it becomes too soft, just refrigerate a short while to firm it up a bit.
• This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.

Decorating

• Once the cake has cooled completely, you can frost with the cream cheese frosting. Decorate however you'd like. We used a 2D piping tip to pipe rosettes on top of the cake.

Storage

• Because of the cream cheese frosting, this cake needs to be refrigerated. When cakes are refrigerated, they become more firm because of the butter. For this reason, it is best to move the cake from the refrigerator to the kitchen counter 2-3 hours before serving.