Apple Spice Cake with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting with real apple chunks, a smooth and creamy frosting and all of your favorite fall flavors wrapped into one. This easy cake is one of our favorites!
If you haven’t noticed, I love APPLE CAKES. I’ve shared a few of my favoites on the blog already, including this delicious Caramel Apple Bundt Cake and my Grandma’s Fresh Apple Cake — both of which are total winners. But one of the things this Apple Spice Cake has that those recipes do not is a fantastic frosting!
Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting that pairs perfectly with the fall flavors in this cake.
I LOVE serving delicious, seasonal cakes like this all throughout the fall and holiday seasons. This Apple Spice Cake with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting is the perfect cake for a party, baby shower/bridal shower, or just for dinner with friends.
Or, if you love to bake as much as I do, make this on a whim and send it with your husband to work 🙂 .
I love to send my leftover baked goods to people. I get joy from baking them and then I’m not tempted by them sitting on my kitchen counter begging me to eat the entire pan.
Consider trying these popular apple recipes:
- Caramel Pecan Apple Crisp
- Caramel Apple Bundt Cake
- Apple Pie Cheesecake Bars
- Baked Apples
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Recipe
Apple Spice Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 2 Tablespoon butter , divided and softened
- 2 cups Granny Smith apples , peeled and chopped (about 2 apples)
- 3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoon light brown sugar , divided
- 1 1/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice , divided
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
For the Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese , room temperature
- ¼ cup butter , softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13? baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a small skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat until the butter starts to bubble.
- Add the peeled and chopped apples, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice and cook, tossing occasionally, until the apples start to soften and the sugar mixture thickens, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl add the remaining 1 cup of butter, ¾ cup brown sugar, and granulated sugar, and beat until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes), scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as you go.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Stir in vanilla.
- In another mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, ¾ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, and salt.
- Add about ⅓ of the flour mixture to the creamed butter/sugar mixture and stir until incorporated.
- Add half of the buttermilk and stir. Repeat with another addition of flour, the rest of the buttermilk, and ending with the final addition of flour.
- Add the cooked apple mixture to the batter and fold-in gently. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 35-43 minutes or until the cake is golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
For the Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting:
- While the cake is cooling, make the frosting: Beat the cream cheese until smooth.
- Add butter and cream together until smooth. Add the brown sugar and beat for about 5 minutes, or until very light and fluffy.
- Mix in vanilla. Spread frosting evenly over cooled cake. Refrigerate leftovers.
Notes
Nutrition
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Have you tried this recipe?!
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I have made this multiple times, not one bite has gone to waste. The family loves this, they say this is their favorite cake besides the Carrot cake recipe on here.
This cake was delicious! I made it for my son’s quaran-“teen” birthday and he loved it. Thanks for the great recipe!
Awesome recipe! Looks delicious. I’m going to make this and send it with my WIFE to work. Men can bake, and women can work.
I tasted the batter before even finishing and was AMAZING. I made this for my grandmother’s birthday and she hasn’t had it since her mom passed away. She said it was just like her mom used to make, it was so moist and yummy, I loved it! The only downfall to me was maybe a little too much cream cheese in the icing but I am not a big fan of cream cheese. Thanks so much!
I was thinking of adding walnuts to this recipe…..what do you think?
That would be delicious!
Hey there, Great recipe…just wondering if you’ve had any luck freezing it.
I haven’t tried it but I think it would work!
Thanks for the rapid-fire response! I put one piece in the freezer to give it a whirl. If you don’t hear back it was a success. If it turns out not so great I’ll let you know.
No leavening agent needed in this recipe ?
Baking powder is the main leavening agent.
I made this lovely cake tonight (end of August) and starting to feel like fall….got rave reviews from my family. We live in Minnesota, where a lot of apple varieties are developed here at the University of Minnesota. I used Honey Crisp apples which is our favorite, and dark brown sugar for that extra punch of flavor from the Molasses- fantastic!!! I absolutely recommend this cake recipe to anyone who loves apples!!!
Do you think pink lady apples would work just as well as the Granny smith?
Yes, I think they would work great! I’d love to hear how you like it!
I made this recipe for Thanksgiving…..it was SO moist and yummy! I’m making it again for SUPERBOWL !!
Yay! So happy to hear it. Thanks for sharing Sharon!
The recipe states “1 cup 2 sticks + 2 tbsp butter”..but in the intructions it says to add the remaining 1 cupof butter(when making the cake). So is it 2 sticks or 4 sticks of butter in the cake mix? Thanks!
Hi Kristina,
The butter is divided. The two Tbs. is melted in step #2 and the 1 cup (or 2 sticks) is added in step #4. Thanks for helping me clarify! I hope you enjoyed them.
Hi – Can you make this recipe in 2, 9″ round pans?
Thanks!
Hi Kelli, I haven’t tried that but I think it would work! If your going to dump them out to make a layered cake, I would advise putting parchment paper in the bottom of the pan! I would love to know how it turned out!
Absolutely delicious. I couldn’t wait to make this and I wasn’t disappointed in the wait. An excellent way to start fall.
That makes me so happy! Thank you for sharing!
Dianalyn….. did you by buttermilk or did you make the buttermilk?
you ean buy cultured buttermilk blend at your grocery store..and all you have to do is add water to it..I buy mine online from Walmart. This way I always have it on hand..