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- Today we're making one of my favorite fall treats,
an apple spice cake.
It's filled with all of your favorite fall spices,
1,003 apples exactly,
and browned buttercream that is so good,
you'll be eating it by the spoonful.
It's also filled and topped with a homemade caramel
that is made of dreams.
Okay, let's get started!
I have a pound of butter in my hand,
and while a vanilla buttercream whipped up
with this would be delicious,
we're actually going to brown it first.
In case you haven't browned butter before,
it really gives it a caramel, nutty undertone
that is just intoxicating.
The first thing we need to do is brown our butter
because it has to brown and then we have to bring it back
to room temperature.
So, it'll go into the fridge
and chill while we make our batter.
All you're doing is plopping some butter,
in this case it's a full pound, unsalted.
Mm.
That's it.
So you're taking a full pound of butter
and keeping it over like a medium low, medium to low.
You don't want it to bubble up and sizzle
because it can explode.
There is water in the butter.
So, it's just going to be cooking down
and the milk solids will be caramelizing.
When they caramelize, it creates this nutty,
amazing undertone of flavor that just is good in every dish.
This'll be bubbling for about ten minutes,
and my advice to you is just to keep an eye on it
while you're doing other things in the kitchen
because if it heats too high, you'll get these pops
of butter splattering all around
and they can be very dramatic.
So if you want to make sure there's no splatter,
you just add a wire mesh on top like this
and that'll solve all of your problems.
Or, if you want to be confident and not do that,
that's up to you too.
Once you see those milk solids caramelizing on the bottom,
go ahead and use your spatula and just move them around
so that they don't burn.
While this is cooking we're going to prep our apples.
I'm just going to set this aside carefully since it's hot.
I've made this recipe a ton of times
and in the recipe it says 3-4 apples.
So, every year when it's fall and I'm making this cake,
I look and I say John why did you say 3-4 apples?
Why don't you give a specific measurement?
And it's because both will work.
So, if you want pure apples with tons of moisture in there,
you're just going to bake the cake for longer.
If you want more of a caky and a bit lighter feeling,
then three apples and you're fine.
Either way, you're going to get a lot of flavor
and the apples will impart a ton of moisture in your cake.
You can use any apple that you like in this recipe.
I often will use Honeycrisps
because they're so sweet and tart.
But Fuji apples work well, Makintosh.
Anything that you can find that's fresh and not mealy.
If you want to make this cake
and have parts of it done ahead of time
so it'll be a breeze in the moment,
go ahead and peel the apples,
core them, mince them, and have them ready.
It's okay if they're brown, they'll be baking.
But if that bothers you
or if you want a little bit of extra acid,
squeeze some lemon juice over the chopped apples
and they'll be ready to go.
All it has to be is small enough to bake down and soften.
I've chopped three apples.
I'm going to do a half of the fourth,
and I think that'll be just the right amount.
It really depends on the apple size, though.
All right, I'm going to do the right thing
and measure the ingredients out
so you can replicate this recipe exactly.
So that's one cup.
Two cups.
And so, about three cups and a little bit extra
of this apple.
This step is optional, but I will be squeezing in
a little bit of lemon.
One, because I don't want to see the browning
even though I'm the only one who's going to see it.
And two, because I like the little bit of acid
the lemon will bring to this.
It kind of brightens the flavor.
Good. A little toss.
And I can set this aside.
All right, let's take a look at our browned butter
and see what it's like right now.
It's quieted down. It was very noisy for a while.
So if you look inside of here,
you can see through the froth
that there is some brown butter flecks.
So, it's coming along. I'm just going to stir it up
and move those milk impurities around so they get mixed in
and other things get a chance to caramelize up.
Take a look at all this delicious color coming in.
Oh, yes.
Look at this color. Oh my gosh.
Towards the end of browning butter,
you have to keep an eye on things
because it'll go from being
uncaramelized, uncaramelized, uncaramelized to burnt.
The end step happens right away.
All right, so this is done.
I'm going to take it off of the heat.
Turn it off.
Transfer it to a bowl.
Just take a look at that.
All those caramelized milk solids that are in there.
This is too hot to make a buttercream with.
This is going to go into the fridge to chill.
You want it to come to room temperature but not be hard,
so go ahead and stir it in the fridge a couple times.
You'll see the edges becoming hard.
It just needs to be mixed up.
All right, now it's time to make our caramel,
and I just want to tell you ahead of time
that homemade caramel will 100% always be better
than store-bought caramel.
One cup of brown sugar into a pot.
Half a cup of cream.
Doing a quarter teaspoon of salt. You can add more or less.
And then five tablespoons of unsalted butter.
Oh, (laughs) one tablespoon of vanilla extract.
All right, this is on like a medium heat
and all you do is just give it a stir.
Once it starts melting and oh my gosh, the smell.
The smell is amazing.
So it's going to melt up
and what happens is it starts bubbling.
That sugar is cooking
and the water from the cream is boiling off.
You'll see it bubbling. It'll start thickening.
And once it gets to a desired thickness, it's ready.
All right, so it's been about a minute
and you can already see some vigorous bubbling happening.
That sugar is cooking. You'd want to give it a stir.
Once you see this bubbling happening where it comes
to the top of the pot or closer,
keep stirring it, keep stirring it
and then the bubbles will subside
and you'll see this thickening happening.
That looks basically good to me. I'm going to give a test.
And then I'm just going to see. Yeah.
Mm, that's perfect.
You can see how it coats the back of the spoon.
It needs to cool down because it'll totally just melt
the cake when you put it on unless it's room temperature.
Once this cools down,
all that butter will really thicken things up.
I am going to help it along just a bit
by taking it off the heat. Transfer it to a bowl.
Yeah. Very, very hot. Be careful.
One more tablespoon of butter.
I'm just going to whisk that in.
It's optional though, but I want the thickness to be
better for a drip.
It makes a difference.
Once that butter is all mixed in,
you can pop this into the fridge
and yes, you can totally make this a day ahead.
You can jar it and keep it in the fridge
for like a week or so, and it's an amazing snack
to have on ice cream just by the spoonful.
Whatever you like.
Now it's time for the batter.
I feel like we waited a long time,
but the prep on this cake is so worth it.
We're starting off with three cups
of all-purpose flour into a large bowl,
and we're going to sift everything.
One and half cups of granulated sugar,
One teaspoon of baking soda,
one teaspoon of salt.
And now for the spices.
This is what makes this cake just scream fall.
Two teaspoons of ground cinnamon,
half a teaspoon of allspice, one of my favorite spices,
half a teaspoon of ground ginger,
half a teaspoon of nutmeg, and optional,
but a pinch of cloves.
Now we're going to sift everything together
and make sure that our leavening agents
are well distributed, as well as those spices.
Give it a good whisk.
Set this aside.
For the wet mixture we have a quarter cup of yogurt
in a bowl.
We're going to add a quarter cup of vegetable oil.
And I'm a coconut fiend so this cake has half a cup
of melted coconut oil.
If you don't have it, go ahead and use all vegetable oil.
It'll be fine.
A splash of vanilla.
Now I'm cracking three room temperature eggs
into my mixture.
One,
two,
three.
And now, we're going to whisk it up.
Now we're going to combine the dry with the wet
and the apples.
And when you make this batter, it's going to look so thick
and you'll think oh my gosh,
you forgot the milk, you forgot the water,
something's wrong, but no.
The apples are full of water and moisture
so, when they bake down they'll make everything work out.
Let's mix this up.
There we go. So, when you see this.
Now we're almost ready to add those apples in.
See that consistency?
Nice. That's what we want.
All right, now for our chopped apples.
Time to fold those apples in.
So here just makes sure everything's distributed
and that batter is broken up by the apples.
You'll notice I'm using a spatula with a metal handle
because I have broken wooden spatulas
with this batter before.
Done! I got my workout for my left hand.
We're going to prep the pans first.
So let's set this aside.
I'm using six by two inch pans, it's my favorite size
because it's the perfect form of portion control,
and the cake is really cute.
All right, let's butter the pans.
I used my extra butter papers with a little dab
of butter in to spread butter on these pans
and now, we're just going to kick around some flour.
So easy, and it's the perfect way to prep your pan.
If you find your cakes are cracking,
or bad things are happening,
it normally means that your cake hasn't finished baking yet.
Take a tablespoon of flour. Just kick it around the pan.
Then, dump it out into the next pan
and repeat the process.
I want to get cake layers that are almost exactly
the same height and bake evenly so,
I'm going to weigh the pans out with the batter,
so I can say okay, they all have the same amount roughly.
Give or take a couple grams.
These can go into the oven at 350,
and it will be about 40 minutes.
A lot of apples in this cake, it has to cook for a while.
Or you'll think oh, the cake's done. It's been half an hour.
Take it out. It's fine for a few minutes.
Center collapses. You're sad.
So, leave it for 20 minutes.
Switch the pans around if your oven heats unevenly
and then 20 more minutes.
Make sure that center is set.
Now, it's almost time to pop it in the oven.
But first, I want them to bake evenly.
So, if you've watched my channel,
you probably know I'll be adding on some cake strips.
These are just wet fabric strips.
You can make your own or buy them.
I have a whole video on them.
You can click up here, and they are magic.
They help you get a nice flat cake layer
with fluffier edges. They're great.
Okay. Cake strips on.
And then these will bake in the oven
for 40 minutes at 350,
and don't try and take them out early.
My brown butter firmed up a lot.
It's not super solid right now, but it'll be okay.
Trust me.
You're going to pour it,
and you'll pour into my bowl of the standing mixer.
No need to mix this up first.
You're going to add a little bit of sugar in here
to get started.
Into the stand mixer and fit it with a paddle attachment.
Cover it with a tea towel.
Mix it on low for a bit just to get it started.
Take a peak. Increase that speed.
All right, I'm adding in a little bit less
than a teaspoon of salt.
One teaspoon of cinnamon.
And you can see, it's already starting to come together,
but it needs more sugar. It's a little soft.
So, I'm going to be adding in a little bit less
than two pounds, or .9 kilograms of confectioner sugar.
It's up to you. It's really about the consistency
and taste for me.
So, if you want a softer buttercream
that is less sweet, less sugar.
(stand mixer whirring)
Going to drizzle in some cream now.
(stand mixer whirring faster)
Let's take a look.
Look at this. Look at this buttercream.
That's exactly what you want.
It's brown from all those caramelized bits of butter,
but still light and fluffy.
Sweet, salty, cinnamon, vanilla.
This is everything you want.
This tastes amazing.
I'm going to add it into a large piping bag
and just snip the tip off,
and then it's time to assemble and pipe.
All right, my cake layers are out of the oven
and I just want to show you how flat they are,
thanks to the cake strips.
Look at this. Perfectly flat,
and they're all the same height because we weighed them out.
Some people have said oh,
but you turn your cake layer upside down,
I bet the bottom's domed.
Take a look at this. That's the bottom, and that's the top.
They look the same.
Having a flat cake layer makes decorating cakes
so much easier.
Okay, let's decorate.
Pipe the buttercream onto the first layer of the cake.
Give a nice drizzle of caramel. Add as much as you'd like.
Put the second layer on, and repeat the process.
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Now, cover the cake completely in buttercream.
It doesn't have to be a thick layer. Just give it a cover.
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It's easier to clean the spatula
and while you're turning the cake,
pull it in with the knife almost leveled to the cake.
After each swipe, wipe the knife off
and you'll eventually be done.
Use an offset spatula to smooth the sides.
Leave as much of the buttercream on as you want.
It can be a totally naked cake, or be totally covered.
It's up to you.
Add the caramel to the edge.
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A swirl on top and then smooth it out
with an offset spatula.
You can pop it into the fridge to chill,
or eat it immediately.
I cannot believe the transformation
from that like, mountainous, craggy batter
that you thought was like, never going to work
to this amazing, fluffy, moist,
and delicious apple spice cake.
It's the definition of culinary magic if you ask me,
and I hope you did.
Okay, I'm going to take a bite.
I ate this a little bit before,
so I know it's delicious, though.
But just for you, and for me because I'm still hungry,
I will take this bite.
That butter. Oh, my god.
The browned buttercream is magic.
Just make it. Put it on anything. You'll be happy.
The cake is so tender. It melts in your mouth,
but the apples still have like a slight toothiness,
almost like al dente apples, I tell you.
They have a bit of a crunch and so much flavor.
You got to make this cake.
All right, thanks so much for watching,
hit that like button,
don't forget to subscribe, and let's get baking.
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