Cinnamon Apple Cake with Salted Maple Buttercream
This Cinnamon Apple Cake is a light and bouncy sponge cake loaded with nuggets of home dried apple. Adorned by delectable salted maple buttercream, this is one elegant cake to fall in love with.
Please note: this recipe uses 6 inch cake tins. Please see recipe notes if you wish to use 8 inch tins
Please note: this recipe uses 6 inch cake tins. Please see recipe notes if you wish to use 8 inch tins
Servings: 8
Calories: 580kcal
Ingredients
For the Dried Apples
- 4 crips & tart apples (I used Pink lady) (see notes)
For the Cake
- 150g/ ⅔ cup butter (unsalted, room temperature)
- 150g / ¾ cup Golden caster sugar
- 150g/ 1 ¼ cups Plain (all purpose) flour
- 3 large eggs
- 3 tsp Ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp Ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 4 tsp Whole (full fat) milk
For the Salted Maple Buttercream
- 150g/ ⅔ cup butter (unsalted, room temperature)
- 165g/ 1 ½ cups icing (confectioner's) sugar
- 2 tbsp Maple Syrup
- ¼ tsp Sea salt flakes (optional)
Instructions
Make the dried apples
- Preheat the oven to 120C/ 240F/ GM ½ and line several baking trays with parchment paper
- Carefully core and peel 3 of the apples and slice into rounds approx 3-4mm thick. Lay the slices out on the baking sheet
- Do not peal the final apple. Core it and slice into very thin rounds - no thicker than 2mm. Add to the baking sheet
- Put the tins in the oven and cook for 1 hour, turning after 30 minutes
- Remove from the oven, let cool, then store in airtight containers until ready to use. The thinner slices will be crisper than the thicker slices - store in separate containers. The apple slices will darken over time, but will keep for several days once cooked
Make the Cinnamon Apple Cake
- Preheat oven 170C/ 325F/ GM3 and grease & line two 6 inch/ 15cm cake tins
- Finely chop the thick, skinless dried apple slices.
- Weigh the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl and stir briefly
- Put the butter and sugar into a medium sized bowl and cream, using electric beaters, until fluffy and pale in colour
- Separate the egg yolks and whites. Add the yolks to the cake batter and put the whites into a small mixing bowl
- Add the milk to the cake batter and beat until the milk and egg yolks are incorporated
- Sieve the flour mix into the cake batter and, using a large metal spoon, gently mix it all into the cake batter
- Stir the chopped dried apples into the mix
- Whisk the egg white to stiff peaks. Take a large spoonful and fold into the cake batter then fold in the rest of the egg whites very gently
- Divide the batter between the tins filling to ⅔ full. Avoid the temptation to overfill your tins - just use any excess batter make a cupcake or two
- Bake for approx 25 minutes until the sponge springs back when lightly pressed or a skewer comes out clean
- Let cool in the tins for 2 minutes, then remove from the tins, peal off the baking parchment from the bottom of each sponge cake and let cool completely on a wire rack before decorating
Make the Buttercream
- Use a pestle and mortar to crush the sea salt to a powder
- Using electric beaters whip the butter and icing sugar together - add the icing sugar 1 tablespoon at a time
- Beat in the maple syrup, followed by the powdered salt
- Taste - add a little more powdered salt to suit tastes
Assembling the Cake
- Put one layer of the cake onto a board/ plate and pipe blobs of buttercream around in a circle. Fill in the middle in the same way - use just under half of the buttercream
- Carefully top with the remaining layer of cake. Pipe a couple of blobs of buttercream onto the top and spread it out thinly to just cover the top of the cake
- Pipe neat blobs onto the top of the cake in a circle and again, fill in the centre in the same way
- Take a few of the remaining apple rings and, using scissors, cut into wedges. Use to decorate the top of the cake - poke one into each buttercream peak. Sprinkle with a little ground cinnamon
- Any remaining slices of apple can be served alongside the cake
Notes
- If using store bought dried apple use 75g/ 3 oz in the cake mix. They are not so good for decorating the top of the cake, so perhaps just dust with the cinnamon powder
- There is just enough buttercream to decorate this cake as pictured. Do ensure you do not use too much buttercream in the middle and run out on the top. If you want to decorate the sides of the cake too, scale up the buttercream recipe as per instructed in note 4 below.
- You can also use the batter to make cupcakes - you'll get 12-16 from the mix. Bake for 18-22 minutes.
- This recipe is for 2 x 6 inch cake tins. If you would like to bake this cake in 8 inch cake tins please use the following measurements: 5 apples (thickly slice 4) ⋅ 200g/ 1 cup sugar ⋅ 200g/ ⅞ cup butter ⋅ 200g/ 1 ⅔ cup flour + 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder + 4 teaspoon cinnamon + ¾ teaspoon nutmeg ⋅ 4 eggs ⋅ 6 teaspoon milk
- Scale up the buttercream (there may be a little leftover): 225g/ 1 cup butter ⋅ 250g/ 2 cups icing sugar ⋅ 3 tablespoon maple syrup ⋅ ⅜ teaspoon sea salt flakes
Nutrition
Calories: 580kcal | Carbohydrates: 71g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 32g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Cholesterol: 142mg | Sodium: 368mg | Potassium: 224mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 52g | Vitamin A: 1075IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 72mg | Iron: 1mg