Apple Cider Cake
Tender apple cider cake made with fresh apple cider, warm fall spices and brown butter. This moist cake is topped with an apple cider caramel whipped cream and more caramel sauce.
If there ever was a cake that tasted like fall, and wasn’t pumpkin, this apple cider cake would be it. It reminds me of drinking warm spiced cider in an apple orchard on a crisp late october day and makes me feel so cozy and happy. The apple cider flavor shines through so well!
I’m giving you this recipe as a one layer cake, can be made snacking style, but it can easily be doubled to make a tiered cake or a large sheet cake.
Recipe Origins
I started testing this recipe using the template of this orange apple cider bundt cake. The idea was to pull the orange out of the cake and enhance the cider and apple notes, making it taste kind of like an apple cider donut. To do so, I reduce a lot more cider and use more of it; the liquid that goes into the cake is a very concentrated cider flavor. The spices added to the cake are what you’ll find in my apple cider donut recipe: cinnamon and allspice.
Paired with my apple cider caramel sauce and a whipped cream made with the sauce, this is the most apple cider flavored cake you can get! The cake is wonderfully moist and light, warmly spiced.
Recipe Ingredients
Apple cider: this is fresh, unfiltered apple juice (cloudy). It is NOT apple cider vinegar and it is not apple juice (apple juice has other added ingredients). There are no substitutes for fresh apple cider.
Butter: unsalted butter. We will brown just a stick of butter and use two components of it: the toasted milk solids to make the glaze (where their flavor will really shine) and the liquid as one of the fats to add to the cake batter.
Cinnamon & allspice: ground spices to flavor the cake.
Sugar: we’ll use both fine granulated sugar and brown sugar. For the brown sugar, either light or dark will do. Don’t use turbinado or organic as these lack moisture.
Vanilla: pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
Salt: fine sea salt. If using table salt, halve the amount.
Eggs: whole large eggs.
Cake flour: makes for a lighter cake with a tighter crumb. If you don’t have access to cake flour try pastry flour.
Leavening: baking soda and baking powder.
Buttermilk: whole or low fat is fine. A good substitute for those who can’t find buttermilk is kefir.
Powdered sugar: preferably made with tapioca starch (it doesn’t taste like chalk). Sift it!
Heavy cream: or whole milk, to thin out the glaze.
How to Make Apple Cider Cake
Prep Ingredients
Reduce the cider: set the cider in a large pot over medium-high heat. If you like, add some mulling spices (whole nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, etc) to the pot to flavor the cider.
→ if making the apple cider caramel, reduce a total of 5-6 cups all at once and use some for the cake and some for the caramel.
Bring the cider to a rolling boil and continue cooking until it’s reduced, by about a sixth of its initial volume.
If you used mulling spices, strain them out. Let the reduced cider cool completely. You can do this step up to a week ahead of time. Store it in a sealed container in the fridge.
Brown the butter: set the butter in a small skillet, preferably light colored. Cook as it melts then begins to sputter and pop. You’ll see cream colored bits at the bottom of the pan, keep cooking and stirring as those bits turn a toasty brown color.
Once the butter is silent and all the bits are browned, immediately scrape all of the butter and bits into a small bowl. To the bowl add the spices and stir. Set aside.
Make the Cake Batter
Beat the sugar and eggs: set the sugars, eggs and salt and vanilla in a large bowl and beat on medium speed until light and airy. This can take 2-3 minutes.
Slowly pour in the liquid butter: with the mixer on low, pour in the spiced brown butter. Mix until well incorporated. Add the oil too and beat to combine.
Sift in the dry ingredients: the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
Add the reduced cider and buttermilk: and beat to just combine.
Pour into pan & bake: grease and flour the pan with non-stick spray, or grease the pan and line with parchment paper. Pour the batter into the pan and gently shake it so it’s in an even layer. Bake the cake until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan briefly then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
How to make Caramel Whipped Cream
First make the apple cider caramel, using this recipe.
If you’d like to make a regular (non-apple) caramel sauce, use this recipe.
Set the heavy cream, caramel, a dash of vanilla and a pinch of salt in a food processor. This is my method of making stabilized whipped cream.
Process on high until thickened, check it every 30 seconds or so to make sure it’s not overwhipping. Stop when it’s thick enough to hold shape when you run a spoon through it.
If it gets grainy then you’ve taken it too far and can try adding more heavy cream and processing it just a bit to make it creamy again.
Alternative Topping: Brown Butter Apple Cider Glaze
In some of the photos (and earlier cake tests) you see here there is a brown butter apple cider glaze on the cake, not the caramel whipped cream listed in the recipe below.
If you would like to make the glaze instead, do this:
Reserve the brown butter bits from the browned butter liquid (it won’t impact the cake flavor too much, plus they stand out more in the glaze) in a separate bowl. To the bowl add any remaining reduced cider (about a tablespoon or whatever is left after making the cake batter), 1 ½ cups powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, a dash of vanilla and about 2-3 tablespoons of heavy cream. Whisk until smooth: if the glaze is too thick and not pourable or spreadable, add more heavy cream.
If it’s too thin, add more powdered sugar. It should be thicker than royal icing but spreadable. Spread half the glaze over the bottom half of the cake, add chopped pecans and drizzle some caramel over them. Carefully place the other half of the cake on top then spread the other half of the glaze on top, drizzle the caramel over it and sprinkle on pecans.
Storing the Cake
Once baked, the cake can be stored in the freezer if wrapped tightly with plastic wrap. Make the topping the day of serving. Leftovers can be stored in the fridge, in an airtight container.
Apple Cider Cake Recipe
Apple Cider Cake
Ingredients
Prep Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh apple cider boiled down to a little over ½ cup (we’ll use 120g or ½ cup for the cake and save the rest for the glaze)
- 113g or ½ cup butter unsalted
Apple Cider Cake
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 100g or ½ cup brown sugar light or dark
- 100g or ½ cup fine granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 85-90g browned butter from above
- 30g or 2 tablespoons avocado oil or something flavorless (don’t use canola oil or anything with a strong flavor)
- 190g or 1 ½ cups cake flour shake the flour over the cup and level - never pack it in or dip to scoop
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 120g or ½ cup reduced cider from above
- 60g or ¼ cup buttermilk
Apple Cider Caramel Whipped Cream
- 360g or 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
- ¼-⅓ cup apple cider caramel make the full recipe, use some for the whipped cream, some for drizzling on the cake afterwards and keep the rest for another use
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Method
- Reduce the cider: set the three cups of fresh apple cider in a large pot. If you like, add a few tablespoons of mulling spices to the pot and stir (this gives it a more spiced flavor). Set the heat on medium high. The liquid will come to a boil, then a rolling boil, you’ll continue to cook it until it’s roughly one sixth of the volume it was to start. We don’t want it to cook down into a syrup, it should be a thick, cloudy liquid. This can take up to 30 minutes, more or less depending on how high and steady the heat is and the material of the pan. Once you have a little over half a cup, pour into a heat safe jar and cool. Once cool, seal and set in the fridge. You can do this ahead of time, up to a week before baking the cake.
- Brown the butter: set the butter in a light colored skillet over medium heat. Let it cook until melted, then begin to sputter and bubble. The milk solids will separate (you’ll see bits that look like panko or breadcrumbs in the bottom of the pan) and as you keep cooking they will turn caramel colored brown. Once all the bits are a toasty brown color and the butter has gone silent. Scrape all of it into a medium to large bowl (this will be the bowl you make the glaze in). Pour the liquid into a separate bowl over a scale, trying to keep the brown bits in the bigger bowl. Stop when you have about 85g of liquid, this will be the butter that goes into the cake batter. Into this, add the cinnamon and allspice, and stir to combine.
- Preheat & prep: Preheat the oven to 325 F. Lightly grease then line a square cake pan (8x8 inch) with parchment paper.
- Make the cake batter: in a large bowl, add the sugars (100g each), salt and vanilla. Crack in the two eggs and use a hand mixer to beat until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Then, with the mixer on, slowly pour in the liquid browned butter (85-90g) and the oil (30g or 2 TB), keep beating until well combined. Sift the cake flour (190g or 1 ½ cups) into the batter and add the baking soda (¼ tsp) and baking powder (¾ tsp) . With the mixer on slowly pour in the reduced cider (120g or ½ cup) and the buttermilk (60g or ¼ cup). Beat until the batter is just combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl for even mixing.
- Bake the cake: transfer the cake batter to the prepared cake pan. Smooth into an even layer. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, or the middle springs back; about 30-35 minutes. Let cool briefly in the pan then invert onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely before slicing and glazing. Use a bread knife to trim off the edges of the cake and use a cake slicer to slice it horizontally so you have two layers.
- Make the caramel whipped cream: set the heavy cream (360g or 1 ½ cups), caramel (¼-⅓ cup), salt, and vanilla in a food processor. Run the processor on high until the cream thickens; this can take 60 seconds or more. Stop to check it, if you can swipe a spoon through it and it holds shape it’s done. Spread over the completely cooled cake.
Notes
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I made this cake for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it! I was nervous because I was in a time crunch so I ended up messing up some of the measurements, but it still turned out great. I can’t wait to make it again properly.
I made this over the weekend for a Halloween celebration and everyone’s first response was, “How is this cake so fluffy?!” I’m adding this to our Thanksgiving menu and my personal recipe book of favorites! This is so, so good!
This cake is amazing, Sam works a miracle in imparting apple cider flavor into the base – I was surprised to take a bite and feel like I’m eating a warm mug of cider! I tried the caramel whipped cream but would prefer a sweeter frosting so will try the glaze or a salted caramel buttercream next time!
Delicious cake! Thanks for another great recipe. Very moist and flavorful.