When I did wedding cakes I had a bunch of recipes that I used, and I did variations on them all the time.
I decided to use my pound cake recipe as the basis for an apple pie spice cake since I wanted to try a fall flavor, and a lighter cake wouldn’t work with the apple pie filling that I wanted to include.
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The result was a dense, sweet cake that had a good flavor and could probably have been baked up as muffins with a crumble topping.
It worked well without any kind of frosting, and when it cooled off it was nice as a snack cake-type dessert. It’s pretty sweet, and it would pair well with a meringue buttercream that had a nut-flavored liquer in it.
You could also torte the layer and put a thin layer of apricot preserves in between them to add a little tartness to it.
But it’s good all on its own, so I’d go with that!
Apple Pie Spice Pound Cake Recipe
This recipe makes ONE 8″ round layer, so if you want to make a two-layer cake, you need to double it.
You could also use an 8″ square pan and bake it for a little shorter time if you want to be able to cut the layer into squares to serve as snack cakes.
Apple Pie Spice Pound Cake
Equipment
- 1 8" round cake pan
- 1 stand mixer or bowl and hand mixer
- silicone cake pan liner or parchment paper
- rubber spatula
- measuring cups and spoons
- parchment paper or silicone pan liner
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 9 Tbsp melted butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tsp brandy or apple cider (optional)
- 1 1/3 cup AP flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 2 medium or large eggs
- 1/2 cup apple pie filling homemade or canned, use the recipe listed under this one for homemade.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F
- Line the cake pan with parchment or a silicone pan liner. Prepare a cake pan collar from the parchment paper to use later.
- Beat the sugar, butter, brandy, and milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until completely mixed.
- Add the flour, salt, baking powder, and spices and beat for a couple of minutes. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure that all ingredients are incorporated.
- Add the eggs and beat for another minute.
- Add the apple pie filling and beat for another minute.
- Collar the pan, then pour the batter in.
- Bake for 50-55 minutes. The cake will be done when it's golden on top and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool the cake off completely, then take the layer out of the cake pan by inverting it onto a plate, removing the pan liner, then flipping it right-side up onto another plate.
- Serve plain, or with a sprinkle of powdered sugar, or torte the layer and fill with preserves or a nut-flavored meringue buttercream.
Tips for making the cake.
This is a dense cake that’s based on a pound cake recipe, and it works well as a snack cake without icing.
It has a lot of liquid in it, so make sure to beat it for a longer time than you might think you need to in order to develop the gluten in the flour.
I used the apple pie filling that I made using this recipe: Apple pie filling. You can substitute canned pie filling if you want to, but it will throw the spice flavor off a little.
Make sure to stop the mixer and scrape the bowl occasionally to make sure that all of the ingredients are incorporated.
Drain the applies before adding them to the batter to avoid adding too much liquid (if there is any extra.)
You can substitute apple cider for the brandy if you want to avoid using alcohol.
Collar the pan to prevent spillover. For an article about how to make a cake collar, click here: How to collar a cake.
The cake will be done when a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
This cake takes a long time to bake because it’s so dense, so leave it for at least 50 minutes, but it will probably be 55 minutes to an hour.
Cool the cake off completely before taking it out of the pan. If you line the pan bottom and collar the cake, it will come out of the pan easily.
Turn the cake out, then re-invert it so that the flat bottom of the cake is on the flat cake board or plate to prevent the cake from cracking from sitting on the domed top (if it’s domed.)
Cut into wedges or squares to serve.
For an article about nut cake flavor combinations, click here.
