Caramel Apple Pie Cake

Do you favor cake or pie? What if I told you that you didn’t have to choose?! That’s right. Today, just for you, I have a Caramel Apple Pie Cake. I recently found out about Duncan Hines Spring Bake contest and I knew I had to enter. The contest gave me the opportunity to try some Duncan Hines Frosting Creations. There are all kinds of fun flavors of Frosting Creations, such as cinnamon roll, cotton candy and peach. I chose to use the caramel flavor for my recipe.

I love apple pie. It is the easiest pie for me to make, it’s good warm or cold, all year- round and it’s complimented by ice cream. I created a caramel apple pie cake using a Duncan Hines white cake mix as the base and layered it with caramel frosting and apple pie filling. There are a few steps involved, but follow along. It’s pretty simple.

Start with the cake. I used two 8” layers for my cake. Don’t worry if you don’t have 8” pans, you can use 9” and adjust the baking times. If you plan to travel very far with this cake, I suggest baking it in a 9” x 13” pan. I did learn that once I cut into this cake, it wasn’t as stable as I would have liked. I prepared my apple pie filling while my cake was baking, since it needs to cool completely before using it to fill the cake.

Caramel Apple Spice Cake

1 Box Duncan Hines White Cake Mix

3 Large eggs

1/2 C Vegetable oil

1 C Buttermilk

1 tsp Pure vanilla extract

2 tsp Apple pie spice

1 tsp Cinnamon

2 tbsp Caramel sauce

• Preheat oven to 350° F.
• Grease and flour your baking pans. Don’t skimp on the grease, it will be so much easier to get your cake out of the pan.
• Combine all ingredients  in a large mixing bowl and beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until well combined.
• Divide batter evenly between your two pans and place in the middle rack of your preheated oven.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes. Baking times will vary by pan size and oven.  I baked my cake for 33 minutes. Allow cake to cool for at least 20 minutes before attempting to remove from the pan. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Caramel Frosting

2 Jars Duncan Hines Frosting Creation frosting mix

2 packets Caramel Frosting Creations

Caramel Sauce for drizzle (optional)

• For my layer cake, I used two jars of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations and two Caramel Frosting Creation mixes. However, if you are doing a flat cake, you will only need 1 jar. Use a knife to create an opening in the center of the frosting.
• Empty the flavor packet into the container and mix well with a knife or spoon.

Apple Pie Filling

5 Medium-sized apples, peeled and sliced

Juice from  1 lemon

2 tbsp All purpose flour

1/2 C Packed light brown sugar

A Pinch of salt

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Apple pie spice

1 tbsp Maple syrup

1 tbsp Caramel sauce

Confectionary sugar for dusting

• Peel and slice your apples into small pieces; about the size of a dime. Place in a medium size saucepan. Squeeze the juice from a whole lemon over the apples.
• Add all of your dry ingredients: flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and apple pie spice.
• Mix all ingredients well and then add maple syrup and caramel.
• Using a saucepan on medium high heat, cook the apples for about 10 minutes until they begin to brown and bubble. Remove from heat and cool completely. Refrigerate if necessary. I poured out all excess juice from the apple pie filling.
• To assemble your cake, first remove the cake from the pans. Use a knife to level your cake evenly across the top, removing any excess dome off the cake.
• Empty one container of frosting onto the middle layer of the cake. I build up the edges of the cake with more frosting  than the center, so that it will allow the top layer to nicely bond together around the edges.
• Using a spoon, place half of your apple pie filing in the center of your cake. Try to spread it out so that it creates an even layer of apples, as flat as possible. You can gently press it into the frosting.

• Next, put on your second layer of cake. I used a knife to poke a few holes in the top of my cake so that any extra juices could absorb into the cake. Yum!
• Empty the contents of the second jar of frosting on top of your cake. Top with the remaining apple pie filling. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and drizzle with additional caramel if desired. I set my cake in the fridge for an hour to allow the frosting to set and stiffen a little bit.

This cake is ultimate caramel apple treat for you to enjoy this summer! My friend literally devoured this cake. I hope you enjoy it too.

Disclaimer: I entered this cake into the Duncan Hines Spring Break contest. I was not sponsored for this post and I did not receive any product or reimbursement for this. The opinions in this post are completely my own based on my experience.