This Salted Caramel Apple Crumble Cake has a light brown sugar sponge crammed full of apples, topped with a salted caramel buttercream, salted caramel drizzle, and a delicious homemade crumble.
Okay so I don’t know about you, but Apple Crumble is e of my favourite winter desserts. It feels like it has been winter forrrever! So, to cheer myself up I decided to make one of my favourite deserts into a cake.
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Cake Tins
Whenever I am making a cake, I pretty much always use an 8” round tin. It is the perfect size for sharing and you get around 12-16 slices of cake from it depending on how you cut the cake.
The loose-bottomed cake tins I use I got from a supermarket, and they were relatively inexpensive, but they are the perfect depth to get a lovely and thick cake.
I prefer loose-bottomed cake tins as it just makes getting the cake out once it is baked a lot easier, but there are so many different types of cake tins now, and any will be perfect for making this so long as they are 8”.
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If you are using a larger cake tin, maybe a 9” or 10” cake tin. The cakes will be thinner than mine and they will take less time to bake.
If you are using a smaller cake tin, like a 6” cake tin then the cake will be a lot thicker and take longer to bake. You might also find that you have too much mixture for a 6” cake tin. Remember and only fill them ¾ full to give them room to rise.
Crumble
Crumble is such a quick and easy thing to make, and it only uses three ingredients. All you need is plain flour, unsalted butter, and Demerara sugar.
Rub the sugar flour and butter together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Now you have your crumble mixture. Sprinkle it onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake until it is golden brown in colour.
Apples
For this cake, I decided just to use apples within the cake rather than putting them on the top of the cake as decoration.
To get the best results you must use cooking apples. The best ones are Granny Smith or Braeburn.
Cookie Apples are a lot larger than normal-eating apples they are also having a sharper taste, they are perfect for this cake, a lovely sharp hit of apple when you bite into the cake. They also don’t break down once cooked, so you still get a lovely chunk of apple.
I peeled and cut the apples into bitesize chunks. The size of the chunks is completely up to you. I don’t cut them to a certain size as I love getting different-sized chunks of apple when I am eating the cake.
I coated the apples in brown sugar and cinnamon, so when they bake in the cake, they get a delicious caramelly flavour to them.
Apple Crumble Cake
I decided to make this cake using brown sugar rather than caster sugar. The brown sugar is perfect and gives the cake a lovely caramelly taste, which is exactly what I was after.
When I am making a cake, I always cream together the butter and sugar together until it is pale in colour and creamy, before adding the remaining ingredients.
When you are making this cake, you can use either unsalted butter or a baking spread like Stork, both work perfectly. Creaming together the butter and sugar together first helps incorporate air into the cake and gives you a lovely and light sponge.
One of the great things about cake batter is it doesn’t take too long to come together, a few minutes max.
You don’t want to overbeat the mixture as this will give you a dense cake once it has baked. You only want to mix it until all the ingredients have come together and are smooth.
Baking
Split the mixture equally between the two cake tins and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes.
There are a few different ways to tell the cakes are baked, they should be golden brown in colour and if you gently press down on the top of the cake, when you remove your finger, it should spring back to its original shape.
If you end up with a finger-shaped dent in the top of your cake, don’t worry, we can hide it with buttercream. Just pop the cakes back into the oven for 4-5 minutes and repeat until the cake springs back.
Another way to test your cakes is by using a cake tester or skewer. Insert it into the thickest part of the cake. If there is cake batter on the tester or skewer, then the cake isn’t ready. Pop it back into the oven for 4-5 minutes and repeat until the skewer comes out clean.
Salted Caramel Sauce
To make the salted caramel sauce I used my homemade caramel sauce recipe and added some sea salt to it.
The salted caramel sauce does make too much just for this cake but just pop any leftovers into an airtight container and it will last around two weeks in the fridge. It is perfect for adding to other bakes or even ice cream.
If you struggle to get the caramel the correct colour check out the video at the bottom of my blog post to show you how your caramel should look.
It can be quite difficult to get it right the first time, but it should still taste delicious.
The caramel needs to be set in the fridge and can be softened in the microwave. It needs to be completely cool before you add it to the buttercream.
Salted Caramel Buttercream
Once the cake is completely cooled, we can make the buttercream. To make the buttercream you MUST use unsalted butter. The kind that normally comes in 250g blocks and is wrapped in foil.
If you use anything else, the buttercream will be too soft and will just become a sloppy, soupy mess.
Beat together the butter and icing sugar until it is thick and creamy, before adding the salted caramel sauce.
If you find the buttercream is too thick add 1 tbsp of whole milk or boiling water and beat again. Repeat until the buttercream is the perfect consistency.
Putting it All Together
Place your first cake onto your serving plate and pipe on your buttercream. I use these piping bags and a 1M Piping Tip.
If the caramel is too thick to drizzle over pop it into the microwave for 10-20 seconds to soften it before drizzling it over the top.
Add the second cake on top and again pipe the buttercream on top. I went for some simple swirls. Drizzle over the salted caramel and add the homemade crumble on top.
Alternatives
Replace the apples to make this cake with any other kind of fruit.
Leave out the sea salt chunks if you just want to make a normal caramel.
If you prefer to make a vanilla buttercream, beat together the butter and icing sugar and add in 1 tsp of Vanilla Extract.
Equipment
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Salted Caramel Apple Crumble Cake
Ingredients
To Make the Crumble
- 150 g Plain Flour
- 75 g Unsalted Butter
- 75 g Demerara Sugar
For the Salted Caramel
- 250 ml Double Cream
- 50 g Unsalted Butter
- 350 g White Granulated Sugar
- 100 ml Cold Water
- 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
For the Brown Sugar Loaf
- 200 g Apples (peeled and chopped weight)
- 1 tbsp Ground Cinnamon
- 40 g Light Brown Sugar
- 325 g Unsalted Butter or Stork
- 325 g Light Brown Sugar
- 325 g Self-Raising Flour
- 6 Large Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract 1
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
For the Buttercream
- 200 g Unsalted Butter
- 400 g Icing Sugar
- 50 g Salted Caramel Sauce (optional)
- 3-4 tbsp Whole Milk or Boiling Water (optional)
Instructions
To Make the Crumble
- Preheat the oven to 180C (160C Fan) and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Leave to one side.
- In a large bowl rub together the flour, butter and sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Sprinkle the mixture onto the baking tray and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown in colour.
- Remove from the oven and leave to one side to cool.
To Make the Salted Caramel Sauce
- Measure out the cream in a jug and leave to one side.
- Measure out the butter and cut it into small cubes and leave to one side.
- In a saucepan add the sugar and water and pop onto a low/medium heat.
- Once the sugar has dissolved stop stirring and leave the mixture to come to the boil.
- Once the mixture is boiling, leave it until it turns a lovely amber colour, and then remove it from the heat. This can take up to 10 minutes.
- Whisk the caramel and add in the double cream. This will bubble and spit so please be careful. Keep whisking as quickly as you can until the bubbling has stopped.
- Add in the butter and whisk again until it is completely melted.
- Sprinkle in the sea salt and mix through.
- Careful pour the mixture into a clean jar, pop the lid on and place it into the fridge until it is completely cool.
To Make the Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180C (160C Fan). Line two 8” cake tins with greaseproof paper and leave it to one side.
- Peel and core the apples and place them into a large bowl. Add in the 40g of light brown sugar and cinnamon and mix until the apples are completely coated. Leave to one side.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
- Add in the flour, eggs, vanilla extract, and baking powder. Whisk until all the ingredients are combined.
- Fold through the apples.
- Pour the mixture into the individual cake tins and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. You will know they are ready when they are springy to touch.
- Leave them to cool in the cake tin for 15-20 minutes and then remove and put them on a wire rack to cool fully.
To Make the Buttercream
- Beat the butter in your bowl for 5-10 minutes until pale in colour.
- Add in the icing sugar and caramel sauce (optional) and mix until completely combined.
- If the buttercream is too thick, add a tablespoon of milk and mix again. Repeat until the buttercream is the desired consistency.
- Pop the buttercream into a piping bag with your piping tip and leave to one side.
Putting it All Together
- Place your first cake onto your serving plate and pipe on the buttercream.
- Drizzle over the salted caramel sauce. If the sauce is too thick to drizzle put it into the microwave for 10-20 seconds to soften.
- Place your second cake on top and pipe the buttercream on.
- Drizzle over the Salted Caramel Sauce.
- Sprinkle over some crumble and enjoy!
Notes
- Homemade Caramel Sauce recipe.
- This cake will last 3+ days in an airtight container.
