Salted Toffee Apple Cake; deliciously deep brown sugar apple cake smothered in addictive salted toffee sauce!
I’m about to admit something horrifying to you. Are you ready?
I hated anything caramel or toffee based until about 2 years ago.
Yeah, I know, I was a certifiable freak of nature. I couldn’t stand it in cakes, in chocolate bars, on ice cream or anything. I even loathed good old Scottish tablet! What was wrong with me??
In my evolution into a full-blown food geek I finally discovered my love for that perfect burnt sugar flavour. Now I want it on everything, just to make up for all that I’ve missed. Sticky toffee puddings bathed in dark toffee sauce, firm tongue-tingly sweet chunks of tablet, and of course the new kid on the block, thick and sumptuous salted caramel.
So this cake pays homage to my new love. All the addictive beauty of salted caramel meets hard Autumn toffee apples and warm spiced apple pie in this incredibly delicious Salted Toffee Apple Cake.
Don’t be fooled by its humble appearance, free from piles of icing or stiff cream, this cake’s slick, sweet, salty and nearly naked look is to be celebrated. Seasonal fruit, old-fashioned brown sugar sponge cake, and everyone’s modern classic salty-sweet flavour make this cake an absolute dream to bake and devour. I brought it into work, as I do with most of my new recipes, to test it out. Judging by the reaction, this one’s a winner!
You don’t have to make this Salted Toffee Apple Cake in a big fancy Bundt tin like I did, I just wanted an excuse to use my sexy new one! Feel free to bake it as two sandwich-cake style sponges or just the same size but in a regular round or square cake tin. Also, don’t fear the toffee sauce, it might take you a couple of tries to get it right but the result is SOOOO worth it. Just be careful not to burn yourself!
You can either pour the salted caramel sauce over the cake while warm, which lets it soak right into the cake like a glaze, or you can wait for it to get cold and thicken up and pour it over like a sauce. (What you see in the images is what it will be like if you pour it over when warm!)
You probably will not need all the sauce, so feel free to reserve some for serving later, or for dipping and spreading on other snacks.
I really hope you’ll bake and scoff this Salted Toffee Apple Cake, it’s delicious and has such simple ingredients. It’s a perfect bake for this time of year when the apples are in season and you need a little something sweet to warm your heart in this cold weather!
Scroll down for the full recipe to make this salted toffee apple cake.
Have a good week, everyone!
Salted Toffee Apple Cake
Salted toffee apple cake, deliciously deep brown sugar apple cake smothered in addictive salted toffee sauce!
Notes
BE A MAVERICK: Feel free to use chopped pears, peaches or even bananas in this cake instead of the apples! Feel free to add chopped nuts or dried fruit to the cake too!
This Salted Toffee Apple Cake will keep well in an airtight container or on a covered cake stand for up to 4 days. No need to refrigerate!
Ingredients
For the apple cake:
- 250g (16 ½ tbsp) softened butter or margarine
- 250g (1 ½ cups, not packed down) light or dark soft brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 2 eating apples, peeled and cut into slices or chunks (such as Jazz, Pink Lady or Gala)
- 250g (2 cups) self raising flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- Pinch of salt
For the salted toffee sauce:
- 200g (1 cup) white caster or granulated sugar
- 125ml (½ cup) water
- 100g (6 ½ tbsp) butter, cubed
- 100ml (½ cup) double cream
- ½ tsp flaked sea salt
Instructions
For the apple cake:
- Preheat your oven - 180 C / 160 C fan / 350 F / gas mark 4 - and thoroughly grease a regular bundt tin or a 23-25cm (8-9 inch) round or square cake tin.
- Place your butter, sugar and vanilla into a large bowl and beat with a mixer or by hand until light and fluffy.
- Add your eggs one at a time, beating between each addition until fully combined. Don't worry if it looks a little curdled, once you add the flour it will come right!
- Weigh your flour, spices and salt out into a separate bowl.
- Stir in the peeled, chopped apple chunks/slices just to coat them with flour. This prevents them from sinking when baked.
- Add this mixture to the butter-sugar-egg mixture and mix gently until everything is smooth and combined.
- Scoop all the batter into the prepared cake tin and smooth out the top as best you can.
- Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes, until firm and a skewer inserted into the centre can be pulled out cleanly. Don't worry if it takes a little longer, everyone's oven is different with big cakes!
- Allow the cake to cool for at least 15 minutes before removing it from the tin to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Meanwhile, make the salted toffee sauce.
For the salted toffee sauce:
- Pour your sugar and water into a small saucepan, stir together a little.
- Measure out the rest of the sauce ingredients and have them nearby.
- Place over a low-medium heat.
- Cook gently for 5-10 minutes, without stirring, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture has turned amber. Be careful not to let it burn or turn too dark, and don't touch it as you may burn yourself!
- Remove the pan from the heat and tip in the butter, cream and salt, stirring quickly to melt them.
- Pour the hot toffee sauce into a heatproof jug and allow to cool a little.
- You can either pour the sauce over the cake while warm, which lets it soak right into the cake like a glaze, or you can wait for it to get cold and thicken up and pour it over like a sauce. (What you see in the images is what it will be like if you pour it over when warm!)
- You probably will not need all the sauce, so feel free to reserve some for serving later, or for dipping and spreading on other snacks!
- Enjoy!
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Hi Kelly! Planning on making this for my birthday! So I was wondering the size of the eggs or should I weight them? Thanks!
Hi Paty, apologies for the late reply. I always bake and create recipes around large eggs unless specified otherwise. Hope that helps!
Hi Kelly,
Planning on making this tomorrow and was getting shopping list together. Have two questions.
1) How many eggs? 4 or 5? You notes say to add all five at once, yet printed list of ingredients show 4.
2) What is mixed spice?
Please advise at your earliest.
Thank you, Patty Lake in California
Hello Patty, thanks for you comment!
1) Sorry, my mistake there, the recipe needs 4 eggs.
2) Mixed spice can usually be found in the spice section in UK supermarkets, it’s usually a blend of cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger/cloves. You could probably use a pumpkin pie spice blend or something similar if possible? If not, leaving it out will not affect the flavour too much.
Hope that helps!