We’ve been keeping our fridge stocked with plenty of apple cider this fall. My favorite way to drink it is piping hot, after simmering with mulling spices. I love baking with apple cider, too, and I’m so excited to share this delicious new cake recipe today for a high altitude apple cider layer cake that I frosted with fluffy maple vanilla bean buttercream.
The apple cider with the maple and vanilla bean is such a good combination, and the simple garnish of dried apple slices looks just beautiful for the holidays. Whether you serve this cake for Thanksgiving, Christmas, a holiday party, or other special occasion, this apple cake is sure to impress and delight.
Looking for more high altitude recipes for fall? Don’t miss these apple spice crumb muffins, appledoodles, and apple cider pancakes.
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Ingredients
Cake
- Apple Cider. Apple cider, not apple juice, is important for the best flavor in this apple cider layer cake. You’ll be reducing 3 cups of cider down to just 3/4 of a cup before adding it to the cake batter. Reduced apple cider shouldn’t be confused with boiled cider, which is an even more concentrated apple syrup.
- Flour. Either all-purpose flour or cake flour work great in this recipe. Cake flour will yield a slightly lighter, more tender cake crumb.
- Baking Soda. Reacts with the acid in the other ingredients, leavening the cake and making it rise.
- Salt + Spices. I use coarse Kosher salt in all of my cooking and baking, and in a cake, it helps balance the sweetness. For the spices, I used a combination of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
- Dark Brown Sugar. Sweetens the cake and adds moisture, as well as a subtle hint of molasses.
- Applesauce + Oil + Whole Milk. Moisture and flavor. Use unsweetened applesauce, so that you don’t add excessive sugar to the recipe.
- Eggs. The eggs add structure and richness.
- Vanilla Extract. Flavor. Use a good-quality vanilla extract for the best flavor.
TIP: For all of my tips on making the best buttercream you’ve ever tasted, please read my full post on how to make Perfect American Buttercream Frosting.
Buttercream
- Butter. Use unsalted butter, so you can control the saltiness of your buttercream.
- Powdered Sugar. Powdered sugar is what thickens and sweetens buttercream. My recipe uses about half the amount of powdered sugar that most American buttercream recipes call for, so the sweetness is simply perfect, and never tooth-achingly sweet.
- Meringue Powder. The meringue powder is optional, but a spoonful of it really helps the texture and stability of buttercream. A container of meringue powder will last you a long time, too, and it’s great to have on hand for making royal icing for cookie decorating.
- Salt. A little salt is fantastic in buttercream. It balances the sweetness, and adds a great salty-sweet flavor that’s just delicious with the maple.
- Vanilla Bean Paste. I love vanilla bean paste in this frosting recipe. The flecks of vanilla seeds are so beautiful, and taste amazing. You can use vanilla extract as well, though. And of course, a fresh vanilla bean is delicious in buttercream. I’ve been buying Tahitian vanilla beans on Amazon lately, where they are incredibly affordable.
- Maple Extract. While you could add a little maple syrup to the buttercream instead of the milk, the flavor won’t be as pronounced as it will be with using a good quality maple extract.
- Milk. A little milk or cream thins and moisturizes the buttercream just enough to get it to your desired frosting consistency.
Dried Apple Slices.
- Apple. You can use any variety of apples you like; I used Honeycrisp.
- Water + Lemon Juice. Dipping the apple slices in a little water and lemon juice before drying helps prevent excessive browning, but this is optional.
Instructions
Reduce the Apple Cider.
Before you do anything, you need to reduce your apple cider. Why does it need to be reduced? Because the flavor of the apple cider can be subtle, and tends to get lost in recipes. So by boiling it down from 3 cups to 3/4 of a cup, we’re boiling off excessive water and concentrating the flavor. The concentrated apple cider will give a lovely apple flavor to this apple cider layer cake.
Make the Cake Batter.
This is an easy recipe for cake batter. Simply sift the dry ingredients first. Then, whisk in the reduced apple cider and the rest of the liquid ingredients. Divide between your cake pans and bake.
Frost and Decorate Your Cake.
Once your cakes are cooled, you can whip up the maple vanilla bean buttercream and frost your cake. Then, before the buttercream has a chance to crust over, press your dried apple slices right against the cake. They make the most gorgeous cake decoration. The scent of this cake is simply intoxicating.
How to Make Dried Apple Slices
- Combine the water and lemon juice in a bowl.
- Thinly slice the apple (unpeeled), about 1/8 inch thick. Leave the core intact, but remove the seeds. Soak the apple slices in the water and lemon juice for 10 minutes, then drain and pat dry.
- Lay the apple slices in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Dry the apples in a 150-degree Fahrenheit oven, for about 1 1/2 hours, turning every 30 minutes. Also, note that the apples won’t be crisp at this point, but dry enough to use as a cake garnish. For crisp dried apples, continue to dry in the oven, turning occasionally, until completely dry and crunchy.
- Before the buttercream crusts over, decorate your cake with the dried apple slices.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
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High Altitude Apple Cider Layer Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
Ingredients
Apple Cider Cake
- 3 cups apple cider, reduced to 3/4 cup
- 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 ½ cups dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ⅔ cup whole milk
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Maple Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder (optional)
- ⅛ – ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 2 tsp maple extract
- 2-4 tbsp milk or cream, if needed for desired consistency
Dried Apples Garnish
- ½ cup water
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 large apple
Instructions
Cake
- Pour the 3 cups of apple cider into a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then continue to boil until it's reduced down to 3/4 cup. Let cool to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and spray three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.
- Add the reduced apple cider, brown sugar, applesauce, oil, milk, eggs and vanilla, and whisk until combined, about 10-15 seconds.
- Divide the batter between the greased pans. Bake on the center oven rack for about 25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Set the pans on a cooling rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute.
- Gradually add the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt, mixing on low to combine.
- Add the vanilla bean paste and and maple extract. Increase speed to medium and whip for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally, until very light and fluffy. Add the milk as needed for desired consistency.
- Remove the cooled cakes from the pans. Stack, fill and frost with the buttercream.
Dried Apples
- Combine the water and lemon juice in a bowl.
- Thinly slice the apple (unpeeled), about 1/8 inch thick. Leave the core intact, but remove the seeds. Soak the apple slices in the water and lemon juice for 10 minutes, then drain and pat dry.
- Lay the apple slices in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Dry the apples in a 150-degree Fahrenheit oven, for about 1 1/2 hours, turning every 30 minutes. Note that the apples won't be crisp at this point, but dry enough to use as a cake garnish. For crisp dried apples, continue to dry in the oven, turning occasionally, until completely dry and crunchy.
- Before the buttercream crusts over, decorate your cake with the dried apple slices.
Interesting the way you did the apple crisp, 😊
Making this cake for a friends birthday dinner. Delicious! The cake stand is gorgeous. Where did you find it?
The cake stand was a present from my husband – he found it on eBay! 🙂
Can this recipe be used for cupcakes as well? I’m afraid I won’t have enough cake and I’d like to also do cupcakes. Thanks!
I haven’t tried this recipe as cupcakes. Please let me know if it works out!
I just made these as cupcakes and they turned out fantastic. I filled about 2/3 full and it made 28 cupcakes.
What a beautiful cake! I am wondering if there is any part of this that I can make ahead? I have a busy toddler and my husband is working full time. Another of your recipes states you can bake the cake and individuality freeze the layers. Can I do that with this one? How long would you say the dried apple slices stay crisp, and how should I store them if I can make those ahead? Thank you so much! I’m really looking forward to this cake! 😄
Mandy, yes, you can bake and cool the cake layers, wrap them individually in plastic wrap, and freeze until needed. You can also make the buttercream ahead of time and freeze that in a freezer storage bag until needed. For the apple slices, the ones I decorated the cake with weren’t crunchy. They’re somewhat dried, but still sort of chewy. If you dried them to the point they were hard and crunchy, I think they’d be much darker and wouldn’t look as pretty. I think you can probably make the apple slices a couple days in advance, keeping them refrigerated until ready to decorate your cake.