A high altitude maple cake that’s so incredibly soft, tender and moist, frosted with old fashioned maple penuche frosting and sprinkled with crunchy walnuts. This maple sheet cake has a wonderful salty, sweet, buttery, maple flavor that’s hard to resist, and is perfect for a large party or celebration.
You might also love these recipes for maple cinnamon pumpkin scones, salted maple pumpkin layer cake, and maple gingerbread bars.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Salty, Sweet, Soft and Crunchy. I usually don’t have much of a sweet tooth for sugar desserts, and penuche frosting is quite sugary. But with the generous sprinkling of flaky salt on top, as well as the crunchy walnuts, this cake is incredibly delicious.
Super Soft Texture. The cake is so soft, light and fluffy, and is based on my popular snickerdoodle bundt cake, made with both butter and cream cheese in the cake batter.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Dairy and Refrigerator. Unsalted butter, cream cheese, whole milk, eggs.
- Pantry. Granulated sugar, light and dark brown sugar, powdered sugar, baking powder, cake flour, salt, vanilla and maple extracts.
- Other. Walnuts and flaky finishing salt (preferably Maldon).
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the inside of a 9×13 inch baking pan with non-stick baking spray, or prep the pan with butter and flour.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, cream cheese, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium speed (#4-6 on a Kitchen Aid mixer) for 7 minutes. Scrape the bowl down several times while mixing.
- Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating in each egg on medium speed for 1 full minute before adding the next egg. Add the vanilla and maple extracts.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk, starting and ending with the flour. Increase speed to medium and beat for 15 seconds.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 45-50 minutes, until golden brown on top and a cake tester inserted in the cake comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Set the pan on a cooling rack to cool for 30 minutes, before adding the frosting.
Frosting
- In a saucepan, combine melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar. Cook the butter and sugar, stirring frequently, for several minutes, until a digital candy thermometer inserted in the mixture reads between 236-240 F. Remove from the heat. Note that the butter and sugar will still look grainy/separated at this point.
- Whisk in the milk and the extracts, then whisk in the powdered sugar. Whisk the frosting vigorously by hand for several minutes, until thick and smooth, and slightly lightened in color.
- Immediately pour the frosting over the warm cake, spreading it out into an even layer.
- Sprinkle the frosting with the chopped walnuts and the flaky salt. Don’t be afraid to be generous with the salt – this cake is fantastic with the salty sweet frosting.
- Allow the cake to cool completely, at least 3-4 hours, so the frosting can firm and set up, before cutting into squares. If you do choose to cut the cake while it’s still warm, it will be delicious, but the frosting will still be drippy. Allowing it to cool completely lets the frosting firm up to more of a soft fudge consistency.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Store the leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3-5 days.
The cake recipe can be baked in three 8-inch baking pans (I haven’t tested the baking time) for a layer cake. However, it can be quite tricky frosting a layer cake with penuche frosting, since it’s so soft and runny, not fluffy and stable like buttercream. See this macadamia nut penuche cake for tips and a variation on today’s penuche frosting recipe.
Penuche frosting, pronounced “pen-oo-chee”, is a very sweet, cooked brown sugar frosting. It’s almost fudge like, with flavor notes of caramel, toffee or butterscotch. Penuche frosting isn’t fluffy like buttercream, and is a bit more challenging for frosting a layer cake, but is easy to pour over a sheet cake.
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High Altitude Maple Penuche Sheet 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 with Paddle Attachment
- 9×13 baking pan
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 oz full fat cream cheese (block style), softened to room temperature
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 4 large eggs
- 4 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp maple extract
- 3 cups cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 ⅓ cups whole milk
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Frosting
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- ⅓ cup whole milk
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp maple extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ½ cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
- ¾ – 1 tsp flaky finishing salt (such as Maldon)
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the inside of a 9×13 inch baking pan with non-stick baking spray, or prep the pan with butter and flour.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, cream cheese, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium speed (#4-6 on a Kitchen Aid mixer) for 7 minutes. Scrape the bowl down several times while mixing.
- Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating in each egg on medium speed for 1 full minute before adding the next egg. Add the vanilla and maple extracts.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk and vinegar, starting and ending with the flour. Increase speed to medium and beat for 15 seconds.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 45-50 minutes, until golden brown on top and a cake tester inserted in the cake comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Set the pan on a cooling rack to cool for 30 minutes, before adding the frosting.
Frosting
- In a saucepan, combine melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar. Cook the butter and sugar, stirring frequently, for several minutes, until a digital candy thermometer inserted in the mixture reads between 236-240 F. Remove from the heat. Note that the butter and sugar will still look grainy/separated at this point.
- Whisk in the milk and the extracts, then whisk in the powdered sugar. Whisk the frosting vigorously by hand for several minutes, until thick and smooth, and slightly lightened in color.
- Immediately pour the frosting over the warm cake, spreading it out into an even layer.
- Sprinkle the frosting with the chopped walnuts and the flaky salt. Don't be afraid to be generous with the salt – this cake is fantastic with the salty sweet frosting.
- Allow the cake to cool completely, at least 3-4 hours, so the frosting can firm and set up, before cutting into squares. If you do choose to cut the cake while it's still warm, it will be delicious, but the frosting will still be drippy. Allowing it to cool completely lets the frosting firm up to more of a soft fudge consistency.
Notes
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/
This sounds delicious! I wondered if I put in mini Bundt cake pans if it would still hold its shape if I used cake flour vs all purpose flour?
It should – I’ve baked this recipe before in a 12-cup bundt pan: https://curlygirlkitchen.com/high-altitude-maple-pound-cake/
This was amazing!!!
Yet another great recipe! With your help I’m enjoying many more successful bakes than ever before. Many thanks Heather! This maple cake was especially light and delicious! I ran out of brown sugar for the penuche frosting so added maple sugar to make up the difference. That worked too!
I’m happy you loved it!