High Altitude White Chocolate Maple Spice Cake
Layers of fluffy spice cake, frosted with salted white chocolate maple buttercream, and decorated with handmade white chocolate leaves.
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
- 6-inch Round Cake Pans (x3) or 8-inch Round Cake Pans (x2)
Ingredients
White Chocolate Maple Leaves
- 10-12 medium-sized fresh maple leaves
- 4 ½ oz white chocolate
Spice Cake
- 2 ¼ cups cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup whole milk + 2 tsp apple cider vinegar)
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
White Chocolate Maple Buttercream
- 3 oz white chocolate
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp meringue powder, optional
- 1/4-1/2 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ tsp maple extract
Instructions
White Chocolate Maple Leaves
- Choose your leaves, making sure they're healthy and flexible, not dry, torn or brittle. Small to medium-sized leaves work best for this cake design. Wash and dry the leaves well, and make sure no moisture is lingering on the leaves.
- Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, then remove from the heat.
- Arrange the leaves on a parchment lined baking sheet, with the bottom, veiny side of the leaves facing up.
- Use a craft brush to brush the melted chocolate onto the leaves. You want to make sure to layer the chocolate on thickly enough. If it's too thin and translucent, the leaves will be too delicate and can easily break. Make the white chocolate thick enough that you cannot see the leaf through the chocolate.
- Once all the leaves are covered with chocolate, place the pan in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes, to allow the chocolate to firm up.
- Gently, peel the leaves off the chocolate. Store the chocolate leaves in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to decorate your cake.
- If you like, you can use edible luster dust or shimmer powder in shades of yellow, gold, red or bronze to "paint" your leaves.
Spice Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of three 6-inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray.Baker's Note: If you don't have 6-inch pans, you can use two 8-inch pans instead.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices.
- Separately, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk just until combined.
- Divide the batter between the prepared pans, and bake for about 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean, and the top of the cake springs back when gently touched.
- Set the pans on a cooling rack and cool the cake completely before frosting.
White Chocolate Maple Buttercream
- Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, then remove from the heat. Set aside to cool for about 10-15 minutes. The chocolate should still be melted and smooth, but no longer warm.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt, mixing until combined. Add the vanilla and maple extracts.
- Increase the speed to medium and whip for about 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl down several times, until light and fluffy. Add the melted white chocolate and beat for 1 more minute on medium speed, then turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for 1 minute.
- Stack, fill and frost the cooled cakes with the buttercream, then decorate with the white chocolate leaves.
Notes
Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
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