Apple-Spice Layer Cake

For me, Fall has officially begon with this Apple-Spice Layer Cake. I found some gorgeous red apples in my backyard yesterday and today I decided to make use of them. I was thinking of maybe baking an apple crumb pie, but I just have been craving a cake lately so I settled on an Apple Cake from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I'm so excited to tell you that this cake is - hands down - one of the best cakes I have ever baked! Sooo incredibly yummy, and I know I say that a lot but, this one is sooo good, there is only 1 slice left as I am typing this (just a mere 4 hours after baking). Rating: can I give a 6 out of 5?!

Apple-Spice Layer Cake recipe: Martha Stewart - Baking Handbook

Ingredients:
- 1 ¾ cups sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup honey
- 4 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups applesauce
- 1 cup apple chunks (optional)

Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, ginger and nutmeg; set aside. In a small bowl, combine milk and vanilla; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar and honey on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition, until smooth.
- With mixer on low speed, add flour in three parts, alternating with the milk mixture and beginning and ending with flour; beat just combined after each, being careful not to overmix. Add applesauce; mix to combine, about 1 minute. Fold in apple chunks.
- Divide batter among two 9-inch pans. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until cakes pull away from the sides of the pans and a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool 20 minutes. Reinvert cakes and let them cool completely, top sides up.

Cream Cheese Frosting recipe: my own

Ingredients:
- 2 packages cream cheese, room temperature
- ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla, preferably clear vanilla
- 1 cup heavy cream

Instructions:
- Whip the heavy cream until firm peaks form; refrigerate.
- Beat the cream cheese on low speed until fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla and mix to combine. Fold in the heavy cream with a rubber spatula. Refrigerate at least 20 minutes before using.


Chopped apple-pieces from my own home-grown apples.

The batter was so incredibly lickable, I knew then that this cake was going to be amazing.

You're supposed to eat the cake upside-down, so that's what I did.

I crushed some speculaas cookies (Dutch equivalent to gingerbread cookies) and used the crumbs for garnish.







Love, love, love this cake!