Caramel Apple Dapple Cake

This apple cake recipe was posted last December, but I made some changes to improve it a bit. My church family loved the rich caramel taste. I knew it was a great hit when my dear husband who has a palate of a professional food critic, went for a second piece!

Canola oil is mixed well into melted butter and sugar mixture.

Granny Smith and Gala apples were used for varied texture and toasted pecans for added crunch.

Instead of butter and brown sugar topping in the previous recipe, I made rich, dark caramel sauce.

I have been itching to use vanilla bean paste in a recipe and this was a great time. I could see beautiful, tiny specks of beans, but as for flavor, I did not detect much difference from vanilla extract, may be less. Since the price of this 4-0z bottle is quite more than the extract, this is best used when seeing the beans is important, like vanilla ice cream, custard, or sauces.

Pour the caramel on top of cake as soon as it comes out of the oven, which yields pretty, shiny top. Drizzle extra sauce on top before serving.


Caramel Apple Cake

For Caramel Sauce
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups heavy cream, heated low in a sauce pan
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

Heat 2 cup sugar in a dry 5-quart cast iron dutch oven over medium heat, stirring with a fork to heat sugar evenly, until it starts to melt, then stop stirring and cook, swirling skillet occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until it is dark amber. Be careful, sugar can easily burn!

Add 2 1/2 cups of heated heavy cream slowly! Mixture will bubble violently, but hold tight! Stir until well blended. Take the pot off the heat carefully and stir in sea salt and vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. Cool to room temperature.

For cake:
3 Eggs
1 C of Canola Oil
1/2 C. of melted butter
3 C. Sugar (1 lb 5 oz)
3 C. dice apples (Granny Smith & Gala), peeled & Cored
3 C. All-purpose flour (15 0z)
1 1/2 C. toasted, chopped pecans
1 t. Salt
1 t. Baking Soda
2 t. Vanilla Extract

Using an electric hand mixer on a medium speed, mix sugar and melted butter well. Add eggs and vanilla extract to blend. Slowly add 1 cup of oil until well mixed. Gently fold all the dry ingredients. Add diced apples and nuts. Put into greased 9 inch tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Pour prepared caramel sauce on the cake while it is still hot in pan. Cool the cake to room temperature. Serve.

Note: You may notice that all my cakes are sheet cakes for the ease of cutting and serving a large crowd. If you make sheet cakes out of this recipe, decrease the time by 15 to 20 minutes.