Apple Pecan Layer Cake with Caramel Sauce

This cake is all about Fall.  I’m so happy with how it looks and it has taste and a moist texture to match.  What a fun little project.

I’ve been working on sample cakes in the test kitchen by baking triple-layer 6″ round cakes.  For months, these cakes have been a wee bit tall for the width.  Finally, this cake was the perfect height.  As a result, it cut and stood up easily.  A total win.

Cream Cheese Buttercream Swirl



Dark, Salted Caramel Drizzle

 

Dusted with Chopped, Toasted Pecans

I took several of these cupcakes to friends; each assured me this was a really yummy cupcake.  And that’s the win for me.  Our youngest daughter asked me to hold a couple back for her and her friends as an after-school snack.  Yep; that’s easy to do.


My original idea for the cake involved the toasted pecans dusted along the bottom third of the cake.  I envisioned a lovely stringy swirl of caramel sauce across the top of the cake a la Jackson Pollock.  But the caramel ran together – though surface tension kept it mostly on the surface.

It wasn’t until I drizzled the caramel right on the edge that gravity pulled caramel down the sides of the cake into a lovely, organic pattern.  I much prefer the drippy look to the plain, clean surface.

 I was grateful I timed the caramel correctly and it worked out.  I am grateful that I’m supported artistically so I can explore cakey goodness.

For the first time in a really, really long time I thought, “This one is almost too pretty to cut.”  In the end, it’s just cake.  And it has a shelf life.  So I cut it, gave a slice to our daughter, and handed the rest over to a friend who assures me it will be eaten.

It’s a happy ending…despite me still not being in rehab.  To each, its own season.