Apple Cake Presented Three Ways

It’s Fall and it’s Apple Cake Season!!  This time of year is filled with some of the best comfort-food flavor combinations.  I can’t get enough of the deliciousness that is apples, vanilla, pecans, walnuts, all-things-pumpkin, cream cheese, caramel, cinnamon, ….

This wonderful Apple Cake was also a perfect opportunity to explore some of the hot, hot, hot decorating designs for layer cake.  Me?  I’m more of a traditionalist – two or three layers of cake, filling, and a complete covering of buttercream.  Buttercream suggestions for Apple Cake: Vanilla, Cream Cheese, Cinnamon, Maple…  maybe Nutella or Peanut Butter?

With that in mind, here’s the evolution of this particular Apple Cake and the stages of buttercreamy goodness.

Raffia and ribbon I had in a craft/gift wrap cabinet…and a few shish kabob skewers.

 

I love this ‘tree stump’ cake stand and wanted to see how the cake looked on something less rustic.

 

Moving on to the next step in cake design…  By adding a crumb coat of buttercream, the cake is prepared for a final decoration.  And, sometimes a crumb coat is perfect!  Remember, the crumb coat is an initial, light smear of buttercream to keep crumbs in place.

Sometimes I’m not attached to one idea for staging/styling and try more than a few looks.

 

For a more completed design, I made some caramel sauce and toasted a few walnuts.  I love the drizzely drippiness of caramel on a cake, especially when combined with a chopped nut border at the base.