Apple Pecan Layer Cake with Caramel Sauce

Triple-Layer Apple Pecan Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream, Dark Salted Caramel Sauce, and Chopped Toasted Pecans

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.

 

Since there was batter remaining after filling the three 6" pans, I baked 12 cupcakes.  I treated them first before tackling the cake following the requisite crumb coat [which doesn't involve crumbs on any level].

 

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.