Salted Caramel Apple Cake with Toasted Walnuts

This Salted Caramel Apple Cake is the perfect fall treat with a vanilla cake that has apple slices baked right in. It is topped with caramel sauce and toasted walnuts with a finishing touch of fleur de sel.

I make this Salted Caramel Apple Cake recipe every single fall as soon as the new apples are on the market. It makes a great special dessert for guests, or a fall birthday cake for that special someone.

Jump to:

• Fall Baking
• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🍽 Equipment
• 👪 Serving Size
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Top Tips
• 📖 Variations
• 🍎 Apple Recipes To Try
• 📖 Recipe

Fall Baking

Apple season is full upon us and if you are like me, you may be drowning in apples and looking for recipes to use them. This Salted Caramel Apple Cake is a must make recipe for the fall. It also happens to be my birthday in September and I've been known to make this cake recipe my birthday cake.

The vanilla cake batter bakes all around the apple slices, leaving some holes over top of the baked cake. Those holes are the perfect spot for the drizzle of caramel to pool into. If you make any cake with apples in the fall, be sure to make this caramel apple one!

🥘 Ingredients

Topping ingredients:

Toasted walnuts, see tip on how to quickly and effortlessly toast walnuts in the air fryer.

Grey sea salt, I love the packaging for these sea salts, and they last a long time as well.

Caramels, this is the brand of caramels I like to use. They also have these caramel bits that are easy to substitute (they don't need to be unwrapped).

Heavy cream, this is the ingredient that will smooth out and thin down the caramels.

Cake Ingredients:

Granulated sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and large eggs make the wet portion of the cake batter.

All purpose flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt are whisked together and added to the butter mixture alternately with the sour cream.

Sour cream is added alternately with the flour mixture to the wet batter.

🍽 Equipment

Electric Hand Mixer, this is the one I own.

Large mixing bowls, one for the dry mixture and one for the wet mixture.

Springform cake pan for easy release. I use one similar to this one.

👪 Serving Size

This decadent Salted Caramel Apple Cake will serve up to 12 people.

🔪 Instructions

For the cake

• Preheat the oven to 350.
• Lightly grease a 9" round cake pan at least 2" deep; or a 9" springform pan.
• In a large mixing bowl using a hand mixer, beat together the sugar, butter, and vanilla on medium high speed until smooth and creamy.
• Add the eggs 1 at a time. Beat till thoroughly combined.
• In another large mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk to combine.
• Stir the flour mixture to the egg mixture alternately with the sour cream, using low speed on the mixer. The batter will be stiff.
• Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula to even out as much as possible.

For the apple filling

• Plass the apple wedges in a mixing bowl and add the sugar Toss the apple wedges with the sugar and vanilla until apples are thoroughly coated.
• Arrange the apples on top of the cake batter, pushing them into the batter gently so they're partially submerged.
• Bake the cake for 65 minutes till it's golden brown on top and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Remove the cake from the oven, and turn it out onto a rack, apple-side up.

For the salted caramel topping

• Place the caramels and heavy cream in a microwave-safe bowl, and heat until the cream is showing bubbles, and the caramel is soft. Stir the caramel and cream until smooth. (I did this in 3-30 second intervals)
• Spoon the caramel over the cake, dripping it down into the crevices around the apples.
• Scatter the walnuts on top. Sprinkle lightly with very coarse sea salt flakes if desired.

💭 Top Tips

• Use a springform pan to bake the cake. This allows the cake to easily be removed whole from the pan.
• I like to toast the walnuts in the air fryer. It only takes about 2 minutes on the air fry setting and 400 degree temperature.
• I do not recommend using lower fat sour cream for this recipe. Doing so may cause a dry cake.

📖 Variations

• Substitute pear slices for the apple slices.
• Use a purchased caramel sauce or dulce de leche in place of making the caramel topping.
• Greek yogurt can be used in place of sour cream.

🍎 Apple Recipes To Try

Apple Pie Steel Cut Oatmeal 
Caramel Apple Nut Bars 
Caramel Apple Cheese Danish
Slow Cooker Caramel Apple Butter

*If you made this Salted Caramel Apple Cake, please give it a star rating*

📖 Recipe