Spiced Apple Cider Cake
Cake
2 cups apple cider
4 cups flour or Trader Joe’s GF All Purpose Flour or Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Flour or your favorite gluten free flour blend (See notes)
2 tsp xanthan gum (if your flour blend does not have it already)
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature (if you only have salted butter, omit salt)
1½ cups packed dark brown sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
Buttercream Frosting
1 cup unsalted butter (if you only have salted butter, omit salt)
½ cup (4 oz) cream cheese
1/8 tsp kosher salt
3½ - 4 cups powdered sugar
4 tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp GF vanilla
Decoration
¼ cup caramel sauce, warmed – but NOT hot
Optional:
Dehydrated apple slices
Cinnamon sticks
Ground cinnamon
Cake
Heat apple cider in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Simmer & reduce cider to 1 cup. (See notes) Let cool to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 350°.
Lightly spray 3 8-inch round cake pans with GF baking spray.
In a large bowl whisk together flour, xantham gum (if using), baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg. Set aside.
In large mixing bowl beat together butter & sugar until combined. Add eggs, one at a time – beating well after each to fully incorporate. Whisk in room temperature cider & buttermilk. (I do this part by hand, but you can also use the whisk on your mixer). Slowly (lowest speed on mixer or by hand) stir in the dry ingredients until combined.
Evenly pour batter into 3 prepared cake pans. Batter may be a little thick (depending on what flour you use), so you may have to spread it out evenly in the pan with a spatula.
Bake at 350° for about 25 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let cakes cool in pan slightly (about 5 minutes), then invert onto cooling rack to finish cooling completely.
Frosting
In large bowl, combine butter, cream cheese & salt at low speed. Slowly add the powdered sugar with the mixer running on lowest speed until it has all been added.
Increase speed to medium-high until powdered sugar is completely incorporated.
On medium-low speed, add the heavy cream & vanilla, mixing until incorporated. Then beat on high until light & fluffy – about 2 minutes.
Assembling the cake
Place one cake round on cake plate or stand. Top with generous amount of frosting & spread evenly. Repeat with next 2 cake rounds, spreading about the same amount of frosting between each layer. Frost top & sides of cake with remaining frosting.
You can even skip covering the cake with caramel sauce & serve it on the side so everyone can decide how much (or how little) they want to add!
Decoration
Warm caramel sauce slightly – just enough so it pours easily. Drizzle over cake.
Optional: decorate with dehydrated apples, &/or cinnamon sticks, &/or sprinkle a little cinnamon on the top
Notes:
This recipe is based on a recipe from cookingwithcocktailrings.com. Thanks Kylie!
I tried this with Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 GF flour blend, but the cake was very dense. My taste testers liked the texture better with Trader Joe’s GF All Purpose Flour – this flour is just a little lighter than the Bob’s Red Mill.
Made with Bob’s Red Mill flour
Made with Trader Joe’s flour
For caramel sauce, you can use your favorite GF caramel ice cream topping, but Trader Joe’s is my favorite.
For heating the apple cider, it takes about 15-20 minutes. When I think I’ve got it down to 1 cup, I just pour it back into the glass measuring cup I used to check that it really is only 1 cup. It takes another 15 minutes or so for it to cool to room temperature, so I reduce the cider before I even get started making the cake. That way is reduced & cooled by the time I am ready to add it to the cake.
The original frosting did not have cream cheese & had more powdered sugar – it was very good, but my taste tester thought it was a little too sweet & almost overwhelmed the flavor of the cake. The cream cheese & using less powdered sugar helps cut back the sweetness.