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You guys, you guys, you guys.
I maybe, kind of sort of, got a little carried away with this Salted Caramel Apple Snickers Cake.
But sometimes I really just cannot help myself. Getting carried away in chocolate is always a fun thing. And this cake? It’s my favorite fall recipe to date. I freaking love this cake!
I kind of have a lot to say about this cake (how could I not!). Please bear with me as I ramble (and ramble) and try to convince you that you need to make this cake.
For one, I realize that this cake is well, totally high maintenance. I am not going to sit here and try to tell you that it’s quick and easy because that would just be a lie. This snickers cake recipe takes a little TLC for sure, but I think it’s a cake that is worth it. Maybe it’s only a once year cake, but that is what makes it even more special. And the time of year to make it is NOW. I am thinking Halloween, but Thanksgiving would work too. Personally, I think it’s geared more towards Halloween. It has a little spook factor to it, the caramel apples and the whole Snickers thing makes it a dead ringer for Halloween, when everything is all about candy. Although, I didn’t actually use any Snickers in this cake, it’s just Snickers flavored…. but it’s better than a Snickers bar.
Without a doubt.
Here’s the deal, the cake part is simple. It’s just a spiced apple cake, but made chocolate. I know that is not really typical, but who cares, it’s good. The cinnamon is delicious with the chocolate cake layers and the sweet flavors of the apples.
Oh, and since this cake is full of applesauce that means it’s healthy, right??
Ok, ok, fine, it’s not even close to being healthy, but hey I had to try. And hey, it’s a celebration cake so the calories don’t count anyways… reason number 101 as to why I love the months of October, November and December. These are the months when food can be whatever we want it to be. Yes to the yes.
Once you have the cake all baked, it’s time for the caramel. Now the caramel we are dividing into two parts. You are going to start off, by making one big pot of salted caramel sauce. We only need one cup of the caramel sauce, so we remove that from the pot, set it aside to cool and then reserve the remaining caramel sauce (just leave it in the pot you cooked it in) for later on in the recipe. We need the one cup of salted caramel sauce for making the frosting and drizzling the cake layers. The rest of the caramel in the pot will need to be cooked again and brought to the proper temperature to coat the apples in. Once the cake is all assembled you will cover the cake and apples in this caramel. This is the very final step though.
The next step is the frosting, which may just be the best part. The frosting is addicting you guys. If you are a frosting lover, you may just want to double the recipe. It’s “spoonful worthy” good.
The frosting is sort of the “nougat filling” and peanut layer of the cake combined into one. I really did not want to take the time to make two sets of frosting for this cake, so I just combined them into one. It worked perfectly, if I do say so myself.
It tastes sweet, but with the perfect amount of salt to balance it, and then it’s super peanutty, super creamy and so fluffy. AKA, the best frosting ever.
After you have made the frosting, you frost that cake ALL OVER. Get every nook and cranny, then drizzle every inch with that reserved one cup of caramel sauce and cover those moist chocolate cakes in full on deliciousness.
Don’t worry about the frosting looking perfect because you will be covering it in a layer of chocolate and then a thick layer of caramel. Totally insane.
The bummer part to this recipe is that it requires some chill out time in the fridge. The first chill time is short. You just want to keep the frosted cake in the fridge while you make the chocolate coating. It’s no big deal.
But the second chill time is more important. Once you have poured the chocolate coating (which is just chocolate ganache) over the cake, it is best if you can keep the cake in the fridge for at least and hour and half. I recommend overnight because it just make things easier (and less daunting) if you break the cake up into two days, but an hour and half will do too. After the cake is well chilled, it’s time to finish the caramel and make this cake GORGEOUS.
All you are doing is boiling that same caramel from earlier (that I left in the pot) and bringing it to a slightly high temp. It REALLY helps if you have a candy thermometer for this. It just takes the guessing out and makes things a little simpler. It’s not a must, but you know your caramel is ready when you use the thermometer.
Also, it is important to let the caramel cool slightly before pouring it over the cake. This will help the caramel thicken up and also prevent the cake from melting. It’s kind of annoying, but pretty important, so don’t skip it. And then just pour the caramel over the cake, dip the apples and garnish with some salt and peanuts.
The caramel on the cake + apples should never become hard. It’s should firm up into a solid, but stay soft and chewy.
Whew. I know. It’s a lot, but it’s fun and perfect for Halloween. Please don’t be freaked by the amount of time required here. It’s not a hard cake to make, it just needs a little time. And come on, how could it not be worth it??
Words cannot describe just how good this cake is. It’s so good that I wasn’t even complaining that I had to make it twice… in a two-day period. And yes, all the cake somehow managed to get eaten. Everyone from my family, to builders to friends, to random walk-ins loved this cake.
What can I say, it’s just a lovable cake.
Sorry for the giant post with too many words and WAY too many photos, but I am obviously pretty excited about this cake.
Salted Caramel Apple Snickers Cake.
Servings: 16 Servings
Calories Per Serving: 953 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 3 eggs at room temperature
- 3/4 cup canola oil
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons strong brewed coffee hot (or warm apple cider)
Salted Caramel
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup honey or corn syrup
- 1 cup apple cider
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
- 1 tablespoon bourbon
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt + flakey salt for sprinkling
- 3 your favorite SMALL apples * I used granny smith and honeycrisp
- 6 twigs or wooden sticks
Snickers Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter not the oily kind
- 1/3 cup salted caramel ingredients above
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup salted peanuts chopped + more for garnish
Chocolate Coating
- 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
Instructions
To make the Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease three 8-inch (or 9 inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter/spray with cooking spray.
- In a medium size bowl combine the flour, sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a hand held mixer) beat together the eggs, canola oil, apple sauce, and vanilla until smooth.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients with the mixer on low until there are no longer any clumps of flour. Add the hot coffee and mix until combined. Batter should be pourable, but not super thin.
- Pour the batter among the 3 cake pans and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are just set and no longer wiggly in the center. Remove and let cool five minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the pan. Grab 3 large flat plates, line them with wax or parchment paper and invert the cakes onto the paper lined plates. Cover and let the cakes cool completely before frosting.
To Make the Caramel + Frosting
- Place sugar, honey and apple cider in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, boil, without stirring, 9 minutes or until light golden in color. Add the heavy cream, butter, bourbon, and vanilla, slowly stirring into pan. Boil for 10-15 minutes or until a candy thermometer reads 210 degrees F., stirring frequently. Remove the sauce from heat and add the salt. Using a heat proof measuring cup scoop out 1 cup of caramel sauce and allow it to cool. Cover the remaining sauce and set aside until the cake is ready (I just covered my pot and set it aside overnight).
- Now make the frosting, add the butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar to the bowl of stand mixer (or use a hand held mixer). Beat together until the butter is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the peanut butter, 1/3 cup of the cooled caramel sauce and the vanilla, beat, scraping down the sides as needed, another 2 minutes or until there are no streaks. Stir in the chopped peanuts.
To Assemble the Cake
- Place 1 layer of cake, flat side up, on a plate or cake stand. Drizzle the cake with a little salted caramel sauce (from the reserved 1 cup, not from the pot of caramel). With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and drizzle with caramel. Spread the frosting evenly on the top. Add the final layer of cake and drizzle with the remaining caramel. Frost the top and sides of the cake. Don't worry about it being too perfect as you will be covering most of it up. Place the cake in fridge.
- To make the chocolate coating. In a microwave safe bowl add the chocolate and cream. Microwave on high for 30 second intervals, stirring between each until melted. Allow the sauce to cool 3-5 minutes, and then pour the sauce onto the middle of the cake and spread to just the sides, allow the sauce to drip down the sides of the cake. Place the cake in the fridge preferably overnight, but at least 1 1/2 hours. You need the chocolate to be completely set and the frosting firm.
To Finish.
- Once the cake is cool, grab that reserved caramel sauce in the pot. Place it back over medium-high heat and bring it to a boil. Boil for 15-20 minutes or until a candy thermometer reads between 220-230 degrees F (I let mine go to 225 and it was perfect). Remove the sauce from the stove and let is cool 15-20 minutes, stirring every so often. Make sure the caramel does not become too stiff. If it stiffens too much you will not be able to dip the apples. While the sauce cools, push the twigs or wooden sticks into the top of the apples. Line a baking sheet with wax paper.
- When the caramel has cooled (it should be a little thicker now, but still pourable), pour about half the caramel over the cake and allow it to fall down the sides of the cake. Working quickly, dip the apples into the remaining caramel and place the in the center of cake. Sprinkle the cake with flakey salt and peanuts. Make room in the fridge for the cake and refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes. The caramel should never get completely hard, but should be more of a soft firm. Once the caramel is firm, store the cake in the fridge until ready to serve. Allow the cake to sit 15 minutes at room temp before serving. Please not that this is a delicate and with all the toppings it is a bit tricky to slice. Your slices will not be perfect.
Notes
*To cut the cake, I recommend removing the apples and then carefully slicing the cake. This is a messy cake guys, the slices will not be perfect. *If you prefer, you do not have to add the caramel apples to the cake. It does make the cake a little hard to cut, so you can either skip them or serve them on the side of the cake. *It is important to use small, light apples. If you use large apples, the cake has a greater chance of caving in.
Seriously? I cannot even handle it. This cake, I love this cake! So please make it – please!
This post was originally published on October 17, 2014
Hi,
This looks great. But it’s really hot where I am so I was wondering about a few things: 1. The frosting: is it very soft and doesn’t hold well? Does it “leak”/separate easily?
2. We don’t get apple cider here, would apple juice (freshly squeezed in a juicer/juice extractor) work?
3. I have 3 9” pans but they’re quite shallow. Is this cake one of those that rise by loads? So should I use deeper ones?
4. Is the texture of the cake fairly dense because I don’t think I’ll get lightweight apples and don’t want it all sinking and caving in.
5. I need to transport it for an hour and it’s 30°C weather. Do you recommend making this over 3 days? Or will it dry out too much? Does it taste better as it stands? Would have liked to make cakes on one day, do frosting, caramel and ganache on next, and then final caramel and transportation on the last to give enough chill time between all the steps?
Sorry about the loads of questions! I’m super impressed and don’t want to mess up! 🙂
It’s awesome in favor of me to have a site, which is good for my
experience. thanks admin
I’ve made your Snickers frosting twice now and wow so very good! I mean good like we eat every bite out of the bowl before putting it in the sink! I’ve made it with an apple and chocolate layered cake and then most recently with a chocolate stout cake. I layer with ganache and caramel and people LOVE it. It has brought so much joy and excitement when I serve it, thank you!
SO HAPPY you loved it!! Thank you!!!
Hey Tieghan,
This recipe looks amazing. I finally found an occasion to make this cake: my boyfriend’s birthday! However, I do not have a ton of time at night, so I want to break the recipe into steps, and I plan on traveling with this cake for a couple of hours in the car.
My plan: I was going to make the cake layers first, and then freeze them until I am ready to cover them with frosting. I was also going to make the caramel separately and then reheat it when I get to the place I am going and pour it over the cake. Let me know if you think this is okay. I have never made caramel before so I am a bit nervous.
Hey Alisa,
I think this is a good plan, but if you have never made caramel, I would try making that first so you know the recipe will work perfect for you. This will give you time to ask question and or adjust if needed. Let me know if you have any questions at all and I will try and answer them right away. Hope you love this cake!
I made an error in my question about the boiling point of liquids. Sorry I think I got it.
You state in the recipe for making the caramel sauce to boil it for 10 to 15 mins. or until it reaches 210 degrees F. The boiling point of any substance is 212 degrees F. I’m am making right now and going to follow the time instead of the temperature. I hope it works out, but it would like to know what the temp should be.
hey Laura, It should be around 210 degrees F. if it is a littler higher or lower that is ok.
Hope you love this!!
1 cup + 2 tablespoons strong brewed coffee, hot (or warm apple cider)
Salted Caramel
I didn’t get 1 cup + 2tbsp coffee
Cake is good but ran into issues with the caramel sauce. It was way too runny so in future use only 3/4 cup of cream and 4 tbsp of butter, cut sugar to 1 cup, and only 1/2 cup cider OR bourbon since with the cream this adds too much liquid to the sauce and not enough distinct flavor to warrant an extra cup of both. The caramel sauce was so runny I had to start again as no matter what it did not thicken. Looking at similar sauce recipes online told me that cutting the liquids made perfect sense and there was still enough for the whole cake.
For the frosting I cut out the butter completely (I never use butter in my frostings) used a whole 8oz brick of cream cheese, 3/4 cup of peanut butter.
Gosh, this cake is a friggen piece of art. OMG I can’t even….
I think I overstarred at it hahaha. And now I have an unbearable desire to drop it all and go and make this cake RIGHT NOW!
Thank u for this precious
love the post! where did you get your awesome measuring cup?
Thank you so much! I got them at West Elm a while back.
I made this cake for Thanksgiving. Not only was it impressive looking, but it tasted amazing. I was expecting it to be too sweet and rich, but it wasn’t. Next weekend I’m making some salted caramel brownies to use up the rest of my caramel. If it isn’t gone by that point, I’ll just eat it with a spoon. Thank you for posting this!
SO happy the cake was a hit, thank you!!! 🙂
Thank you for creating this symphony of deliciousness! I made this for thanksgiving dinner and despite some minor hiccups(i.e making caramel-which I’ve always been horrible at, and trying to ice with too warm icing) I was able to tweak it to this amazing duplicate of your creativity! Lots of OOOooos and AHHhhs! Happy Holidays!
THANK YOOU! So happy you nailed the cake and happy belated Thanksgiving!
This looks outrages!! This cake replaces “all” other fabulous baking creations; man, this is a “wow” cake. Wonderful, thank you for sharing I will most definitely like to bake this prize winner. Have a grateful day.
Hi! Saw this cake on tumblr and thought it looked amazing, so I made it for Thanksgiving. Everything was going great until it was time to do the final layer of caramel. I don’t have a candy thermometer so I had to guess, and I think I boiled it for too long because it ended up being too stiff. I poured it anyway and it might be too hard to cut, but at least the cake looks fantastic! I can’t wait to see how the finished product tastes tomorrow. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi there. I’m making this for Thanksgiving and wondering if the first batch of caramel (the one cooked to 210) should be a little runny still? I’ve never made caramel so I’m not sure if it is supposed to be thick already, or if it will get to the consistency in your gif at 230 degrees. I do have to say that everything I have tasted along the way has been delicious and I cannot wait to taste the finished product. Amazing recipe!
Hey Ryan! Yup, the first caramel should be a little runny. You are on the right rack! Let me know if you have any questions, hope you love the cake!
Happy Thanksgiving!
My first time making some things turn out to be challenges. I messed up the first batch of caramel, tried to ice the cake with icing that was too warm, and spilled my first batch of ganache all over my counter top. That being said, all of that meant nothing after finishing the cake! It was really, really good, and everyone loved it so much that I was volunteered to bring it to a Christmas gathering. I have a question about changing it up a little bit too. I’m not a huge peanut butter and peanut fan, so could I make an apple cinnamon flavored icing instead to go more along with the salted caramel apple theme?
Hey Ryan!! UGH. So sorry you had some challenges, but so happy the cake turned out great! Yes, you can most definitely switch up the frosting to whatever you want. The apple cinnamon flavor sounds awesome.
Thanks so much and let me know if you have any more questions.