Vegan Maple Pecan Apple Cake with Maple Frosting
Vegan Maple Pecan Apple Cake with Maple Frosting, the fall cake of my dreams!!! This cake is amazing I absolutely can’t get enough of it. It’s full of cosy fall spices, the texture is so fluffy and has the perfect crumb. This apple spice cake is so moist and tender, topped off with sweet and salty creamy maple frosting! It’s the perfect combination of flavours. I wanted to make a really delicious layered cake with fall flavours… and that’s where this Vegan Maple Pecan Apple Cake with Maple Frosting came from. So I chose my favourite fall spices, apples, pecans, and maple. It can’t get much better than that!
The Maple Frosting
I don’t normally make frosting, but this one was sooo good. I usually skip frosting simply because it contains so much sugar and fat, not because I don’t like the flavour. But this time I just really had a craving for a proper frosted cake! So that’s how this Vegan Maple Pecan Apple Cake ended up being decorated with creamy maple frosting.
I used the recipe on The Spruce Eats for their Fluffy Maple Frosting. I just made a few changes. I added a bit of salt because I wanted a salted maple caramel vibe to the frosting to add more depth. I found salt was needed to balance out the sweetness of the frosting and the result was incredible. I also swapped out dairy ingredients for vegan alternatives and it turned out SO GOOD. You’ve got to try this creamy maple frosting!
But if you’re concerned about the sugar and fat content of the frosting, or simply not an icing fan, I’ve got to tell you that this spiced apple cake is perfect without frosting too because there is so much depth of flavour in the cake. I have baked this cake several times without the frosting and I have thoroughly enjoyed it! You can top it with chopped toasted pecans or toasted coconut to make it fancy like how I’ve topped my Healthy Vegan Carrot Cake Banana Bread!
This Vegan Maple Pecan Apple Cake with Maple Frosting is super simple to bake and honestly doesn’t require many ingredients. Loaf cakes are very quick and easy to make so that’s why I made this cake as a loaf cake and not in a regular cake pan. I love the simplicity of a delicious loaf cake. It’s much speedier to bake and I wanted to make this cake more accessible for anyone, so even if you have little energy but want a cake that feels fancy you can bake this one!
I mean just look at that texture! She’s perfect. It wasn’t long ago that this Vegan Maple Pecan Apple Cake with Maple Frosting disappeared from my kitchen, but I’m already craving more. I was thinking about this cake for days, it was seriously that good. So give this recipe a try and let me know what you think!! I love hearing about your baking adventures! Happy Baking! 🙂
Other recipes like this Vegan Maple Pecan Apple Cake with Maple Frosting on the blog:
Vegan Maple Pecan Apple Cake with Maple Frosting
Ingredients
Apple Cake Ingredients
- ⅓ cup oil
- ⅓ cup plant based milk room temperature
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp maple extract
- 1 cup grated apple about 120 g
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 1 ⅔ cup all purpose flour 200 g
- ⅓ cup almond flour 32 g
- 2 tsp ceylon cinnamon
- 1 ½ tsp cardamom
- ½ tsp ginger
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ⅓ cup chopped pecans
- pinch of salt
Maple Frosting*
- ½ cup salted vegan butter 113 g
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 2 ½ – 3 cups confectioner's sugar, divided
- 2 tbsp oat cream
- ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- ½ tsp maple flavouring
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175°C and prepare a loaf pan for the apple cake.
- Sift all of the dry ingredients together in a medium sized mixing bowl and then set aside. (Except the pecans, fold those in later!)
- Prepare the apples.
- Whisk together the wet ingredients (except the apples) in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the apples once the mixture is properly combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixing bowl and mix until just combined. Halfway or so through the mixing, fold in the pecans. Do not overmix.
- Pour the cake batter into the loaf pan and bake the cake for approximately 55 minutes to 1 hour, depending on your oven. A testing knife should come out quite clean.
- Once the cake is done baking, let sit for a couple minutes and then remove the cake from the cake pan and let it cool on a cooling rack. This is important otherwise too much moisture will surround the cake as it cools.
- Make the icing. Follow the instructions on The Spruce Eats .
- Make sure you let the icing cool completely, and let the cake cool completely before assembling the cake! Otherwise you will end up with melty icing 🙁
- I chose to cut the loaf cake in half lengthwise to add an icing layer in the middle, but that is optional, it's delicious just to have the icing on the top as well! Then decorate with edible flowers, or chopped nuts, etc.
- You can store this cake in a container in the fridge but it's best enjoyed fresh due to the icing, or a couple days. The cake however stays fresh and moist for 4-6 days. Enjoy!!