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Spice Girl…

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This Spice Cake with Caramel Mousse and Caramel Apple Topping is just as described. It’s the flavors of fall in one layer cake.

No doubt you’ve often asked yourself, if I were a Spice Girl, who would I be?

I’m sure not a day goes by without you thinking about that. 😉

I’d like to be Sporty Spice but that one has been taken.

I can be Scary but usually just in the morning.

Pretty sure I can be a Baby if I don’t get my way.

Posh, um…no.

I think the last one was Sexy spice…can I be sexy in those green sweatpants?

I am thinking no.

So that leaves me with Sarcastic Spice.

Yes, I think that is the Spice Girl that best describes me.

Of course then there is the problem with the whole I can’t actually sing thing.

I mean, I can sing.

It’s just that I sound like I am beating a cat to death when I open my mouth to sing.

I can actually make my dog leave the room when I sing (note to you…don’t ever take me to karaoke).

And dance moves.

Let’s just say that until they make the bobbing slug a pop star dance move, I am screwed in this area.

Not familiar with the bobbing slug?

I bet you are.

You know, your feet are planted firmly on the ground.

Those don’t move.

You bob your upper body back and forth and move your head from side to side.

That is it, the whole dance.

Works well with the 80’s music I grew up listening to.

The more I think of it perhaps I should just stick to Spice Cake instead of Spice Girls.

The rest of this half of the world is all giddy with the hopes that Spring will soon be here.

Me?

I am mourning the loss of Fall and Winter. Gone will be my crisp and chilly days.

Others will be enjoying the weather outside while I will be cowering inside to stay away from tree, grass and weed pollen (my worst allergies).

All I will have left are some of the flavors of Fall. Spice.

Spice you can have year round but really, most of the spices in spice cake are what we use in Fall and Winter foods.

Our five year wedding anniversary is coming up.

Our cake had a caramel mousse in it and so I was trying to find a recipe to help recreate that cake.

That got me thinking…spice cake with caramel mousse.

And then of course I needed apples.

This Spice Cake with Caramel Mousse and Caramel Apple Topping pretty much caramel overload and I love it!

P.S. It’s a great day to buy my cookbook.

Want More Caramel Apple Recipes?

Salted Caramel Apple Fritter Bread

Caramel Apple White Chocolate Fudge

Salted Caramel Apple Sweet Rolls

Caramel Apple Cookie Cobbler

Mini Caramel-Glazed Honey Crisp Apple Bread

Spice Cake with Caramel Mousse and Caramel Apple Topping

Spice Cake with Caramel Mousse and Caramel Apple Topping

Ingredients

  • For the Spice Cake:
  • 2 ½ cups sifted cake flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ginger
  • ¼ tsp ground cloves
  • ¼ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • ½ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 ¼ cups buttermilk
  • For the Caramel Mousse:
  • 3 TBSP plus 3/4 cup water
  • 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
  • 2 ¾ cups sugar
  • 2 TBSP light corn syrup
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 ¾ cups whipping cream, room temperature
  • 2 ounces unsalted butter (the original recipe called for 4 ounces, which I made but found it made it a little too greasy…so this is how I will make it next time)
  • 1 ½ cups chilled whipping cream
  • For the Sauteed Caramel Apples:
  • 3 apples (your choice, I used Pink Ladies because that was what was in the fridge), peeled, cored, and diced
  • 1 TBSP unsalted butter
  • 1 TBSP granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup caramel sauce

Instructions

  1. For the Spice Cake:
  2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.
  3. Cream butter in a mixing bowl; add brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract.
  4. Beat at high speed of an electric mixer for 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl often.
  5. Add sifted dry ingredients, alternating with buttermilk, mixing at lowest speed just until smooth.
  6. Pour batter into two greased and floured 8-inch round layer cake pans.
  7. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
  8. Cool in pans on rack for 5 minutes, turn out of pans onto racks to cool completely.
  9. For the Mousse:
  10. Pour 3 TBSP water into ramekin or custard cup.
  11. Sprinkle with gelatin; let soften while preparing caramel sauce.
  12. Combine sugar, corn syrup and ¾ cup water in heavy large saucepan.
  13. Stir over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves, frequently brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush.
  14. Increase heat; boil without stirring until syrup turns deep golden brown, occasionally brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush and swirling pan, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
  15. Add 1 ¾  cups cream and butter (caramel will bubble up vigorously).
  16. Return to low heat; stir until any bits of caramel dissolve.
  17. Pour 1 ½ cups caramel sauce into glass measuring cup; set aside pan of caramel sauce.
  18. Place ramekin with gelatin mixture in small skillet of simmering water.
  19. Stir until gelatin dissolves and mixture is clear, about 1 minute.
  20. Mix gelatin into measured 1 1/2 cups hot caramel; cool just to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
  21. Add salt and stir.
  22. Beat chilled whipping cream in large bowl to medium-firm peaks (do not overbeat).
  23. Gradually pour cooled caramel-gelatin mixture over cream, folding constantly but gently.
  24. Chill mousse 15 minutes (mine took way longer than 15 minutes, more like an hour to get it the constancy I wanted for the cake).
  25. In a saute pan add the apples, butter, and sugar,
  26. Cook over medium-low heat until the apples start to become soft.
  27. Turn to low. Add caramel sauce, making sure to coat every apple piece with the sauce.
  28. Assemble the cake:
  29. Cut each cake round horizontally in half. You will end up with 4 rounds of cake, but I always mess up so a spare is nice. If you don’t want to cut the cakes, you can just make a two layer cake.
  30. Place one layer on a plate.
  31. Pipe or spoon desired amount (that is up to you) of caramel mousse onto that layer.
  32. Add another cake layer. Repeat again with the mousse. You will have a lot of mousse left over, I suggest putting it into dishes and topping with caramel apples (as pictured above in the post).
  33. Top with third layer.
  34. Pour caramel sauce over cake and top with caramel apples.
© Peabody

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Comments

  2. Stunning photos! I love the idea of caramel mousse. We recently made a pineapple caramel cake with five spice that was great. I bet a caramel mousse would take it over the top!
    Phoo-D
    P.S. Your WW comment cracked me up!

    Reply

  4. good grief lady, I think I gained weight just looking at it. looking at it longingly. looking at it, like id like to have some of that there cake.

    happy anniversary! hope you do something special!

    Reply

  11. This looks fabulous! I love caramel and apples together. I am a huge fan of hot weather, but I do enjoy the traditional fall baked goods all year long. 🙂

    Reply

  12. This cake looks luscious! I want to catch those carame drips with my tongue. My 4th anniversary is coming up next week. My husband would love this, although he’s a huge fan of that dark ingredient called chocolate.

    Reply

  14. Screw WW, I gave up dessert for Lent. Well, I made it through today, but after one day of no dessert, I really want this cake. Into the bookmarked pile it goes!

    And yes, I would much rather have fall and winter than spring and summer too!

    Reply

  16. Honestly, if you could have seen my face when I looked at that first gorgeous picture…I was so stoked. Caramel+apples+spice cake=more amazingness than I can comprehend.

    Reply

  18. Oh my goodness, this looks amazing! This is definitely my type of cake, I put cinnamon and warm spices on practically everything and we go through jars and jars of cinnamon. I can’t wait to try this any time of the year!

    -kristen

    Reply

  20. both of us are on a mousse trip in our latest posts LOL! and a cake trip and a fruit trip. but yours looks different to mine! This one sounds fantastically decadent!

    Reply

  23. Posh Spice can’t sing either. I think they used to turn her mike off. And she does the bobbing stick insect! I’m sure she would never, ever make or eat a cake like this!

    Reply

  31. This looks amazing. I myself have been scowling at sunny days and feel of spring in the air. Soon I’ll have puffy red eyes and I’ll talk funny from sneezing so much, and I won’t be able to wear my cozy warm clothes. Oh well, I have next fall to look forward to.
    I think spice cake is better than a spice girl any day

    Reply

    • I made this cake for thanksgiving.. so I saw the cake was made with butter rather than oil. Great for flavor bt typically ends up dense and heavy. Bt being I have never made this before, i didnt change a single thing. The cake itself.. freakin fantastic. Im not kidding it is so moist, so light, perfectly spiced. I mean i could eat this cake on its own and be happy.
      Caramel often scares me. I had been failing it a lot before until i realized it shouldnt be cooked in a non stick pan. I had no issue w this caramel. Super easy. Took bit longer than the 10min. But wow delicious and easy.
      I was worried about the mousse because i was doing several other bakes and forgot i put it in freezer rather than fridge to set quicker. (It was 9pm by then and i had worked 9hrs that day baked for 6hrs)
      It appeared to over set and seemed rubbery. But after leaving in fridge over night it was silky smooth and absolutely delicious.
      I used honeycrisp apples. Had to use tiny bit of cornstarch in them cuz they got a bit liquidy.
      But seriously for as intimidating as the many ingredients seem, it was super easy. And delightful. I cannot stress enough how delicious this cake was. Everyone was raving about it.

      Reply

  55. Thank heavens there are no points or calories in looking at that first photo…although the pool of drool around my keyboard is disgusting. What a stunning photo. Caramel overload never looked so good.

    Reply

  58. wow, you should win an oscar, or blogoscar for this post. The pictures are devine, Looks like something you would want to wallow in. What do you do with all of your culinary concoction left overs? I’ll bet your neighbors are dropping by all day long just to check on you and say hello. I know I would be visiting if I lived close to you, probably best that I don’t. It would be a sweet way to die though, you devil!

    Reply

  59. That looks fabulous! No counting WW points for me 😉

    Come karaoke with me and we’ll see whose tortured cat voice reigns supreme 😉

    Reply

  60. Girlie, you are talking my kinda flavors – loooove caramel and spice cake. But a mousse? Mmmmm. Brilliant. So honestly, I never paid any attention to the Spice Girls and the only reason I know about Posh is b/c of Sam’s blog 😉

    Reply

  63. This sounds like the most wonderful cake ever. I love the abundance of sauce 🙂 Happy upcoming wedding anniversary!

    Reply

  64. I’m impressed with all the pictures…yummy looking desserts. Gotta try the Key Lime pie. Thanks for sharing your creations!

    Reply

    • On my info page it talks about how I use mini pans and do smaller cakes for photos.
      So if you make smaller cake size you will get more layers. Most people only make a two layer cake.

      Reply

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