Apple Spice Cake- A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe
Today we are sharing an AMAZING Apple Spice Doctored Cake Mix recipe! It's the season for delicious spiced cakes and I have to say, this one's a keeper!
We are slowly working our way through our Recipes Section so that we can have a scratch version and doctored cake mix version of our favorite recipes.
Of course, Apple Spice Cake is right up there at the top of the list! I love myself a good spice cake (especially in the fall....ahhhhh...).
Table of Contents
How to Make Apple Spice Cake from a Cake Mix
This flavorful Apple Spice Cake may start with a cake mix, but nobody would ever guess, thanks to the delicious add-ins that this recipe calls for!
You can find the full, printable Apple Spice Cake Mix Recipe below, but here is a quick rundown of our process:
- In your mixing bowl, add the cake mix, brown sugar, spices, oil, eggs, vanilla and buttermilk.
- Mix for one minute (starting on low speed and then increasing to medium). Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Beat on medium speed for 1 more minute ( longer if using a hand mixer).
- Fold in the grated apples and pour into the prepared cake pans. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. You may need to cover pans with aluminum foil during the last five minutes of baking to prevent over browning the tops of the cakes.
Decorating the Apple Spice Cake
We decorated this Apple Cake with luscious Apple Spice Cream Cheese Frosting. We love cream cheese frostings, and especially love to pair them with spice cakes!
Of course you can decorate this cake however you like, but we piped around the sides of the cake with an up and down motion using a piping tip 2D (a 1M would work just as well). We then used the same piping tip to pipe large rosettes over the top of the cake.
To pipe rosettes with a large star tip, simply start in the center of your rosette and spiral outward clockwise until your rosette is as large as you'd like for it to be. I love this piping technique for it's elegant look and it is SO easy to do!
Scratch Version of Apple Spice Cake
Apple Spice Cake is a classic fall recipe and we are so excited to have a doctored mix option to go along with our scratch version for Caramel Apple Spice Cake.
We adore both of these recipes, but sometimes you just need a fast, flavorful option for fall gatherings!
After making this moist and flavorful Apple Spice Cake doctored cake mix version this week, I find it to be every bit as delicious and addictive as the scratch version!
My family approves 100% and I could not believe how fast this cake disappeared! (I may have had something to do with this too, ha!)
Frostings to Pair with Apple Spice Cake
We've also added an Apple Spice Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe to our Recipe Section that is just heavenly with this cake! There's nothing like silky smooth cream cheese frosting with spice cakes and cupcakes.
Stir a little spiced goodness into the cream cheese frosting and you have a home run every time. We have a similar version that we also love to whip up for our fall favorites: Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting! Yummmm.
Thanks for stopping by, we think you're going to come back to this fall favorite again and again. Big thank you to BeBe for creating this Apple Spice Cake Recipe for us as well as the Apple Spice Cream Cheese Frosting!!
This one is a keeper for sure. Enjoy!!
Love Doctored Cake Mix Recipes? Try these other Favorites!
More Favorite Fall Cake Recipes!
We just love fall cake recipes, from apple cakes like this one to caramel cakes, pumpkin cakes, gingerbread cakes, spice cakes, and more!
For more delicious Fall Cake Recipes, look no further than our roundup of Favorite Fall Cake Recipes! You will find fall favorites like our Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake, Homemade Carrot Cake, Orange Spice Cake, Classic Spice Cake, Apple Cinnamon Cake, and so many others!
Apple Spice Cake- A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe
This moist and delicious Apple Spice Cake all starts with a simple cake mix! This is such a wonderful, easy recipe for fall, or whenever you're in the mood for apple spiced goodness.
Ingredients
- 1 box yellow cake mix (15.25g) plus 6 Tablespoons (45g) flour (we used Duncan Hines Classic Yellow cake mix)
- ½ cup (108g) light brown sugar (packed into cup)
- 2 teaspoons (5g) cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon (2g) nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon (1g) allspice
- ½ cup (l08g) vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cup (302g) buttermilk
- 2 cups (204g) peeled and grated apple (2 large apples) I used 1 Golden Delicious and 1 Granny Smith apple - grate on the large holes of grater
Instructions
- This recipe makes 6 cups of batter
- Works well for cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Grease and flour two 8 inch round cake pans
- In the mixing bowl, add the cake mix, brown sugar, spices, oil, eggs, vanilla and buttermilk. With the mixer on low speed, increasing to medium speed, mix for 1 minute.
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Beat on medium speed for 1 more minute ( longer if using a hand mixer). Fold in the grated apples and pour into the prepared cake pans.
- Bake 35 to 40 minutes. You may need to cover pans with aluminum foil during the last five minutes of baking to prevent over browning the tops of the cakes.
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Interested in trying out our scratch Caramel Apple Spice Cake? You will love this moist and delicious apple spiced goodness!
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Hi Dee, I'm sorry you had this problem, from your picture I can see that the center should not look this wet. First, I would suggest that you buy an oven thermometer to find out if your oven is baking at the temperature you set. If your oven is overheating, the cake will be done on the outside before the center is fully baked. You can find oven thermometers at most grocery stores, Target or online. You could also try baking at a lower temperature, 325 degrees for a longer time. You could also add a heating core to the center of the pan. I hope that your cake was done enough that you were able to use it.
Thank you BeBe for getting back to me so quickly. I remade a new batch (tossing out the ones I made as the texture was just rubbery) I added extra cake flour(as mentioned by another of the comments) shredded the apples and squeezed out some of the excess liquid. They were pretty juicy apples and I'm thinking all that excess juice was just TOO much liquid for the batter. I also put on bake even strips around my pans and kept a close eye on the cakes as they baked and placed foil on top when they started getting a little too brown. Worked like a charm! The recipe turned out wonderful for a wedding cake I made for a customer(in the photo), they were extremely pleased with the flavor and I paired it with a cinnamon cream cheese and Swiss meringue vanilla buttercream! Thank you so much again for the delicious recipe and help on the situation!
Hi Dee, Well, that is a lovely presentation of your cake. I love the look!! I'm sure the bride and groom were thrilled. Thanks so much for the follow-up information on what worked for you to make it perfect.
Instead of 2 teaspoons of vanilla I used 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 teaspoon pumpkin flavoring. Delicious.
Hi Dede, Thanks so much for posting, that hint of pumpkin flavor does sound good!
made this yesterday as a test run. This is the cake we are using for our wedding!! Thank you for the fantastic recipe. Any suggestions for fillings for this cake?
How long to bake cupcakes please?
Hi Patty, Bake cupcakes at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes, check at 18 minutes.
Thanks so much for the quick response!
I made this cake today. Delicious! I did squeeze some of juice from apples as they were very wet. Also omitted nuts and added raisins. It would have been fantastic with walnuts but hubby doesn’t like them. To ice I used a whipped cream frosting that is made with cream cheese and used maple extract instead vanilla. Recipe is a keeper!
The scratch Carmel apple spice cake was the recipe I used minus the Carmel. I see I may have posted under the recipe that uses the box mix.
Hi Dawn, So happy that you enjoyed the recipe!