Maple Toffee Cake

Our latest dessert is a homemade Maple Toffee Cake! Maple is such a delicious flavor for fall, and toffee pairs with it perfectly! 

This cake is moist, fluffy, and tender with all of the flavors that we crave, especially in the fall! If you love toffee cakes, don't miss our Toffee Pecan Bundt Cake also!

Maple flavored cake layers are speckled with toffee bits, lightly glazed with maple syrup, and frosted with a maple cream cheese frosting.

This flavorful fall dessert is sure to please, whether you are serving it for a fall birthday, Thanksgiving, or just because!

How to make Maple Toffee Cake

• You can find our full, printable Maple Toffee Cake recipe further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of our steps!

• First, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, grease and flour three 8x2 inch round pans or two 9 inch round pans. I also like to line my pans with circles of parchment paper.

• In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside.

• Next, in other bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, maple extract and maple syrup. Set aside

• In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened unsalted butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until it is fluffy. Gradually add the eggs one at a time.

• Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of wet ingredients)

• Finally, fold in the toffee bits and divide the cake batter between the three prepared cake pans.

•  Bake at 325 degrees 22 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes and turn out.

Easy Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

We decided to frost our cake with a delicious Maple Cream Cheese Frosting. (We've used this recipe in the past on our Apple Walnut Cake).

You can whip up a batch of this dreamy frosting in no time! I love cream cheese frostings because they are silky smooth, a bit less sweet, and have that hint of tanginess that goes perfectly with so many cake flavors! 

The recipe is a combination of softened butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and maple syrup and maple extract. It is so creamy and easy to work with.

Cream Cheese Frostings are Softer!

Keep in mind that cream cheese frostings are softer than your usual buttercream frostings and so you'll likely need to chill it now and then to keep the consistency nice and thick. I chill my cream cheese frostings right after preparing the recipe for about 15 minutes or so before frosting the cake.

If at any time the frosting becomes too soft as you are working with it,  just pop the piping bags or bowl of frosting into the refrigerator to firm things up. 

Also, if your cake shifts at all as you're frosting it, place it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. I like to chill my tier right after applying a thin crumb coat to firm things up before applying the final coat of frosting. Firm/chilled cakes are always easier to work with.

**Cakes that are frosted with this Maple Cream Cheese Frosting (or any cream cheese frosting) should be refrigerated until within a couple of hours of serving.

Buttercream alternative to Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

If you're looking for a less perishable frosting or simply aren't a fan of cream cheese (gasp!) we have a delicious Maple Buttercream Frosting recipe also! You can find it included in our Maple Pecan Cake recipe- super easy and so flavorful!

Assembling the Cake

Once you're ready to assemble the Maple Toffee Cake, place the first cake layer on your cake plate or pedestal.

Next, just as with our maple almond cake, we lightly brushed the top of the cake layer with maple syrup. (I applied mine with a silicone pastry brush).

The maple syrup sinks right into the cake layer and I followed with a layer of maple cream cheese frosting.

Sprinkle with toffee bits and then apply the second cake layer. Repeat the steps and then apply the third cake layer.

Decorating the Cake

I frosted the maple toffee cake with maple cream cheese frosting. I often like to apply a thin crumb coat of frosting first, chill the cake in the freezer for 15 minutes, and follow with the second coat. This keeps everything nice and firm while decorating.

Next, I smoothed around the sides of the cake with a warm bench scraper before using a small tapered offset spatula to create diagonal lines around the sides of the cake.

My bottom border is made up of toffee bits which I gently pressed around the base of the cake. I piped a top border using shells and stars using a large 2D piping tip.

I also piped a few dots here and there for accents using a tip 3.

More Fall Cakes to Try

This Maple Toffee Cake is a perfect dessert no matter what time of year, but it's an especially great cake recipe for fall. 

You can find this and many more fall favorites in our Cake Recipes section! If you love cakes with toffee, our Toffee Pecan Caramel Cake  is another great recipe to try.

We also have a delicious Maple Pound Cake, Maple Pecan Cake, Maple Carrot Cake, and Maple Pecan Doctored Cake Mix Recipe if you need more maple desserts in your life!

We have all sorts of cozy fall cake flavors from caramel cakes, to latte cakes, pumpkin spice cakes, gingerbread cakes, sweet potato cake, and so many more.

You can find a full listing of fall favorites here: 50+ Favorite Fall Cake Recipes and Designs.

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this Maple Toffee Cake. Don't miss our full collection of cake recipes and free cake decorating tutorials!

Maple Toffee Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This moist and delicious Maple Toffee Layer Cake recipe is so flavorful and perfect for fall entertaining!

Course: Dessert

Servings: 15

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened (170g)
• ▢ 2 cups sugar (400g)
• ▢ 4 large eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place eggs is a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
• ▢ 3 cups cake flour ( see Notes below for cake flour substitution) (342g)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder (8g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking soda (3g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
• ▢ 1 ¼ cup buttermilk (see Notes below for substitution) (296g)
• ▢ ¼ cup vegetable oil ( I used canola oil) (54g)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon maple extract (4g)
• ▢ 2 Tablespoons maple syrup (26g)
• ▢ ½ cup toffee bits (72g)

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 2 sticks unsalted butter, slightly softened (226g)
• ▢ 16 oz cream cheese, softened (We use two 8 oz packages of "full fat" cream cheese.)
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon maple syrup optional
• ▢ 2 teaspoons maple extract (8g)
• ▢ 6 to 6 ½ cups powdered sugar, adding more if necessary (690g-747g)

Assembly/Decoration

• ▢ We used additional maple syrup to lightly brush the layers. We also sprinkled toffee bits between the layers and pressed additional toffee bits into the frosting for the bottom border.
• ▢ We created impressions in the frosting with a small offset spatula and piped stars and dots around the top border with a 2D star tip and tip 3 round tip.

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, grease and flour three 8x2 inch round pans or two 9 inch round pans.
• 
  In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside.
  
• In other bowl, add the buttermilk, oil, maple extract and maple syrup. Set aside
• 
  In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
• 
  Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid)
• 
  Fold in the toffee bits.
• 
  Do not mix above medium speed or over mix the cake batter.
• 
  Bake at 325 degrees 22 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes and turn out.

For the Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

• Cut the butter into ½ inch slices and add to the bowl of your mixer, mix on medium speed until smooth
• Cut the cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, mixing on medium speed until well blended.
• Add the maple syrup and maple extract
• Gradually add powdered sugar and mix until well blended. Do not over mix or beat above medium speed . If beaten too long it will become very soft. If this happens, just put in the refrigerator for a short while to firm it up a bit, then frost the cake.
• This frosting will pipe best if used while chilled. You can make in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly and remix. Do not microwave to soften.

Decorating the Cake

• Place the first cake layer on the cake plate or pedestal.
• Lightly brush with maple syrup (I used a silicone pastry brush).
• Spread on a layer of maple cream cheese frosting. Sprinkle with toffee bits (optional).
• Add the next cake layer and repeat above steps (syrup glaze, filling, toffee bits). Finish with the final cake layer. Frost the cake to your liking (I textured around the sides with an offset spatula, spread a thin amount of syrup on top of the chilled cake (optional), added a bottom border of toffee bits and top border with a large star tip and small round piping tip accents).

Notes

The recipe makes 71/2 cups batter

If you do not have cake flour, measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour (not self-rising). Remove 6 Tablespoons of the AP flour and replace with 6 Tablespoon cornstarch (corn flour in the UK).

Whisk to blend.

Buttermilk substitution —  In a measuring cup add 1 Tablespoon  plus 1 teaspoon vinegar, add milk to reach the 1 ¼ cup mark.  Stir and let sit 5 minutes.

The recipe can be baked  in a 9x13 sheet pan.  Bake for 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

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