Our Caramel Apple Sheet Cake Is Super Moist, Deliciously Spiced, Cake loaded with chunks of fresh Apple all topped off with a Luscious Caramel Icing!
I think naming recipes is a tricky business. One has to be accurate and appealing all at once. When I decided to make up this fantastic recipe, I couldn’t imagine finding a more mouth-watering combination of words: Caramel Apple Sheet Cake. It sounds good. And let me tell you, the finished dish lives up to the name.
True, I am a little biased—I’ve got a thing for a sheet cake.
The proportion of cake to frosting or icing in a delicious sheet cake recipe is unbeatable. Each bite of a sheet cake comes perfectly topped with a delicious little dollop of frosting. (Is anyone else’s mouth suddenly watering?)
The amount of frosting on a sheet cake is enticing. You just can’t get that ratio from a layer cake.
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People go all crazy over pumpkin spice in the fall. And, hey, I like pumpkin spice as much as the next person. But what I really look forward to in the fall is the resurgence of caramel apples. There’s just something awesome about a snack with an incredible amount of caramel that you can justify eating because really, at its core, it’s an apple. Apples are healthy. So when I started making caramel apple sheet cake, I found the perfect mixture of two awesome desserts.
Recipe Notes For Caramel Apple Sheet Cake:
- Apples: You’ll want to chop the apples pretty finely for this recipe. No big chunks. Chopping the apples into finer slices helps to make sure they get evenly distributed throughout the cake.
- Although I have experimented with adding more fruit to this recipe, I settled on this as my perfect ratio. More fruit means more moisture—and in a thin sheet cake, moisture can actually be a bad thing. The cake is so thin that adding too much extra moisture makes it almost soggy. Chopping the apple into finer pieces rather than using large chunks also help distribute the moisture throughout the cake and avoiding any sogginess.
- Baking: A full 10×15 pan is necessary for baking. You might be tempted to try a 9×13 pan instead. (“It’ll fit, right?”) Don’t bother. In a smaller pan, the cake won’t cook right.
- Be careful not to overbake this recipe. Sheet cakes are so thin that there is some serious danger of overbaking or even burning the recipe.
- Icing: Make sure you add the hot icing when the cake itself is hot out of the oven.
- Serving: I like to serve this cake chilled, even cold. It’s straight out of the fridge and onto the table kinda cake.
- This cake is even better a day or two after it’s baked.
Want to Try More Desserts…
Caramel Apple Sheet Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 Cup Butter
- 1 Cup Water
- 2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar Firmly Packed
- 2 Cups Apples Peeled and Chopped
- 2 Eggs Lightly Beaten
- 1/2 Cup Sour Cream
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
Frosting:
- 2 Tablespoon Butter
- 3 Tablespoon Milk
- 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1 Cups Confectioners Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
Instructions
- Spray a 15x10 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- In a large saucepan, bring butter and water to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in flour, brown sugar, chopped apples, eggs, sour cream, vanilla, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Mix just until evenly combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the milk and brown sugar. Bring to a boil and boil vigorously for 1 minute. Remove from heat and beat in confectioners sugar and vanilla until blended and smooth. (Adjust thickness, only if necessary, with more milk, so the frosting is pourable~I didn't need to add any). Pour icing over warm cake. Cool completely, before serving. Store in the refrigerator.
Cake and icing are easy to make. But, I had to make a second batch of icing because the first barely covered the entire 15×10″ area. (I followed the recipe to the letter, even adding a bit of milk to thin it out a little.) And even though the toothpick came out clean, the cake seemed gooey-er than I like. (I was worried about the overbaking you mention, but don’t think that happened!) Maybe sitting a bit longer and time in the fridge will remedy that. I will probably make this again but definitely doubling the icing ingredients if I do. Even gooey, it’s good!
Hey Diana! Fruit cakes bake extra-moist — and that’s normal. Cakes with fruit (fresh, frozen, or canned) naturally have more moisture. I think thats what you’re encountering. I love the idea of doubling the frosting and will have to try it that way next time! Thanks so much for leaving a comment with your experience and the 5 star rating!!
My granddaughter loves this cake. I froze individual pieces and she’d pop them in the microwave, add vanilla ice cream for the perfect after school snack. She hinted she’d like another for her birthday in October. She is an athlete, not a big sweets eater, but this cake spoke to her!
Wow, Diana that’s so wonderful to hear! It’s funny how food affects us all differently. I adore this gem of a cake, so I’m happy she does as well. I think the way she its it is spot on delicious!
In the picture it has pecans, I didn’t see them listed in the ingredients.
Hi, Yvette. Pecans are optional toppings. Thank you!
Do you wait until the water/butter mixture cools down a little before adding the rest of the ingredients? Won’t the eggs curdle if you add them to water that hot?
This cake looks, and sounds so yummy! A perfect recipe for Fall baking! I love pumpkin just as much as the next gal, but it’s hard to beat a good apple cake, ( or crisp, cobbler, pie, etc.), for Fall yummy goodness!
Thanks for the recipe, and keep them coming! I plan to try this tomorrow!
Lori K, I want to make this cake but also worry about the water/butter with the eggs. If you made how did it come out?
What is the best apple to use for cake? I looks delicious!
I used Fuji and love them in the cake.
Well, I haven’t yet tried to make the Caramel Apple Sheet Cake, but the name of the cake really says nothing about how good it will taste (i.e., it just says what’s in the cake, if the name was Delicious, Creamy, Nutty, Sweet & Tangy …etc), but also, just wanted to say that a layer cake DOES have a perfect ratio of cake to frosting if one ices between each layer of cake when one stacks the layers. That is the glue to hold the layers together & the beauty and delicious genius of a layered cake: the icing between layers! Anyway, this cake looks good, so I will try it;-)