Vegan Apple Butter Cake with Buttered Caramel Frosting
This scrumptious gluten free vegan apple butter cake with buttered caramel frosting lacks nothing in taste or texture, but gets super creative with limited ingredients, allowing you to bake a delicious cake even without eggs, dairy or gluten.
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Servings: 2 round cakes or 9x13 sheet cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Cake
- 1/4 cup apple butter (you can make your own) or pumpkin butter
- 3/4 cup very warm water
- 3 cups (405 grams) gfJules® All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
- 1 Tbs. + 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp. sea salt
- 2 cups unrefined coconut palm sugar (or light brown sugar)
- 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans optional
Buttered Caramel Frosting
- 1/3 cup butter or non-dairy alternative (Earth Balance® Buttery Sticks OR vegetable shortening or solid coconut oil
- 1/2 cup unrefined coconut palm sugar (or light brown sugar)
- 1/3 cup + 1 Tbs. apple butter
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1-2 Tbs. milk dairy or non-dairy OR water
- 3 cups confectioner’s sugar sifted
- 1/2 pecans chopped (to garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F (325° F convection).
- Oil two 8-9-inch cake pans or oil the sides and line with parchment circles.
- In a small bowl, whisk together apple butter and very warm water. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar, oil, vinegar and vanilla together. Add dry ingredients and mix slowly while adding the apple butter-water mixture, stirring until fully integrated. Stir in pecans, if using.
- Evenly distribute batter between the two cake pans and bake for approximately 30 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes will come out clean when the cakes are done, and they will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan a bit.
- Remove to cool on wire racks for 20 minutes, then gently turn out to completely cool. Frost with your favorite frosting (like vegan cream cheese frosting), or my Buttered Caramel Frosting, below. Or simply serve with a dollop of apple butter!
To make frosting ...
- Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the coconut palm sugar and stir constantly until the sugar dissolves. Slowly add the apple butter and bring to a boil.
- Transfer to a metal mixing bowl and refrigerate until fully cooled. Once chilled, whisk in vanilla, 1 tablespoon of milk and confectioner’s sugar. Beat until creamy (add more milk, as necessary for frosting to be spreadable).
- Spread evenly over cooled cake, or just on the cake tops for the cake as pictured. Sprinkle chopped pecans over the top, if desired.
** Please keep in mind that nutrition information provided is per serving, which may vary. While we have taken care to provide you with the most accurate nutritional values possible, please note that this information may differ significantly depending on the exact ingredients and brands that you choose to use to make this recipe. Additionally, where options are given for ingredients, the resulting calculation may include all ingredient options instead of only one per line, skewing the totals significantly.