With Fall in full force, it seems as though there is a trend developing in email inquiries. I have been asked for “easy fall recipes” more times than I can count. Although I try to provide my readers with recipes at varying skill levels, I do know not everyone has the time or the desire to spend hours in the kitchen whipping up desserts.
With that in mind, I set out to find a crowd pleasing, simple, fall dessert. I came across a delicious looking caramel apple cake that used a boxed cake mix. Although box cake mix can be a shunned ingredient in the baking world, they do serve a purpose in my kitchen from time to time.
Although I love baking from scratch, boxed mixes can be the base of many simple, yet delicious desserts – this being one of them, plus I am a HUGE sucker for anything caramel! With a few tweaks, this cake turned out to be a seriously moist and delectable dessert that was chock full of fall flavors.
Stay tuned for more fall favorites in the coming weeks and keep those emails coming, I love hearing from you! Make sure you check out my other fall faves!
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!
Caramel Apple Cake
Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 pkg. (4 serving size) JELL-O Vanilla or French Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
1 cup water
4 eggs
1/3 cup oil
2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp butter flavoring
1 tsp vanilla paste (vanilla extract will work just fine)
3 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, coarsely chopped (I used Jonathan Apples)
20 KRAFT Caramels, unwrapped
3 tablespoons milk
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube pan or 10-inch tube pan.
2. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, water, eggs, oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, butter flavoring, and vanilla paste in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until blended. Beat on high speed 2 min.
3. Gently stir in apples. Pour into prepared pan.
4. Bake 50 min. to 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 20 min.; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.
5. Microwave caramels and milk in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 min., stirring every 30 sec. until blended. Cool 10 min. until slightly thickened. Drizzle over cake.
adapted from allrecipes
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Tricia
Thursday 23rd of September 2010
Thanks for this recipe! I made it last night as my first recipe for my Fourteen in Fall challenge. I really enjoyed it!! It was moist and light, I loved the cinnamon and nutmeg, it had a good amount of apples, and I'm a total fan of caramel. Thanks for sharing! Here's the post if you want to see it. I haven't been blogging for long and I'm not very good... but I thought I'd share anyway :) http://shortcakessweettooth.blogspot.com/2010/09/fourteen-for-fall-recipe-1.html
Evelyn
Sunday 20th of June 2010
Butter flavouring has 100 different chemicals in it. What can I substitute for it? Can I omit it from the recipe? Thanks!
Jamie
Sunday 20th of June 2010
Evelyn- Thanks for stopping by, you can just omit it. -jamie
Katie Kordsmeier
Tuesday 10th of November 2009
I made this cake this weekend for my parents, sister and nephew! It turned out really, really good! They all raved about it! While my husband and I were eating our second piece of the day, we both thought aloud that it might taste even better without the apples! Sure then it would just be a spice cake with caramel frosting, but still good! I think we might try that next time!
Donna-FFW
Monday 19th of October 2009
I love working with cake mixes, so this makes it a must try for me. Fabulous!! have i told you lately I LOVE LOVE your blog?
Eliana
Monday 19th of October 2009
Awesome Fall recipe!!!!