Applesauce Cake With Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
Slightly spiced and super moist applesauce cake goes perfectly with a soft and luscious cream cheese and caramel frosting. This is the stuff fall dreams are made of!
Preheat oven to 350°F and prepared 3 9 inch cake pans.
In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon until well mixed and no clumps are present.
In your mixer, cream the vanilla, almond extract, butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until mixed.
Mix in the applesauce. It is ok if it looks a little curdled at this stage.
Stir in the dry ingredients until just mixed and then divide batter among the prepared pans.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the cakes test done. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then tip onto wire racks to cool completely.
You can make your cakes ahead of time. Just wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze until you are ready to decorate.
Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
In a saucepan, bring the sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar and butter to a boil over medium heat. Stir constantly and allow to boil for 3-5 minutes. The frosting should be like a thick pudding.
Cool caramel mixture to room temperature. This may take a while, but you can put it in the refrigerator to speed the process if you want to. When cooled, it should be thick enough to almost hold it's shape.
Whip cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Add cooled caramel mixture and beat for at least a couple of minutes.