November 2, 2019
Toffee Apple Loaf Cake!
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An easy and delicious toffee apple loaf cake with a brown sugar apple sponge, toffee buttercream frosting, toffee popcorn and toffee sauce!
It’s the beginning of November, and I thought it was the perfect time to slip in another apple related bake before bonfire night, and why not just make it toffee themed as well?! It’s gooey, it’s delicious, and oh so tasty!
Apple bakes
I love a good apple themed bake – we all know this from my apple crumble cake, and my caramel apple crumble pie…there is just something about apples, honestly.
I’ve grown up with apple trees in my parents garden so I have always had an abundance of apples going spare, and to be honest I grew up hating anything apple because of it. I think I was just a stubborn child, and I have regrets on how much apple crumble I must have missed out on now.
Loaf cakes
After the downright crazy successes of my white chocolate & raspberry loaf cake, and my sticky toffee loaf cake, I thought another would be ideal. And oh my days… this is delicious. It’s essentially just a loaf cake version of my toffee apple cake, but as you are all demanding as many more loafs cakes as you can get out of me, I thought this was the perfect time of year to post this one!
I kept this recipe as simple as possible to really bring out the apple flavour, but also have the sweetness in there of the toffee. I didn’t add any cinnamon to this one, as partly I didn’t have any cinnamon in the cupboard, and also… I don’t want to add cinnamon to every apple bake I make.
Sponge
The sponge itself is easy to make, and I decided to use dark brown sugar this time to give it that darker and more toffee like flavour naturally (you can use light brown sugar, or even caster sugar if you prefer) and I LOVED it!
I use dark brown sugar when I make homemade toffee sauce so it’s ideal to use it in a sponge like this too! The apple mixture itself is purely apples chopped up and stirred with some sugar, and then folded in the cake mixture – so it’s nice and simple!
I stuck to my baking ideals here and used the same loaf tin as in my other recipes, as I really do find it the perfect size. For reference its 24.4 x 14.4 x 6.9 cm in size – and I say this in detail because loaf tins really can vary SO much, even if they’re all called 2lb.
Buttercream
For the buttercream, I went really simple and similar again to my toffee apple cake, and just did a basic american buttercream style frosting with toffee sauce. For ease and quickness I used shop bought toffee sauce for this one, but you can find a delicious homemade sauce on this recipe!
For decoration I wasn’t really sure what to do, as I didn’t want to use apples again, and didn’t have many delicious items in the cupboard… but in the end, using toffee popcorn and fudge sprinkles was ideal!
I love the look of the popcorn on top, the little pops of fudge flavour from the sprinkles, and with an extra drizzle of sauce it’s the perfect accompaniment to the cake flavouring! You can of course decorate the cake however you please as I know some people don’t like popcorn – but that’s up to you!
Tips & Tricks
I used my trusty 2D closed star piping tip to decorate this, along with the 2lb loaf tin that I will always recommend – In general for a cake like this you can easily drizzle the toffee sauce on with a spoon, or the bottle if it’s shop bought – but I do love these piping bags for the buttercream.
- This recipe will last for 3-4+ days at room temperature, or in the fridge on a boiling hot day
- This recipe will freeze for 3+ months easily
- Using eating apples may result in a bake that is too soft and mushy – it’s best to use cooking apples or best results
I hope you love this autumnal recipe as much as I do, and that you had a wonderful Halloween! Enjoyyyyyyy!! x
Toffee Apple Loaf Cake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 250 g unsalted butter
- 250 g dark brown sugar
- 250 g self raising flour
- 5 medium eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 200 g cooking apples (peeled & chopped weight)
Buttercream
- 125 g unsalted butter (not stork)
- 250 g icing sugar
- 65 g toffee sauce
Decoration
- Toffee sauce
- Toffee popcorn
- Fudge sprinkles
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan, and line a 2lb loaf tin with parchment paper!
- Peel and chop your apple(s) - I used one large apple, but make sure to get an apple about 275g in size to get the correct chopped amount!
- I chop the apple into 1-2cm size pieces! As an optional extra, add 20g of dark sugar into the apple, and mix together for an extra caramel flavour.
- In a stand mixer, add your butter and the dark sugar and beat until smooth.
- Add in the flour, eggs and vanilla and beat again until lovely and smooth
- Mix the apple into the cake mixture with a spatula, and pour into the tin
- Bake the cake in the oven for 50-60+ minutes and then leave to cool fully in the tin
Buttercream
- Make sure your butter is at room temperature!
- Beat the butter on it's own for a few minutes to make it supple!
- Add in the icing sugar again and beat again until a smooth buttercream is made!
- Add in your toffee sauce, and beat again!
Decoration
- Pipe your buttercream onto your cake however you want - I used a 2d piping tip and piped from side to side to cover the top!
- Decorate with whatever you fancy - I used some toffee popcorn, and some fudge sprinkles!
Notes
- I used my trusty 2D closed star piping tip to decorate this, along with the 2lb loaf tin that I will always recommend - In general for a cake like this you can easily drizzle the toffee sauce on with a spoon, or the bottle if it's shop bought - but I do love these piping bags for the buttercream.
- This recipe will last for 3-4+ days at room temperature, or in the fridge on a boiling hot day
- This recipe will freeze for 3+ months easily
- Using eating apples may result in a bake that is too soft and mushy - it's best to use cooking apples or best results
ENJOY!
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J x
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Super yummy recipe thank you! Just wondering how I check the loaf cake is done? I bake lots of your loaf cake recipes and am never sure, just go in the middle of your recommendation and sometimes they are abit underbaked – should a skewer come out dry?
I added your apple crumble topping to this from your other recipe rather than toffee sauce and it was amazing. Thanks
So for most cakes a skewer check will work, but you can also listen carefully to a cake. If the cake is making a bubbling/crackling sound, then it still needs a few more minutes! xx
Hi there, I was wondering if I wanted to make 2 loaves can I just double the quantities in the recipe. Ta xx
Hiya! Yes, this will be fine! Hope this helps x
Hello, could I bake this in a 7/8″ cake tin to have as a round cake rather than a loaf or would it not work? Thanks!
Fabulous cake
Is this cake best stored in the fridge or a tin at room temperature? Thanks in advance!
Has anyone attempted this with gluten free flour?
Would this be suitable as a cupcake recipe? Thanks!
Loved this cake. Made as a dessert following a BBQ and the 5 of us all thought it great. Moist and so tasty. Should have added the popcorn at the last minute rather than when iced a few hours earlier, as went soft, but that was my error. Didn’t bother with fudge pieces, just drizzled more toffee sauce over the popcorn. The cake mix volume was too much for my 2lb loaf tin so made a slimmer baby cake in a separate 1lb cake tin which I cooked for about 15mins less. Now in the feeder for a rainy day. Also going to try freezing the spare buttercream separately. Yum!!
Gorgeous cake. Made this a few times in the autumn when I had a glut of cooking apples. The toffee buttercream flavour was divine combined with the tartness of the apple cake. I used a cinnamon buttercream another time which was also delicious. Great recipe…thanks again Jane!!
Way too much mixture to fit in a 2lb loaf tin !
2lb loaf tins can vary greatly in size unfortunately as mentioned on the post, and it fits mine perfectly.
Canyou bake this without the apples??
Yes!!
Hi. I cant seem to find dark brown sugar anywhere. Is there another sugar you would recommend? I have dark muscavado sugar already in. Would that work? Xx
I tend to use light brown soft sugar instead of dark brown soft! x
Could i puree the apples rather than using chunks?
I’m really not sure – this is designed to bake the apples in the sponge x
Hiya
Can I freeze this recipe?
Thanks
Karys
Yes! x
Hi Jane! I’m trying this recipe in a couple of weeks -so excited! I was wondering what measurements to use for a 9”9 square tin? Or maybe as a traybake (i.e rectangular tin the same as your other recipes).
Thank you!xx
I would follow the idea of my apple crumble traybake cake, but with toffee topping and without crumble as that’s already a traybake tin! x
Made this today minus the popcorn and it was delicious. A friend popped in for a cuppa, had a slice of cake and told me it’s the best cake I’ve made! Really tasty without being over sweet. 😊
What toffee sauce do you use is it just ice cream toffee sauce?
Yes! So you can either make your own (from a sticky toffee recipe of mine) or use shop bought – ice cream style or something! X
Hi do you just mix toffee sauce icing sugar and butter together in a bowl to make to buttercream? Doesn’t say in recipe
Delicious cake everyone that tried it loved it xx
Can you explain what you mean by vanilla please? Do you mean essence, paste, or something else? Thanks!
Vanilla comes in many different forms – therefore I don’t specify. You can use any you like!
Thank you. First attempt in the oven now!
Hi Jane
If I wanted to make these into the individual loaves, how long should I bake them for?
Thanks
I’m afraid I can’t help you for certain as I never make individual loaves, but I would hazard a guess at slightly longer than cupcakes take?
It was one of the nicest cakes I’ve made!! Everyone at work loved it. I like the topping when it’s been in the fridge. 😀 will be baking this one again. Thanks for the recipes next one is hot chocolate cheesecake, buying hot chocolate tomorrow.
Definitely one on my list to bake. I adore toffee and apple and this looks super yummy 🙂
Ahh yay! It’s such a yummy combo isn’t it!!
Did the toffee apple loaf. Hadn’t got the right size tin so did one and half times recipe as tray bake no popcorn so topped with honeycomb and toffee pieces.