Bourbon brown butter apple pie cake:
Holding on to the last of the fall, just like the leaves on the trees here right now. I am not yet ready for winter and Christmas. Bourbon brown butter apple pie cake, why should pies have all the fun. Soft nutty brown butter cake layers with a bourbon soak. Toasty apple pie filling and tie it all together with lightly cinnamon spiced Swiss meringue frosting.
I tried my hand at palette knife painting for the frosting. James & I love picking up fall leaves, we “foraged” a few and used them as a template for the painting. I will post a link to the painting tutorial ( well I recorded my process, this is my first trial). 😀
Food colouring from Americolor. The cake makes a perfect show stopper for your thanksgiving dinner 😀
Brown Butter recipe here. If you feel like a real apple pie instead of an apple pie cake, here you go. You can find my Cinnamon Apple pie recipe here.
Bourbon brown butter apple pie cake
Bourbon brown butter layer cake with apple pie and pecan crumble filling frosted with bourbon spiced swiss meringue buttercream
Ingredients
Apple Pie filling
- 300 gm Apple (chopped, use any baking apples) 2½ cups
- 50 gm Brown Butter 3 tbsp
- 2 tbsp Brown Sugar
- ½ tbsp Corn Starch/flour
- 1 tsp Lemon Juice
Brown Butter layer cake( 3 x 7" cakes)
- 180 gm Brown Butter (Room Temperature) 1½ sticks
- 120 gm Canola oil ½ cup
- 275 gm Brown Sugar 1 +½ loosely packed cup
- 5 L Eggs
- 120 gm Sour cream ½ cup
- 120 ml Buttermilk ½ cup
- 300 gm All purpose Flour 2½ cup
- 3 tsp Baking powder
Pecan crumble
- 50 gm Rolled oats heaped ½ cup
- 50 gm Butter 3 tbsp
- 30 gm All purpose Flour 2 tbsp
- 50 gm Brown sugar/ Demerara ¼ cup
- 30 gm Chopped Pecans ¼ cup
- 1-2 tsp Cinnamon powder
Bourbon syrup
- 60 ml Bourbon ¼ cup
- 60 ml Water ¼ cup
- 50 gm Brown Sugar ¼ cup
Bourbon spiced swiss meringue frosting
- 3 L Egg Whites
- 225 gm Granulated Sugar 1 cup + 2 tbsp
- 250 gm Salted Butter 2 sticks + 2 tbsp
- 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
- 1 tsp Cinnamon powder
- 2 tsp Bourbon
- food colouring optional
Instructions
Apple Pie filling
Add all the ingredients in a small pan. Cook for 15-20 mins on low-medium heat.
Once the apple is cooked and the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and keep aside until needed.
Brown Butter layer cake( 3 x 7" cakes)
Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Grease and line the cake pans with parchment paper. I use Fat Daddio's cake pans.
Add the brown butter, oil and sugar to a bowl. Cream the fats and the sugar with a paddle attachment of a stand mixer for about 3-5 minutes on medium speed or until its light and fluffy.
Add and beat one egg at a time. Add the sour cream into the bowl.
Sift the flour and baking powder, add to the bowl alternating with the buttermilk. Mix all the ingredients for couple of minutes, scrapping the sides if necessary.
Divide the cake batter into 3 prepared pans and bake for 35- 40 mins. Check using a wooden skewer if completely baked.
Remove the baked cakes from the oven and the baking pan. Let them cool on a cooking rack.
Pecan crumble
Preheat the oven to 300° F / 150°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Add all the ingredients into a bowl, crumble it all together using your fingertips. Spread it on the baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes or until you see it browning.
Remove from oven and let it cool to room temperature. Store in a clean air tight jar and it can be stored for a week.
Bourbon syrup
In a small pan, add all the ingredients and cook on medium heat.
Cook until the sugar is dissolved.
Brush the warm syrup on to the cakes.
Bourbon spiced swiss meringue frosting
In a bowl add the egg whites and sugar, using the same pan of simmering water. Keep whisking until the sugar is completely dissolved. Rub the mixture between your fingertips to check if the sugar is fully dissolved
Transfer this mixture to the bowl attached to the stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Whisk the mixture until glossy and stiff also check to see if the bowl is cooled.
Add the butter cubes one at a time while whisking. Keep whisking until the frosting comes together. If the frosting looks like its splitting nothing to worry keep whisking it should come together.
Add the spices and bourbon and keep whisking until everything is incorporated.
If frosting looks to be too runny, chill in the fridge for a few minutes and then try whisking again this should fix the Swiss meringue buttercream
Transfer the frosting into a piping bag.
Assembly of the cake
Add a dollop of frosting on the cake board/ cake stand. Place the bottom layer of cake on the frosting.
Pipe a "dam" frosting layer around the border of the cake.
Add spoonfuls of apple pie filling and drizzle pecan crumble generously.
repeat steps for the next layer. Place the top cake layer.
Crumb coat the cake and keep it in the fridge to cool for a few minutes.
If you want to try fall leaf palette painting. You can find a quick tutorial for it here below
Recipe Notes
If you don't have cultured buttermilk at home, use 1/2 cup milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice
Cake frosting video:
Fall leaf Palette Knife painting cake art:
Happy Baking
xx