Maple Walnut Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
User Reviews
4.9
Maple Walnut Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
Description
The Maple Walnut Cake combines butter, brown sugar, eggs, pure maple syrup, and a touch of maple extract to create a tender cake with an evenly browned surface and moist crumb. The batter includes cake flour for softness and chopped walnuts for crunch. The layers are baked in round pans, cooled, and then stacked with a cream cheese-based frosting enriched with maple syrup and powder sugar. The frosting has a creamy, smooth texture with a maple sweetness that complements the nutty cake.
The cake is decorated with walnut halves and finely crushed walnuts on top, adding a visual and textural complement. It is best served sliced to showcase the dense yet fluffy layers. When baking with 9-inch pans, the cake can be adapted to two layers with a slightly longer baking time.
Using room temperature ingredients helps ensure a smooth batter and proper aeration during creaming. Allow cakes to cool completely before frosting for best results. The recipe’s use of maple syrup and extract integrates maple’s distinctive flavor throughout both the cake and frosting.
Ingredients
cake
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 cup butter at room temperature, unsalted
- 4 egg at room temperature, large
- 3/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp maple extract or vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 cups cake flour (you can use regular flour)
- 3/4 cup half and half substitute whole milk or buttermilk
- 1 cup walnuts crushed or finely chopped
frosting
- 16 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
- 1/2 cup butter at room temperature, unsalted
- 1 tsp maple extract or vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt omit if using salted butter
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 4-5 cups confectioners sugar sifted
garnish
- 18 walnut halves
- 1 cup walnuts finely crushed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F Lightly grease 3 8-inch cake pans and add a round of parchment at the bottom of each. Note: if you only have 2 pans, bake the third layer after the first 2 have cooked.
- Cream the brown sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Don't skip this step, it helps make a light cake.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Then beat in the maple syrup and extract.
- Turn the mixer to low speed and blend in the baking powder and salt. Then add the flour and half and half, alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix just to combine, don't over-mix. Fold in the crushed walnuts.
- Fill your cake pans evenly with batter and smooth out the tops, if necessary. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until the center is risen and springs back when lightly touched, and the cakes have just started to pull away ever so slightly from the sides of the pan. Let the cakes cool for 10-15 minutes before turning out and cooling completely on a rack.
- To make the frosting, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth, making sure there are no lumps. Beat in the maple syrup, extract, and salt.
- Add sugar, in batches, until you get your desired consistency.
- Generously frost the cooled cake and pat crushed walnuts along the outer edge. Arrange walnut halves on the top.
Notes
- If using 9-inch cake pans instead of 8-inch, prepare a two-layer cake and increase baking time slightly.
Nutrition Information
Show DetailsNutrition Facts
Serving: 16servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories 704 kcal
% Daily Value*
| Calories | 704kcal | 35% |
| Carbohydrates | 80g | 27% |
| Protein | 9g | 18% |
| Fat | 41g | 63% |
| Saturated Fat | 19g | 95% |
| Polyunsaturated Fat | 9g | 53% |
| Monounsaturated Fat | 9g | 45% |
| Trans Fat | 1g | 50% |
| Cholesterol | 122mg | 41% |
| Sodium | 231mg | 10% |
| Potassium | 316mg | 7% |
| Fiber | 2g | 8% |
| Sugar | 57g | 114% |
| Vitamin A | 1016IU | 20% |
| Vitamin C | 1mg | 1% |
| Calcium | 139mg | 14% |
| Iron | 1mg | 6% |
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
User Reviews
Overall Rating
4.9
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