A light fruity sponge made with wholemeal flour, ground hazelnuts and apples which is drizzled with a delightful smoky salted toffee sauce. This toffee apple hazelnut cake is just perfect bonfire night fare. Or any other autumnal occasion come to that.
The leaves are turning, the mornings are misty and the season of mellow fruitfulness has definitely arrived. There are apples aplenty here in the New Forest and apple cake is an autumnal essential bake. For Bonfire Night last year, I reckon I created my best ever. It’s a toffee apple hazelnut cake and is just perfect for this time of year.
The Food Journal: Seasonal Treats
My toffee apple bonfire cake featured in the Seasonal Treats edition of The Food Journal last year. It contains a whole host of recipes from fellow food bloggers all pertaining to a specific season. So if you fancy such delights as Valentines cookies, Easter morning carrot cake bars, green goblin soup or cinnamon spiced snowmen, follow The Food Journal link where you’ll be able to download a PDF of the entire publication.
October 2018 Update
The link is no longer valid, but you can still download the PDF if you do an internet search for the title – The Food Journal: Seasonal Treats.
Toffee Apple Hazelnut Cake
I’ve made many an apple cake in my time and they are all good. My almond apple cider cake and my Dorset apple cake with chocolate caramel were exceptionally good (she says modestly), but I reckon this toffee apple hazelnut cake tops them all.
It’s a light fruity sponge made with wholemeal flour and seasonal hazelnuts and apples. As if this wasn’t good enough, the key ingredient is a homemade smoky salted caramel sauce.
The tart apple combines with the sweet salty caramel to create a taste sensation. The smoky salted toffee sauce is divine. It’s very hard to resist greedily eating it with a spoon just as it is. It’s just what you want drizzled over ice cream too. The cake is also excellent served warm as a dessert with a jug of the toffee sauce on the side.
With its toffee apple flavour and smoky notes, my toffee apple hazelnut cake is perfect for Bonfire Night. Or, for that matter, any other autumnal occasion where you need cake or a filling dessert.
Other Bonfire Night Recipes You Might Like
- Burnt apple and bourbon ice cream via Kavey Eats
- Gingered pear almond honey cakes via Tin and Thyme
- Hot mulled scrumpy cider via The Hedge Combers
- Moroccan vegetable soup via Beach Hut Cook
- Mulled blackberry wine via The Veg Space
- Parkin cupcakes with toffee buttercream & popping candy via The Baking Explorer
- Pea shoots, pea & leek soup via Chez Maximka
- Squash, chilli & chard feta pasties via Tin and Thyme
- Toffee apple popcorn via Thinly Spread
- Veggie haggis & tattie pasties via Tinned Tomatoes
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this toffee apple hazelnut cake, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more Tin and Thyme large cake recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.
Choclette x
Toffee Apple Hazelnut Cake. PIN IT.
Toffee Apple Hazelnut Cake – The Recipe
Toffee Apple Hazelnut Cake
Ingredients
Smoky Salted Toffee Sauce
- 100 g golden caster sugar
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 75 unsalted butter
- 1 tsp smoked sea salt (or just use sea salt)
- 125 ml double cream (heavy cream)
Cake
- 180 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 100 g light muscovado sugar
- 100 g golden caster sugar
- 3 large eggs (duck eggs are particularly good)
- 175 g golden wholemeal flour (or half wholemeal flour and half white flour)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 100 g hazelnuts 75g freshly ground and 25g roasted and roughly chopped
- 2 cooking apples peeled, cored and diced to roughly 1 cm sq
- 100 g kefir, buttermilk, sour milk or watered down yoghurt (you can make your own sour milk by adding 1 tsp vinegar to milk and leaving for a few minutes).
- 1 Cox’s Orange Pippin or other tart dessert apple – peeled, cored but not peeled, then finely sliced
Instructions
Smoky Salted Toffee Sauce
- Pour the sugar into a medium to large saucepan and place over a medium heat.
- Add the golden syrup and leave for a few minutes until the sugar has melted and turned a light brown colour.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Be careful as it might spit.
- Return the mixture to the heat and simmer for a minute.
- Add the cream and salt, stir and allow to cook for a further minute. Take off the heat and allow to cool.
Cake
- Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs one by one, adding a little of the flour in between each one if the mixture curdles.
- Sieve in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Add the ground hazelnuts and stir until just mixed.
- Stir in the apple pieces followed by the buttermilk until everything is just mixed.
- Spoon into a 23cm round silicon cake mould or lined baking tin.
- Arrange the apple slices over the top, then drizzle with 4 tbsp of the toffee sauce.
- Bake at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 40 minutes or until the cake is well risen and firm to the touch and an inserted skewer comes out more or less clean.
- Leave to cool in the mould or tin, then transfer onto a serving plate.
- Drizzle with 3-4 tbsp of the toffee sauce, then scatter the roasted hazelnuts over the top.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Link-Ups
I’m sharing my toffee apple bonfire cake with Only Crumbs Remain for #BakingCrumbs and Mummy Mishaps for #BakeoftheWeek.
Kat (The Baking Explorer) says
This cake looks absolutely scrumptious and perfect for this time of year!
Choclette says
Thanks Kat. It was a good one. All my favourite flavours combined. Well almost – no chocolate!
Kate - Gluten Free Alchemist says
Apple cake with toffee? Yes please! Looks and sounds delicious and perfect for the seasonal celebrations x
Choclette says
It’s definitely that time of year. I’m feeling I need toffee and apple.
Angela / Only Crumbs Remain says
Ooh yummy! I absolutely love this Choclette, and the drizzle of the caramel sauce (which I’m fascinated to try being smoked and salted) down the sid of the cake is just soooo inviting!
Angela x
Choclette says
Thanks Angela. When I found smoked sea salt, I just had to use it in a bonfire cake.
Monika Dabrowski says
Looks absolutely gorgeous and I love the idea of using wholemeal flour in a cake recipe – even bakes can be made healthier. I’ve never used smoky sea salt but it sounds very interesting, I’ll look out for it next time I am in a supermarket.
Choclette says
I always use wholemeal flour when baking, or at least it’s very rare for me not to. I usually use less sugar than most bakes too, so although not exactly healthy, my bakes are usually a lot less bad for you. That’s the theory anyway 😉
Jo says
This looks incredible! I love the sound of all the textures and flavours – absolutely perfect for this time of year.
Lucy says
Ooh wow this looks delicious and perfect for an autumn celebration. Love the drizzled sauce over the top in particular – drool!
Hannah Hossack-Lodge says
That is one delicious looking cake! And I just so happen to have lots of apples from the garden to use up…
jenny paulin says
oh my goodness! This is so my kind of cake – all that toffee lushness and apple moistness! Oh I could dig in with my fork right now! thank you for including my cake link 🙂 and for linking to #Bakeoftheweek x
Alida @My Little Italian Kitchen says
I love any apple cake and yours looks fabulous. I would happily have it for breakfast!
Choclette says
Thanks Alida. I’m not sure I could cope with it for breakfast, but any other time of day would do me very well indeed 🙂
Chris @thinlyspread says
Just perfect for Autumn – I’ll be sending my youngest up the apple tree as soon as he gets home!
Emma @ Supper in the Suburbs says
This just screams autumn. I’m gutted because we’ve had all the apples from our tree for this year 🙁
Corina says
This looks amazing! I would love to share it with you although I doubt there’s any left!
Kate | The Veg Space says
I can just about imagine how beautiful Autumn in the New Forest is, all those trees! What a beautiful cake, I’ve never really got on with toffee apples as they just make my teeth stick together, but this is such a lovely way to make the most of all those flavours. Delish!
Jacqueline Meldrum says
That is the best cake I have seen in a long time Choclette. Shared!
Jane says
Oh great job Choccy, this looks (and I bet smells!) just incredible
Charlene Flash says
Gorgeous and is perfect for the Autumn season.
Kavita Favelle | Kavey Eats says
Really love the look of this one, Choclette, the hazelnuts and caramel are calling me!
Angie@Angie's Recipes says
I love this kind of cake…and that sauce makes it even more tempting!
Choclette says
Thanks Angie. That sauce is definitely the icing on the cake 😉