Shelly's Recipe

APPLE BUTTER SPICE CAKE

Category: Cakes from Cake Mixes

Cake
Vegetable oil spray for misting the pans
Flour for dusting the pans
1 pkg plain spice cake mix
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Filling
2 cups apple butter (see note)
1 large egg
1 medium orange
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup finely chopped toasted pecans

Topping
1 cup sweetened whipped cream

Preheat the oven to 350. Mist three 9-inch round cake pans with vegetable oil spray, then dust them with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pans aside.

Place the cake mix, sour cream, water, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look well blended. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven. You may need to place one layer on a higher oven rack. If so, watch it carefully so not to overbake, or rotate the pans halfway during baking.

Bake the layers until they are light brown and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 16 to 18 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert each onto a rack, then invert them again onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. Allow them to cool completely, 30 minutes more.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. For the filling, place the apple butter in a heavy saucepan. Place the egg in a metal bowl and beat until the egg is lemon colored. Zest the orange and halve and juice the orange. Add 1/2 tsp grated zest to the egg along with 1/3 cup orange juice. Set this mixture aside. Heat the apple butter over medium heat, stirring with a whisk, until it is steaming and bubbly. Pour half of the hot apple butter into the egg yolk mixture and whisk briskly to combine. Pour this egg mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining apple butter, and whisk briskly over low heat until the mixture bubbles and thickens, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, add the butter, stir, and let cool.

While the cake and filling are cooling, whip the cream and chop the pecans. Reserve 1 tsp of the pecans for garnishing the top.

To assemble the cake, place one layer on a serving plate or cake stand. Top with half of the filling, and sprinkle with half of the pecans (1/4 cup). Top with another cake layer, spread with the remaining half of the filling and the remaining pecans (1/4 cup). Top with the third layer of cake, dollop the top with the sweetened whipped cream (or just confectioners sugar) and sprinkle the tsp of reserved pecans on top. Serve, and store in the refrigerator.