Apple Spice Cake With Brown Sugar Frosting

The email came on a Tuesday afternoon while I was at the kitchen table doing homework. Louisiana Student Environmental Science Competition. I stared at the subject line for a full five seconds before opening it. Second place in the ninth-grade division. Not first. Second.

I sat with that for a long moment. I had wanted first. I had prepared for first. Second is still very good — there were students from across the state, from schools with more resources than mine, from students who had been doing this longer. Second in Louisiana is a real thing to be proud of. I knew all of this immediately, rationally, and I still felt the particular sting of almost.

I called MawMaw Shirley. She listened to me say all the rational things about second place being good and then she waited a beat and said, "Are you done?" I said yes. She said, "Good. Now let yourself be disappointed for exactly one day. One day, Aaliyah. Then get up and write a better paper next year." I told her I would. She said she knew. She always knows.

I told Mama at dinner and she said second in Louisiana is first in most of the country and I was not to underestimate what that meant. She had a point. Daddy said the first time he applied to be a foreman he didn't get it. The second time he did. He said second tries always know more than first tries. I wrote that down.

I channeled the feelings into cooking that evening: I made my best batch of pralines yet. Hot, fragrant, perfectly glossy. I ate two and left the rest on the kitchen counter with a note that said "second place, Louisiana" and woke up to find them all gone. Daddy left a note under the plate: "First place in this house." I kept both notes in my journal. Some things are worth keeping even when they're complicated.

I didn’t make this cake that Tuesday — I made pralines, which is what MawMaw Shirley would have made — but this apple spice cake with brown sugar frosting is the same spirit in a different shape: warm, caramelized, a little spiced, and exactly the kind of thing you make when your hands need to be busy and your heart needs to catch up. The brown sugar frosting is the closest thing to praline energy I know in a cake, and when you pull it out of the oven and the whole kitchen smells like cinnamon and something almost-burnt-but-not, it feels like proof that good things still happen, even on second-place Tuesdays.

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min (plus cooling) | Servings: 12

Ingredients

For the cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups peeled and finely grated apple (about 2 medium apples, such as Granny Smith or Honeycrisp)
For the brown sugar frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream, plus more as needed
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease two 8-inch round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper. Grease the parchment.
Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugars. In a large bowl, beat softened butter with granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3–4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add eggs and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla extract.
Combine wet and dry. Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk (begin and end with flour), mixing on low just until combined after each addition. Fold in the grated apple by hand — the batter will be thick.
Bake. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake 30–35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops are set and lightly golden. Cool in pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then turn out and cool completely before frosting.
Make the brown sugar frosting. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes until the sugar dissolves and the mixture bubbles. Add heavy cream and stir to combine, then remove from heat. Let cool 10 minutes.
Finish the frosting. Transfer the cooled brown sugar mixture to a large bowl. Beat in sifted powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt on low speed until smooth. If frosting is too thick, add heavy cream one tablespoon at a time until it spreads easily. If too thin, add powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time.
Frost and serve. Place one cake layer on a serving plate and spread a generous layer of frosting on top. Add the second layer and frost the top and sides. The frosting will set slightly as it sits. Slice and serve at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Apple Spice Cake With Brown Sugar Frosting — When the Kitchen Holds What Your Heart Can’t