Maple Layer Cake with Maple Butterscotch Frosting

Maple Layer Cake

Can you believe my oldest niece turned 13 last week? (I can’t). I couldn’t let a pandemic get in the way of breaking a 13 year undefeated birthday cake streak, so I texted my niece to see if she had anything in mind for this year. She asked me if there were any cakes that involved maple, and I did a little research came up with this cake from Liv for Cake and this one from Spices in my DNA. Charlotte chose the winner based on the cream cheese frosting on the second cake, and I was in business.

The cake layers have a whole cup of maple syrup in the batter, which was super quick and easy to mix up using just a whisk. They totally smelled like pancakes as they were baking in the oven! Just a note that the layers turned out on the thin side, so this cake won’t have dramatic height, like Charlotte’s last two birthday cakes (Ultimate S’mores Cake & Chocolate Peanut Butter Mega Cake). If you’re looking for that height, I would double the recipe.

Top View

While cream cheese frosting is delicious, it’s the worst for layer cakes since it’s so soft and makes stacking a little challenging. The only recipe that’s ever worked for me is an old one from Everyday Annie, where you start with COLD cream cheese, so the final icing is a little more firm. I used that recipe instead, and added a little of the maple butterscotch sauce (instead of pouring it over the top as you can see in the blog post). You’ll have way more sauce than you need, so you can put it in a squeeze bottle for drizzling overtop of cake slices if you want.

I frosted the cake in the same ‘naked cake’ style as in the post, and added the leftover icing to a piping bag with a large round tip to pipe the little poofs on the top.

Charlotte and her friends said they loved it, so that’s another year of undefeated birthday cake success for me!

Maple Layer Cake with Maple Butterscotch Frosting

Source: Cake & Butterscotch from Spices in my DNA; Frosting from Everyday Annie

Ingredients

Cake

2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup maple syrup {the darker the better; and do NOT use pancake syrup}
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk

Maple Butterscotch Sauce

1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

Frosting

10 oz cream cheese, cold
6 tbsp butter, room temperature
3 1/4 cups icing sugar
4 tsp maple butterscotch sauce

Directions

For the cake, preheat the oven to 350° and line the bottom of three 8″ round cake pans with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, sour cream and milk until combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk everything together until smooth. Pour batter into cake pans (I weigh them to make sure the batter is distributed equally) and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.
To make the butterscotch, bring the maple syrup, brown sugar and whipping cream to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for 7 minutes, whisking occasionally. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter, vanilla and salt. Let cool completely before adding to frosting. You’ll have extra which you can store in the fridge.
To make the icing, add the cream cheese and butter to a large bowl and mix on medium high until fluffy and smooth. Add the icing sugar, and mix on low until incorporated, then increase the speed and mix on medium high until smooth. Add the maple butterscotch sauce and mix again until combined.

Charlotte’s Previous Birthday Cakes: