Apple Spice Loaf Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

While this brown butter cream cheese frosting is amazing on its own, it's also the perfect complement to the warm fall spices and apples of this cake. This cake is extremely simple to make - all you need are two bowls and a whisk! Below I have explained all the tricks to baking this dense cake without drying it out, as well as how to make brown butter. Now, go bake this cake and enjoy it with your morning coffee!

For more fall loaf and cake recipes, try Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting, Apple Cider Bundt Cake, Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Bread, and Mini Carrot Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting.

Ingredient Notes

• All-Purpose Flour: You'll need over two cups of flour.
• Baking Soda: You'll need ¾ teaspoon of baking soda for the loaf cake.
• Fall Spices: I used a combination of cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg, but you can certainly add any of your favorite spices.
• Neutral Oil: Use a light-tasting olive oil, vegetable oil, or canola oil.
• Plain Whole Milk Yogurt: To make this cake dense, you'll use yogurt rather than milk.
• Brown Sugar: You can use light or dark brown sugar.
• Granulated Sugar: You'll need less than half a cup of granulated sugar.
• Eggs: You'll two eggs at room temperature.
• Vanilla Extract: You'll need vanilla for both the cake and the frosting.
• Apples: I use about 1 ½ granny smith apples, but you can use any type of apple that you enjoy baking with!
• Brown Butter: You'll need 42g of brown butter, so you should start with about 60g of unsalted butter, as the water will evaporate and leave you with a smaller amount of butter.
• Cream Cheese: Keep your cream cheese cold - it's much easier to mix when its cold rather than at room temperature. 
• Powdered Sugar: You'll need about 2 cups of powdered sugar.
• Milk: You may need to add 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk to the frosting to get to the right spreadable consistency. 

See recipe card for full information on ingredients and individual quantities.

Step by Step Instructions

Here are step by step photos and instructions on how to make this apple spice loaf cake recipe! For the full ingredient list and method, see the recipe card at the end of this post.

STEP 1: Make the cake. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and salt. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the oil, yogurt, sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together and fold the apple chunks into the batter until evenly distributed. Pour the cake batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour 10 minutes - 1 hour 25 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Place aluminum foil on top of the cake half way through to prevent the top from over-browning. Allow to cool completely before frosting. 

STEP 2: Make the frosting. Brown the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat for several minutes, swirling to even out the color. The butter will be ready once the fat solids have separated and darkened, and the butter is an even medium amber color. Transfer to a bowl and place in the fridge to cool and solidify before using. Beat the cream cheese and brown butter together. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time, adding as much or as little as you would like. Beat in the vanilla. Add a tablespoon of milk until the frosting reaches the right consistency. Frost the loaf cake once it has cooled completely. 

Expert Baking Tips

• This dense cake requires a low temperature and long bake time to ensure it maintains a moist crumb. 
• To prevent the top of the cake from over-browning while it bakes, place aluminum foil over the top about half way through the bake time.
• To cool the brown butter down quickly, simply place it in the fridge. You want the butter to solidify again before making the the frosting. 

All of the recipes on this blog are carefully developed with gram measurements so you can easily recreate them in your own kitchen with success. Volume measurements are extremely inaccurate and leave room for significant errors. Not all measuring cups are made equally, so your one cup of flour will be different from my one cup of flour. By providing precise measurements in grams (aside from minor ingredients, which are given in tsp/tbsp), you can make these recipes accurately and with less cleanup! All you need is this kitchen scale. 

If this still isn't enough to convince you, I have provided volume measurements in the recipe card. If you are interested in understanding the conversions, this is the best conversion chart.

But trust me, once you try baking in grams you'll never turn back!

Happy baking! x