Maple Syrup Cake With Maple Syrup Frosting

 
 
 
 

If you are looking for a comfort cake in the middle of the holiday season chaos, this is it. A warm and soft maple cake that will cheer you up when you need it the most. I spread cream cheese and a homemade blueberry jam in the middle to add a sweet fruity note and covered it with a very simple maple syrup buttercream frosting. Each bite will make you smile. This is a happy cake!

A few days back I was in one of my favorite cafés for brunch and was craving waffles. Inquisitive but with a polite smile in my face, I started asking about what kind of syrup they serve with their pancakes and waffles, not giving away that anything but maple syrup will be a total deal breaker for me. Long story short, I ended up ordering the eggs Benedict : /  I can’t deal with nothing else but the real thing. That’s how serious my love for maple syrup is!

The thing is that for me there are few flavors that scream fall and I think the amazing flavor of maple is right on top. I love its stickiness and woody caramel notes so much! Those are qualities we all crave in a good autumn sweet treat. With this cake you won’t have the stickiness of course, but you would have that lovely caramel maple note.

I added cream cheese and jammy blueberries because why not. I think this combo makes it to look more like breakfast, right?! You can omit the cream cheese and blueberry center and make it plain. You can even add ground cinnamon, ginger and cardamom to create a warmer and spicier cake. No matter how you play with it, the cake’s soft crumb and the creamy luscious maple frosting will have you hooked during the crisp fall days.

Many maple cake recipes call for grade B maple syrup. I just had grade A maple syrup in my pantry and that’s what I used and we all loved it! You won’t need to turn your kitchen head over heels to make this cake. Just follow along these easy steps and you will have cake in your belly in a bit more than an hour!

How to make this maple syrup cake

  1. Start by making the blueberry homemade jam because you need to let it cool down before incorporating it into the recipe. If using store bought blueberry jam just try to not incorporate too much jammy liquid when adding it to the cake. Also take out the cream cheese so it’s spreadable when the recipe is ready for it.

  2. Preheat your oven to 350° and prepare your cake pan by greasing, lining with parchment paper or spraying with baking spray.

  3. In a bowl whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

  4. In your mixing bowl beat the butter fist just to make it smooth. Beat in the sugar and when a paste forms add the maple syrup. This step helps in incorporating air to the batter gradually to make the cake rise without it collapsing while baking. Then you will add the eggs and vanilla.

  5. Finally you are going to intercalate the dry mixture with the sour cream or yogurt (in any case, full fat please!) into the mixing bowl. Mix just until combined. This will be a thick batter.

  6. Transfer about half of the batter to the prepared pan. Swirl the cream cheese and blueberry jam over. Cover with the rest of the batter and stretch it towards the edges of the pan. It’s important that there are no gaps between the cake batter and the pan’s wall.

  7. Transfer to oven and bake. While the cake is cooling down make the maple syrup frosting.

  8. Spread the frosting on top and this baby is ready to serve.

There’s something so comfortingly good about this cake. No fuzz, just a simple and easy cake to have a sweet bite any time you want. I know you are going to eat it with joy!

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Maple Syrup Cake with Maple Syrup Frosting

Ingredients

Homemade blueberry jam

◯ Blueberries, fresh or frozen - 1 cup
◯ Natural granulated sugar - ¼ cup or 50g
◯ Freshly squeezed lemon juice - 1 TBSP or .5 oz

Maple Cake

◯ Unbleached all-purpose flour - 2 ½ cups or 424g
◯ Baking powder - 2 Tsp or 9.58g
◯ Baking soda - ½ Tsp or 2.4g
◯ Fine sea salt - ½ Tsp or 3g
◯ Butter, at room temperature - 1 cup (2 sticks)
◯ Natural granulated sugar - ½ cup or 100g
◯ Maple syrup - ¾ cup or 6 oz
◯ Eggs, large - 2 or 100g
◯ Vanilla extract - 1 ½ Tsp or .25 oz
◯ Sour cream or yogurt - ½ cup or about 4 oz
◯ Cream cheese, at room temperature - 6 to 8 oz

Maple syrup frosting

◯ Butter, at room temperature - 3 TBSP or 42.5g
◯ Maple syrup - ⅓ cup or 2.66 oz
◯ Confectioner’s sugar, sifted - 2 ½ cups or 363g

Details

Yield:
a 9” cake pan

Total time:
1.5 hours

Prep time:
5 minutes for the jam, 15 minutes for the cake and 10 minutes for the frosting

Baking time:
40 minutes

Equipment:
9” pan or pie dish, stand up or electric hand mixer, sieve to sift the confectioner’s sugar

 

Steps

To make the blueberry jam:

In a small sauce pan combine the berries with the ¼ cup of sugar and the tablespoon of lemon juice. Cook in medium heat for 15 minutes, until berries have broken and released their juices and the liquid has a thick jammy consistency. Let it cool down.

To make the maple cake:

Preheat oven to 350°. Line with parchment paper or grease your pan with butter or baking spray.

In a bowl whisk the 2 ½ cups of flour, the 2 teaspoons of baking powder, the ½ teaspoon of baking soda and the ½ teaspoon of salt.

Place butter in a mixing bowl. With the paddle attachment or beaters beat it in medium low speed (#2 in the Kitchen Aid) for 30 seconds. Add the ½ cup of sugar and mix just until incorporated and then add the ¾ cup of maple syrup. Beat for 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and add the vanilla.

Decrease speed to the lowest and with the mixer running add about ⅓ of the flour mixture. Add half of the sour cream or yogurt. Repeat once more, ending with the last addition of the flour mixture.

Transfer half the batter to the prepared pan. Distribute evenly pieces of the cream cheese. Pour spoons of the blueberry jam on top of cream cheese as much as possible. Swirl the jam into the cheese, trying not to go over the cake as much as you can. Scrape the rest of the batter on top and gently spread it until it reaches the border of the pan. Make sure there are no gaps between the batter and the pan.

Bake it for 40 to 45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean after you inserted it through the center of the cake. Retire from oven and wait 7 to 10 minutes before removing from cake pan. Let it cool down completely before frosting.

To make the maple syrup frosting:

In a mixing bowl beat in medium low speed (#2 in the Kitchen Aid) the 3 tablespoons of butter with the ⅓ cup of maple syrup. Start adding the sifted confectioner’s sugar until you have added it all. Beat for an extra minute to incorporate the flavors. Add some extra sugar for a thicker consistency or a bit of maple syrup for a thinner consistency. Spread over cake.

Decorate cake with fresh fruits and chopped nuts if desired.