Maple Cake Recipe
Maple cake is made with pure maple syrup for the ultimate winter flavor. Each layer is coated with maple cream cheese frosting and garnished with pecans.
It’s that time of year again! No, not Christmas, but it’s pretty close. January is my birthday month! When you are a baking blogger, you bake your own cake. I get weird looks from people, but I also get a lot of satisfaction out of creating a cake I truly crave! This year I baked myself a maple cake with maple cream cheese frosting (this frosting is also delicious on spice cake cupcakes).
This year the craving was for a wintry flavor probably because I spent my birthday skiing in Vermont. This cake infused with maple syrup was just what my celebratory weekend called for. If you like using maple syrup in baking, you may also like my maple muffins.
How to bake a maple cake
So this cake is pretty spectacular. Both the cake and frosting are infused with maple flavor. The cake batter calls for a whole cup of pure maple syrup as well as brown sugar to keep that wintry feel.
Baking the cake calls for the typical steps—beating the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla together, then alternate adding in the dry ingredients with the wet.
For the most part, you want to beat in the ingredient just until combined. The only ingredients your really want to beat for a while longer are the butter and sugar (until light and fluffy). These steps ensure a light and flavorful cake. No dense cakes here!
How to grease a cake pan
One question that always comes up when people bake cakes is “How do you grease a cake pan?” Simple. Use a pad of butter and slide it around the inside of your cake pan until evenly coated. You don’t need a lot. I like to use a paper towel to remove any large globs.
Next, scoop a tablespoon or two of flour into the pan and tilt the pan around until evenly coated. Tap the bottom and sides of the pan gently to remove any excess flour.
However, I do have a secret to greasing cake pans and that is my magic cake pan release. It’s a paste that I brush on this inside of my cake pans and every time the cakes magically come out of the pan without a crumb left behind.
Both methods work, so give either a try when baking this maple cake!
How to make maple cream cheese frosting
If a maple cake wasn’t good enough, this maple cream cheese frosting is making dessert even better. It calls for butter, cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar to create a creamy, rich frosting.
The frosting does not call for maple syrup simply because you would need a lot of it in order to get a strong enough flavor and that would thin out the frosting too much. Instead, I used maple flavoring. You can find this on Amazon or at Whole Foods. I use the same frosting for my gingerbread sheet cake.
Related recipes
If you enjoyed this maple cake recipe, here are a few more dessert you may like!
Did you love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below and if you REALLY loved it, consider leaving a comment further down the page.
Get the Recipe: Maple Cake
Ingredients
Maple Cake:
- 2 ¼ cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoons salt
- ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup maple syrup, room temperature
- ¼ cup whole milk
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1 cup (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cup (226 g or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons maple flavor
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 cups (480 g) powdered sugar
- 1 cup spiced pecans, for garnish
Instructions
Maple Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour three 6-inch (or two 8-inch) cake rounds and line with parchment paper.1 Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a measuring cup, stir together maple syrup and milk. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes). Turn speed to low and add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.2 Add vanilla and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Alternate adding flour mixture and maple mixture, beginning and ending with flour (3 parts flour and 2 parts maple). Mix well after each addition.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with little to no crumbs.
- Let cakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn on to a wire rack to cool completely. Prepare the frosting.
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the maple extract, vanilla extract and salt, and beat until combined, about 1 minute more.
- With the mixer on low, slowly add in the confectioners’ sugar and beat until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl if necessary.
Assembly
- Place the first cake on a plate, then top with a scoop of frosting and spread evenly. Top with the second layer and frost again (repeat if doing three layers). Finish by frosting the outside of the cake with the remaining frosting. Garnish with spiced pecans or regular pecans.
Notes
- Alternatively, use my magic cake pan release and guarantee no crumbs left behind in the cake pan!
- The eggs may take a little longer to incorporate. It’s okay if the batter does not look completely smooth, especially after the third egg. Add a tablespoon of the flour mixture if necessary to help mixing.
- Serve cake the day it was baked for the best flavor. Cake stays fresh in an enclosed cake stand at room temperature for up to 4 days.
33 Comments on “Maple Cake Recipe”
This Maple Cake looks so delicious! I definitely need to give this a try! It’s perfect as a Birthday Cake! Happy Belated Birthday! 🙂
This is an absolutely perfect looking cake. Love the pecan and maple combination.
I love maple anything and everything!! Saving this one for fall!
This cake is beautiful! Love the addition of maple!
Outstanding maple cake. I love the sweetness, and especially the cream cheese frosting. Thanks for the bonus tip on the magic cake pan release! Very helpful!
Delicious cake (and frosting!!) and now I know what recipes to use with my 6″ pans 🙂
hi, may I know the weight in grams for the flour please? thank you
Hi Natasha – 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour is 280 grams. Happy baking!
Is this more of a dense cake or is it light and fluffy?? I’m really hoping for a lighter cake but am intrigued by this recipe!
Hi Kerri – This cake is in the middle. It has a heavier crumb (not super light and fluffy).
Can we substitute cream cheese with mascarpone?
I was hoping to scale this up for 9inch rounds. Do you have any tips for how to scale this?
light fluffy moist maple cake! was good with buttercream too!
Oh yum…..this is fantastic! I made this for Thanksgiving to have as an option to the traditional pies. Perfect maple flavor, not cloyingly sweet. It got rave reviews from everyone!
I made this last week for my husband’s birthday. It tasted absolutely delicious, with the perfect balance of maple flavour! Everyone who tried it loved it!
Thank you for such a fantastic recipe. It was my first time baking a cake and your instructions were very easy to follow.
Made this cake for a smash cake for a little boy who loves pancakes. I am wrapping the outside with rolls of fondant and airbrushed to appear to look like a stack of pancakes complete with the fondant pat of butter on top and the piping gel colored to look like syrup dripping down the sides. Recipe was easy and the cake does taste like a pancake.
This is exactly what I’d like to do, too. Do you have any tips or is it straightforward as per the instructions? I’m only a hobby baker.
I made this over the weekend, it tastes so good and is really pretty. Kinda like eating a bunch of pancakes though, I didn’t think about how much I associate maple with pancakes. Would have been fabulous with some bacon on the side (not a joke, I was actually starting to crave bacon while eating it). But yes so good, I shared the cake with my friends and they asked for the recipe!
Can I use a bundt cake pan for htis? Also, can I mix the flour and cake flour? I like the texture of cake flour but i dont want it to be too soft. or, is it fine to replace the regular flour entirely? what do you suggest?
Hi Rebecca – You can do half and half or replace with all purpose flour entirely. The cake may be slightly more dense if you do the latter, but it sounds like that is what you prefer any way!
Perfect! Everyone loved it. It had just the right amount of maple flavoring. We all agreed it was in the frosting that the maple flavor really shone (our frosting looked much darker than your picture due to the dark maple extract…but it was still a lovely light tan color). Mmmmmm. Also loved the tip on how to make the cakes slide right out of the pan. I broke it down to a small amount since it was a 1:1:1 ratio and I don’t bake enough to hang on to all the extra (I used 1 Tbsp. oil, 1 Tbsp Flour, 1 Tbsp Criso). It worked fabulously! Will do this from now on! Thank you!
Made this cake for my Mum on Mothers Day. She loves maple. Best cake she has ever eaten! Cake had a beautiful maple flavour, was perfectly moist and super delicious.I didn’t have pecans on hand so I garnished the cake with candied bacon, perfect combination. Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe and helping to make my Mums day perfectly delicious:-)
Great recipe! I only had salted butter, so eliminated the salt in both the cake and frosting recipes, and made it into 18 perfect cupcakes with thin maple cream drizzled over the top. Baked for 20 minutes – perfect! Employees and family loved them!
Would you recommend making this in a loaf pan? I think it would be too much batter but I would weigh out what I need for one loaf and one mini-loaf.
Any changes needed for this recipe for high altitude bakers? Thank you!
Hi Christine – It depends what altitude you’re at. In Denver, I decrease the sugar 2 Tablespoons for every cup. I also add an extra tablespoon of milk to the batter. Baking times vary.
this cake is Outstanding!
Maple Flavor really shines.
Cake itself is moist and perfect.
used dark brown sugar vs light…cause was what i had…
skipped pecans(being lazy), and dusted Maple Sugar over the top instead.
Yum
Yum
Yum
This cake was absolutely delicious!
I will definitely will make this again.
Hi! Can you make this the day before, and frost the next day? How do you recommend to store it in this case before adding frosting? Freeze it? Im excited to try this!
Hi! If it’s just 24 hours, then the cakes can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature or securely wrapped in plastic wrap. Make sure they are 100% cooled before storing to prevent condensation.
I almost never leave reviews for recipes, this cake is outstanding! I made it exactly as written and it turned out perfectly. I wanted a Thanksgiving dessert for those who do not love pumpkin pie. My guests loved it. The maple was obvious in a good way, in taste and aroma when I lifted the cake plate cover. As the recipe states, it will last 4 days covered on a cake plate. Don’t be afraid the load up the layers with frosting. The recipe makes a generous amount for 2-8 inch layers.
Could I use maple extract instead of maple flavoring? I am assuming it may be stronger and would need to add less, but now I’m worrying about consistency.
Yes, you can use maple extract in the frosting. It should not affect the consistency.