Maple Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

This maple cake with maple cream cheese frosting is the perfect way to welcome fall. Full of maple syrup flavor and topped with the most creamy maple frosting of all time!

On the first day of 11th grade I met one of my best friends. She was new to our school and when I first saw her I thought to myself “ugh another blonde girl who I’ll probably end up hating.” Long story short – I did not hate her. We ended up having anatomy together and since it was a new class there were only 8 people total in the class. This meant I had time to actually talk to her (and not weirdly judge her for having blonde hair) and I knew she and I would make a great duo. I ended up getting her number and called her almost immediately when I got home.

Of course this made me look borderline crazy but luckily she didn’t judge me too much. Of course if you ask her to tell her version of how we met she will indulge and say how I was super weird and it was comical (if  slightly stalkerish) that her phone rang the second she walked in the door.

I mean I guess could see where she was coming from BUT I knew we would be friends so really I was just speeding up that process. 

After a week of talking non-stop I decided to invite myself over for a little mid-week sleepover. Things were seriously legit at her house. They had just about every junk food imaginable and her mother was always baking. I would go over to her house and her mom would be all “hey girls I made cake” every single time I walked through the door. It was a gift from the heavens.

We would sit for hours at her kitchen table sharing a single can of Coke (we always shared a can instead of getting a can for each of us…we were so weird) while the cake sat on the counter with one lone fork sticking out of the pan. Between stories of how much we loved our crushes we would get up and steal bites of cake right from the pan. We never thought to actually put a slice of cake on a plate we simply just shared a fork and ate our way slowly through the cake.

Since it’s been a few years since high school (16 years to be exact….good lawd!) life has of course changed a bit. My friend is back in Ohio and I’m in New York. She’s insanely busy and has 2 kids of her own to make her already busy life even more busy. We have definitely grown apart in the past few years and to be honest that just plain sucks. You spend so much of your life feeling so connected to someone and then one day you realize you have barely spoken in the past year.

Where do you start? Do you just pick up the phone and call? Do you say “oh hey I realized I know nothing about your life now…what’s going on?”

Or maybe show up with cake, a fork and 1 can of Coke?

Cake fixes everything…right?

But not just any cake, maple cake. This cake is packed full of maple flavor and is then topped with even more maple packed flavor. If you’re not a fan of frosting this cake is also delicious with just a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

Since I love sweetness I piled on the frosting nice and thick. This cake is basically fall. If you love maple syrup you need make it immediately and share it with a loved one. I would say cut out a slice and serve it on a plate but the best relationships are the ones that can eat it straight from the pan all while sharing just one lone fork. {Single can of soda optional}

{Looking for more cake recipes? Try my black forest cake, chocolate orange gingerbread cake or my butterscotch pumpkin bundt cake.}

Maple Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

This maple cake with maple cream cheese frosting is the perfect way to welcome fall. Full of maple syrup flavor and topped with the most creamy maple frosting of all time!

Yield: 9x9 cake

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

For cake:

• 2-1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 8 ounces creme fraiche

For frosting:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1-2 teaspoons maple flavoring/extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar

 

Slightly adapted from Martha Stewart

Directions:

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 9x9 baking pan with parchment paper, set aside.

In a medium sized mixing bowl add flour, baking powder, baking soda and kosher salt, set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer add butter, maple syrup and coconut palm sugar. Mix on medium high speed for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

Add in eggs 1 at a time until fully combined. Mix in vanilla bean paste.

Put you mixer to low speed and add in flour, then creme fraiche alternating between the two until fully combined. (I did mine is 2 batches each - half the flour, half the creme fraiche, the other half of the flour and then the remaining half the creme fraiche)

Add cake to the prepared pan and bake for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when tested in the center.

Let the cake cool and then frosting with maple cream cheese frosting.

For frosting:
In the bowl of an electric mixer add cream cheese, maple syrup, melted butter and 1 teaspoon maple flavoring. Mix together until smooth.

Add in 2 cups powdered sugar and slowly mix in until completely mixed and creamy. If the mixture is too thin for your liking add more powdered sugar. Taste and add more maple flavoring if desired.

Note: I like this icing to be a little loose because it spreads easily and will harden slightly as it sits. (Makes about 2 cups frosting)