I came up with this recipe with a lot of help from this site. I really wanted a spice cake extender recipe that didn’t use pumpkin or carrots. I found a post that someone used apple cider in their spice cake mix instead of water, not sure who it was. I also found a cream cheese icing on this site that I edited some. I hope you like it as much as I did!
Spice Cake Extender with Cream Cheese icing
Ingredients
- Cake:
- 1 box spice cake mix
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 packs (1 serving each) apple cider mix
- 1 1/3 cup boiling water
- 1/3 cup oil
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
Icing:
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
- 1 cup (1 8 oz package) cream cheese
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 2 lbs (8 cups) powdered sugar (sifted)
- 1 small package cheesecake pudding mix
- 1/2 cup milk (maybe a little more)
- 1 teaspoon clear vanilla
Instructions
- Take butter and cream cheese out of refrigerator to soften.
- Cake:
- Preaheat oven to 350.
- Grease desired pans or place cupcake liners in a cupcake pan.
- Dissolve apple cider mix in the boiling water. Sift cake mix, flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and baking powder. Add oil, eggs, sour cream, and apple cider mix to sifted ingredients. Beat until well combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat 1 more minute. Pour batter into prepared pan(s) and bake as long as the box says for the corresponding pans. Once they are done, remove from pans onto a wire rack. Cool.
- Icing:
- Mix cheesecake pudding mix and milk. Cream butter, cream cheese, and shortening until smooth. Add powdered sugar about a cup at a time until combined. Add the pudding and vanilla. Scrape sides of the bowl. Beat a little longer. If the icing is too thick, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition, until desired thickness.
this cake has 9 cups of sugar in it, not including the cake mix. DON’T EAT THIS IF YOU’RE ON A DIET!
Hi,
Just wanted to know how much batter this makes (ie- 2 rounds, sheet, etc)
thanks!
Can I ask why it's called an Extender? This sounds amazing! I can't wait to make it!
I second the question... why is it called an extender?
Just wondering - what is apple cider mix? I can't seem to find it but have a place which makes fresh cider. Could you tell me what the measure would be for this liquid?
This sounds pretty good! I use the basic "extender" (adding 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 4 eggs, sour cream etc.) - to a standard boxed cake mix. That is the extender. As far as apple cider mix, the Brand name is "Alpine" Hot Apple Cider drink mix, that you could use as it's packaged as single serving pouches. You can find it at Wal-Mart. I do have a suggestion though. If you can't find apple cider drink mix, I would use fresh raw apple cider (refrigerated section at grocery store) appx. 3/4 cup then add frozen apple cider concentrate (thaw to room temp and do not add water) and fill measuring cups to equal 1 1/3 cups raw cider/frozen apple cider concentrate mix. That should give you a really nice spiced apple flavor! Then if there's any frozen apple cider concentrate left over, use it to flavor your cream cheese frosting!
I'm so glad I found this recipe! I had a last minute request for spice cake. This is the only one I could find here that didn't call for pecans, raisins or carrots. I guess I could have omitted them, but I decided to give this recipe a go, and it is so delicious! I didn't have any apple cider mix on hand, but I did happen to have a bottle of sparkling apple cider in my pantry. I just substituted that for the water/cider mix. I did add an extra tsp of pumpkin pie spice and a 1/4 tsp of ground cloves, since I wanted it to have a little more spice. I paired it with caramel buttercream instead of cream cheese frosting. OMG, I think it's my new favorite cake combo! I had cream cheese frosting on hand from yesterday. Definitely GOOD. But this recipe paired with caramel buttercream is to die for!
How does this hold up to stacking?
Thank you for this recipe! I'm baking a cake and cupcake for my neighbor's MIL and we decided to do a spice cake since the theme of the party is fall leaves. She loved your recipe - - so did my kids. I followed it exactly but I think I might add a little more spice and also the cloves as soph917 did. I also frosted with caramel buttercream. Received RAVE reviews. Taking the leftovers from my "experiment" to share with the teachers tomorrow. I'm sure they will love them. Thanks for sharing with us.
This is SO delicious! I made cupcakes for a bake contest and got 3rd place with this recipe!!!! I added chopped pecans to the batter before baking. My kids BEGGED for more! It would also be delicious with more of the chopped pecans sprinkled over the icing! It was a huge success in my book!!! Thanks for sharing it!
How does this icing hold up for piping? My sister's baby shower cake is next weekend and she wants cream cheese icing on it. I am planning to cover some with fondant also. Before I make it I wanted to see if anyone has had any luck with it?
I can't wait to make the cake part though, everyone is going to love it!